Author: Patrick

North Hill campus

Posted on by Patrick
ACC North Campus

I don’t recall ever being on ACC’s North Hill cam­pus since, well, since ACC took it over. On my ride today, I decid­ed to stop in and see the sights.

The main build­ing, pic­tured above, was part of the Bran­don Men­tal Health Cen­tre before the grounds were pur­chased by the Col­lege.

Behind that build­ing I found a love­ly lit­tle park-like space.

A small park behind the main building, with a lilac tree

Also back there was a chim­ney tow­er so tall it took three pho­tos to cap­ture it all, stitched togeth­er using hug­in.

A very tall chimney

I also found a sec­ondary build­ing where a cou­ple small trees appear to have tak­en root in the brick­work.

  • Trees growing on a ledge
  • A tree growing in the brick wall

I was quite enam­oured of the shad­ows in the one pho­to, and I can’t decide if I pre­fer it in colour, or in black and white. What’s your pref­er­ence?

Trees growing on a ledge

Series: Bike Ride Photos

The entire series: Down by the riv­er; Bike ride birds; The ex-gar­den and the weir; Snap­shots of a ride; Across Town; Black­bird; North Hill cam­pus.

Across Town

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A cou­ple pho­tos, one from the south­west end of the city, one from the pedes­tri­an bridge over the Assini­boine, both shar­ing a cer­tain beige tone.

  • Canada Post mailboxes
    Some funky designs on the Cana­da Post mail­box­es in the south­west end of the city
  • River and bird
    A bird in sil­hou­ette against the Assini­boine Riv­er

Series: Bike Ride Photos

The entire series: Down by the riv­er; Bike ride birds; The ex-gar­den and the weir; Snap­shots of a ride; Across Town; Black­bird; North Hill cam­pus.

The ex-garden and the weir

Posted on by Patrick
The erstwhile Eleanor Kidd Gardens

Pho­tos from today’s bike ride: the once and per­haps future Eleanor Kidd gar­dens, and the weir on the riv­er near First Street.

There’s some evi­dence that the city (or some­one) has plans to ren­o­vate the gardens—there’s a rough road along­side the space, where before there was noth­ing, and some dirt piles near­by. I most­ly hope some­thing gets done. It was a love­ly space, back when it was cared for. I went to a wed­ding there, and it was full of flow­ers of all colours and scents.

(The part of me that finds beau­ty in decay likes it how it is. Well, except maybe for the spray-paint­ed penis on one of the pil­lars.)

  • The gar­dens
  • The cov­ered walk­way
  • The weir on the Assini­boine

Series: Bike Ride Photos

The entire series: Down by the riv­er; Bike ride birds; The ex-gar­den and the weir; Snap­shots of a ride; Across Town; Black­bird; North Hill cam­pus.

Bike ride birds

Posted on by Patrick
Red-winged blackbird

I biked about 12km this after­noon, and I took my cam­era along with me. I saw some geese (so many geese) and what I think was a red-winged black­bird.

  • A red-winged black­bird (I think) singing his lit­tle heart out
  • A goose stretch­ing its wings
  • Some geese on the water

Series: Bike Ride Photos

The entire series: Down by the riv­er; Bike ride birds; The ex-gar­den and the weir; Snap­shots of a ride; Across Town; Black­bird; North Hill cam­pus.

Down by the river

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Dead, barren tree

I went for a short bike ride today, after I fin­ished work: over the bridge and down to the river­bank. I man­aged to get a cou­ple pho­tos of a kayak­er enjoy­ing the weath­er, and I’m try­ing to decide which one I like bet­ter. I think I like the clos­er-in one, though I wish I’d focused it bet­ter. (Look­ing at it again, maybe I could lie and tell peo­ple I meant it to be an impres­sion­is­tic image.)

  • Tight crop of the kayaker on the river
    Tight crop
  • Full shot of the river and the kayaker
    Full image

(Actu­al­ly, they’re both crops of the same pho­to.)

I also got a pho­to of one of the trees that died in the 2011 flood, with the new crop of wil­lows vis­i­ble behind it. That one’s at the top of this post.

Series: Bike Ride Photos

The entire series: Down by the riv­er; Bike ride birds; The ex-gar­den and the weir; Snap­shots of a ride; Across Town; Black­bird; North Hill cam­pus.

Earth Day eve star trails

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Star Trails

The Space Weath­er fore­cast called for a slight chance of auro­ra and the peak of the Lyrid mete­or show­er, so I packed up my cam­era gear and went out west of town. I let the cam­era snap away for about half an hour before I decid­ed I was tired and came home. I mean, it was a school night, after all.

I got one very faint mete­or and no auro­ra to speak of, but that’s OK, I got some star trails out of it, too. And a truck passed by me on the grav­el road, illu­mi­nat­ing the field for me, so there’s that too.

Nerdy details: 113 images, 15 sec­onds each, 11mm, f/2.8, ISO 1600, stacked in GIMP (no dark frames).

An epiphany

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Photo of standing stones (Photo by Simon Hattinga Verschure on Unsplash)

I had an epiphany, at lunch time, about my cur­rent short sto­ry project. I have an end­ing, now, a nasty bul­l’s-eye to aim my nar­ra­tive at.

What’s more, a lot of things I’d already sprin­kled into the sto­ry have come into focus, espe­cial­ly the doc­trine of true names. The pro­tag­o­nist has a solu­tion to his prob­lem, but he’s so des­per­ate to avoid it that he’s unwill­ing to admit it to any­one, even him­self.

I won­der if I knew the end­ing all along, too, and did­n’t want to admit it to myself.

Pho­to by Simon Hat­tin­ga Ver­schure on Unsplash.