Patrick

Scenes from today’s ride

Posted on by Patrick
Map of my bike ride

I went about 22km on my bike today with my camera.

CHAOS written on an orange reflector square screwed to a concrete bollard
CHAOS
Four trees, growing in the median between two roads; two are yellow, two are still green
I’m not ready for yel­low leaves
A police vehicle with its right front panel smashed up and the passenger-side airbag deployed, sitting in a repair lot
Seen bet­ter days
A cornfield, almost entirely harvested, except for about a dozen stalks in a clump right at the edge of the field
I’m call­ing this one “You missed a spot”

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; Lilacs and coun­try roads; A pop of colour; Back lane flow­ers; More Breniz­ers; The riv­er is high; A bird and a reflec­tion; Rideau Park; Writ­ing Retreat 2020, Day 7; Writ­ing Retreat 2020: The Num­bers; Storm dam­age, sun­flow­ers; Eleanor Kidd gar­dens; Scenes from today’s ride; All right, autumn can be pret­ty; Bike ride, April 10, 2021; Bike ride wildlife; Bike ride, May 16, 2021; Some flow­ers for you; Lilacs; Under the bridge; A fence, a tree, and the sky; Tur­tle Cross­ing; Ceme­tery crit­ters; On Reflec­tion; Week­end rides; Upon Reflec­tion; Deer and paparazzi; Sep­tem­ber Bike Ride; Corn & Sun­set; On Reflec­tion: Oct. 1st; Autumn Trees; A bit of graf­fi­ti; Novem­ber bike ride; Geese; Day 30; Quack quack; Skin­ny deer; Mon­day bike ride; Sat­ur­day snaps; Deer + Flow­ers; Bike Ride — July 17, 2022; The mead­ow; It seems to be autumn; Por­tal fan­ta­sy; Sla­va Ukrai­ni; Writ­ing Retreat 2023: Thurs­day bike ride; Bike Ride, May 20, 2024; Shy; Cana­da Day ride; A long ride; Cook­ie Ride redux; Writ­ing Retreat 2024: 6; Writ­ing Retreat 2024: The End; Bike Ride, Sep. 22, 2024; Today’s Ride — Oct. 6, 2024; Souris Val­ley; Bike Ride Pho­tos — May 19, 2025; Bike ride, May 24; Art in the trees.

I’m in a podcast

Posted on by Patrick
fountain pen on notepad

Years ago I wrote a fun­ny lit­tle flash sto­ry, called “Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One”, and shopped it around a bit to the few comedy/fantasy mar­kets I could find. Nobody bit, so I shrugged and post­ed it here on my site.

Ear­li­er this year, I got a mes­sage out of the blue from one of the peo­ple behind a SF/F/H pod­cast called Plan­et Racon­teur. He’d stum­bled across my sto­ry and was inter­est­ed in adding it to their pod­cast. I said “Sure”.

And now it’s been post­ed, as the lead sto­ry in Episode 11. Enjoy!

Reflections at Sunset

Posted on by Patrick
Sunset at the edge of town

The clouds looked inter­est­ing, about ten min­utes before sun­set last night, so I grabbed my cam­era and went to the west edge of town. I man­aged to get the last sliv­er of sunset—see the pho­to above.

I also snapped some pho­tos of the sun’s reflect­ed light on the clouds:

Orange sunset light on the clouds
Sun­set light on the clouds

…and on the moon.

The half-moon
Sun­light bounc­ing off the moon

Photos at Clear Lake

Posted on by Patrick
Stacked Stones at Clear Lake

My friend Tim is camp­ing up at Clear Lake this week, so last night after work I head­ed up for a vis­it. We had some burg­ers at the Board­walk (the Jim Burg­er, I’m pleased to report, is pret­ty tasty) and then wan­dered around the town and beach for a bit. I had my cam­era and tri­pod, and was look­ing for a subject.

Some­one, for­tu­itous­ly, had stacked stones down at the edge of the water.

Stacked Stones at Clear Lake
“Nor­mal” shot: 50mm, f/1.8, 1/500s
Stacked Stones at Clear Lake
Long expo­sure: 50mm, f/22 (plus an ND8 fil­ter), 6 sec
Stacked Stones at Clear Lake
Breniz­er panora­ma: 9 pho­tos, 50mm, f/1.8, 1/500 sec

And on the boat dock, it was­n’t quite sun­set yet, but the sun was quite orange as it tried to peek through the clouds.

Sun-dappled Clear Lake
The sun peek­ing through the clouds and reflect­ing on the water

Eleanor Kidd gardens

Posted on by Patrick

On yes­ter­day’s bike ride, I snapped a cou­ple pho­tos of the once and future Eleanor Kidd gar­dens, which are still full of plants but not the ones placed with care by a gardener.

Above, a tree in the con­crete; below, a Breniz­er panora­ma (6 pho­tos) of a gaze­bo full of grass.

Gazebo gone wild

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; Lilacs and coun­try roads; A pop of colour; Back lane flow­ers; More Breniz­ers; The riv­er is high; A bird and a reflec­tion; Rideau Park; Writ­ing Retreat 2020, Day 7; Writ­ing Retreat 2020: The Num­bers; Storm dam­age, sun­flow­ers; Eleanor Kidd gar­dens; Scenes from today’s ride; All right, autumn can be pret­ty; Bike ride, April 10, 2021; Bike ride wildlife; Bike ride, May 16, 2021; Some flow­ers for you; Lilacs; Under the bridge; A fence, a tree, and the sky; Tur­tle Cross­ing; Ceme­tery crit­ters; On Reflec­tion; Week­end rides; Upon Reflec­tion; Deer and paparazzi; Sep­tem­ber Bike Ride; Corn & Sun­set; On Reflec­tion: Oct. 1st; Autumn Trees; A bit of graf­fi­ti; Novem­ber bike ride; Geese; Day 30; Quack quack; Skin­ny deer; Mon­day bike ride; Sat­ur­day snaps; Deer + Flow­ers; Bike Ride — July 17, 2022; The mead­ow; It seems to be autumn; Por­tal fan­ta­sy; Sla­va Ukrai­ni; Writ­ing Retreat 2023: Thurs­day bike ride; Bike Ride, May 20, 2024; Shy; Cana­da Day ride; A long ride; Cook­ie Ride redux; Writ­ing Retreat 2024: 6; Writ­ing Retreat 2024: The End; Bike Ride, Sep. 22, 2024; Today’s Ride — Oct. 6, 2024; Souris Val­ley; Bike Ride Pho­tos — May 19, 2025; Bike ride, May 24; Art in the trees.

