Blog

Stargazing with the gang

Posted on by Patrick

I went out to Image Hill again, but this time I had a posse. My broth­er-in-law Cy and all three nieces at the farm decid­ed to come with me. It was anoth­er dark, clear night, with a breeze verg­ing on a wind.

I did about a 45-minute star trail shot (above) while they all lay on the ground and gazed at the stars. I also got a shot of the girls check­ing out the Milky Way.

The nieces checking out the galaxy

And one of just the Milky Way, for balance.

The Milky Way behind a telephone pole

And a sin­gle frame from the star trail com­pos­ite, with the trail from a mete­or in the low­er left, and the Big Dip­per next to the tree.

Tree, Big Dipper, and a meteor

Image Hill; fog

Posted on by Patrick
Milky Way from behind a tree

Last night Kath­leen sug­gest­ed I check out Image Hill for some astropho­tog­ra­phy. Since it was only five min­utes’ dri­ve from the farm, I checked it out.

I got about 25 min­utes’ worth of star trails (I set my timer for 30 min­utes but my cam­era bat­tery had oth­er ideas). 

Star Trails at Image Hill
Star Trails at Image Hill
Con­tin­ue read­ing “Image Hill; fog” →

Clear skies at the farm

Posted on by Patrick
The halfway tree at night

We got to the farm last night in the dark, and the skies were clear and star­ry. So, after vis­it­ing for a bit, I took my cam­era and tri­pod out in the lane.

  • The Milky Way behind a tree
    The Milky Way behind a tree 
  • The Milky Way behind a tree
    The Milky Way behind a tree 
  • The Milky Way behind a stop sign
    The Milky Way behind a stop sign
  • Jupiter and Saturn
    Jupiter and Sat­urn (if you view full size, you can see two of Jupiter’s moons)
  • Star Trails
    Star Trails (and a LOT of high­way light)

Godspeed, Ron

Posted on by Patrick
The sign for Kalbergs' Värmland Farm

We got a call on Thurs­day evening, late; lat­er than Kath­leen’s mom Mary usu­al­ly calls.

My father-in-law, Ron, died sud­den­ly on Thurs­day. He’d gone out to clear some bro­ken branch­es out of the brush, and he did­n’t come back in. Mary found him by the tractor.

Ron’s obit­u­ary

We spent the week­end out at the farm. On Sun­day, I went out in the yard and on the road, and took a few pho­tos, as is my way.

Sign for the Conservation Corner contributed by Ron & Mary
Con­ser­va­tion Farm
The Halfway Tree between Brandon and Winnipeg, viewed from the east side
Every­one’s favourite: the Halfway Tree
A panorama of the yard at the farm, with a tree on the right side
An attempt­ed panora­ma of part of the yard

As Kath­leen said—and I agree 100%—at least he died doing what he loved: being mad at a tree.

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.