Storm damage, sunflowers

Posted on by Patrick
Panoramic photo of the pines on 18th Street; one has been lopped off about halfway up

…and a bunny.

I went for a bike ride on Fri­day and anoth­er one today, Saturday.

Fri­day I snapped a pho­to of a rab­bit on BU campus.

Rabbit on BU's campus
Bun­nies at BU. Nature is healing.

Today, I went on a longer ride, and got pho­tos of some of the branch­es downed in the storm ear­li­er this week.

  • Branch down on the dike path
  • One of the trees down at the ball diamond
  • A tree down on the backstop
  • Dia­mond 1 prob­a­bly needs some work
  • The pine trees along 18th Street North

As I snapped pho­tos, a trac­tor came along and start­ed to drag the top of the pine tree off of 18th Street North. I tried to get a pic­ture but it turned out too dark.

I found a colour­ful com­bo just off Kirk­caldy, too, that remind­ed me that blue + yel­low = green.

And then, in the south end of town, I decid­ed to get a cou­ple shots of the sun­flow­ers (and the dill) grow­ing in the com­mu­ni­ty gardens.

  • Sun­flow­ers
  • Dill
  • Sun­flow­ers
  • One solo sunflower
It occurs to me that sun­flower hon­ey + dill would prob­a­bly make a pret­ty tasty hon­ey dill sauce.

And then, I went home, con­tent after a 26-km, 2‑hour bike ride.

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; Lilacs and coun­try roads; A pop of colour; Back lane flow­ers; More Breniz­ers; The riv­er is high; A bird and a reflec­tion; Rideau Park; Writ­ing Retreat 2020, Day 7; Writ­ing Retreat 2020: The Num­bers; Storm dam­age, sun­flow­ers; Eleanor Kidd gar­dens; Scenes from today’s ride; All right, autumn can be pret­ty; Bike ride, April 10, 2021; Bike ride wildlife; Bike ride, May 16, 2021; Some flow­ers for you; Lilacs; Under the bridge; A fence, a tree, and the sky; Tur­tle Cross­ing; Ceme­tery crit­ters; On Reflec­tion; Week­end rides; Upon Reflec­tion; Deer and paparazzi; Sep­tem­ber Bike Ride; Corn & Sun­set; On Reflec­tion: Oct. 1st; Autumn Trees; A bit of graf­fi­ti; Novem­ber bike ride; Geese; Day 30; Quack quack; Skin­ny deer; Mon­day bike ride; Sat­ur­day snaps; Deer + Flow­ers; Bike Ride — July 17, 2022; The mead­ow; It seems to be autumn; Por­tal fan­ta­sy; Sla­va Ukrai­ni; Writ­ing Retreat 2023: Thurs­day bike ride; Bike Ride, May 20, 2024; Shy; Cana­da Day ride; A long ride; Cook­ie Ride redux; Writ­ing Retreat 2024: 6; Writ­ing Retreat 2024: The End; Bike Ride, Sep. 22, 2024; Today’s Ride — Oct. 6, 2024; Souris Val­ley; Bike Ride Pho­tos — May 19, 2025; Bike ride, May 24; Art in the trees.

Lightning

Posted on by Patrick
Lightning in the clouds

After this after­noon’s storm had most­ly moved on, I set up my cam­era upstairs. In about 1500 pho­tos, I got one good shot of lightning.

2 sec­ond expo­sure, ISO 100, 24mm, f/22 (as high as my cam­era would let me go), with a polar­iz­er and a neu­tral-den­si­ty fil­ter on the lens.

Here’s a video, too, of about 40 min­utes’ worth of storm clouds rolling through, con­densed into 44 sec­onds or so.

Star trails, and a couple Perseids

Posted on by Patrick
Star trails, Aug. 11, 2020

I went to my dark spot last night from about 10:45 pm to 11:45 pm or so, and set up my cam­era. I was hop­ing to catch a few of the Per­seid mete­ors, though I knew I was too ear­ly for the peak.

I let the cam­era run for about an hour (the bat­tery actu­al­ly died at about the 0:55 mark, but close enough), and the result is the star-trails pho­to above. I found two bright(ish) mete­or trails in it, high­light­ed below. (The star trail image is bright because the sky was still faint­ly glow­ing with sun­set light, even at 10:45, when I start­ed; the mete­ors below are from lat­er on in the process.)

  • Shooting star, Aug. 11, 2020
    Shoot­ing star, Aug. 11, 2020
  • Shooting star, Aug. 11, 2020
    Shoot­ing star, Aug. 11, 2020

A soundtrack for tearing down a garage

Posted on by Patrick

As we fin­ished up, my phone’s ran­dom­iz­er deliv­ered Corb Lund’s song “Hard on Equip­ment”, which seemed appro­pri­ate, giv­en it reminds my wife of me and reminds me of my dad.

I had my phone play­ing music through­out the week, and it deliv­ered some gems:

Good times.