The Milky Way at an abandoned church

The Milky Way behind an abandoned church

Last night the sky was clear and my bat­ter­ies were charged. I loaded up my gear and head­ed to a spot I found last fall: an aban­doned church south of me.

For almost the entire time I was there—about 10:45pm till 2am—it was just me and the fire­flies and the crick­ets. A truck drove by at one point (very slow­ly, because I’d seen them com­ing and turned on my car’s lights), but oth­er than that I was alone under the stars.

The Milky Way behind an abandoned church

Look at all those fireflies.

I did up a mul­ti-pho­to panora­ma, too, before I left.

Panoramic image of the Milky Way behind an abandoned church

Below is a time­lapse of the night. It’s made of 169 still images, each one a 30-sec­ond expo­sure at 11mm, f/2.8, ISO800.

It was almost 3am by the time I got to bed. It’s been a while since I stayed up that late. I think it was worth it, though.

Update

I just spent 90 min­utes or so stack­ing 16 images from my 2nd cam­era into this image of a por­tion of the galaxy.

A stack of 16 images of the Milky Way

Bike Ride Photos — May 19, 2025

A deer, not terribly afraid of me, watching me from about 20 metres away; a more skittish deer is visible further away, nearer to the willows at the riverbank

I went about 15km today with my cam­era. I set myself up with a chal­lenge: try to use the 35mm lens and the fil­ters I bought at the Dun­rea Flea Mar­ket[1]Which, as I’m sure you’ve fig­ured out by now, takes place in Bois­se­vain. a few years ago.

I set myself up with a polar­iz­ing fil­ter and a red-blue fil­ter (ie, one that will let through red light or blue light but not, it seems, both). It was a cloudy day and I fig­ured I might get a bit of dra­ma from the clouds by polar­iz­ing the red / blue light.

Did I suc­ceed? You tell me.

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.

Foot­notes

Foot­notes
1 Which, as I’m sure you’ve fig­ured out by now, takes place in Boissevain.

Birthday Aurora

Panoramic photo of the aurora

Yes­ter­day was my birth­day, and the sky was clear and the auro­ra data were pret­ty good. So about 10pm I hit the road, and got these pho­tos about 15 min­utes from my house.

Above: an 11-pho­to panora­ma stretch­ing from west to east.

The stars were sharp and clear, too, in the cold air, so I snapped some pho­tos of one of my favourite con­stel­la­tions, Orion.

And because my cam­eras were nice and still for most of the time, I have a minute or so of time­lapse video for you. Each sec­ond of video is a minute of real time.

Writing Retreat 2024: The End

Wide panoramic shot of the hills to the north of me

I went for a bike ride today, and got a cou­ple of panora­mas: one of the hill­side to the north (above) and an inter­est­ing tree along the trail (below).

A tree growing almost horizontally

Then I cleaned up the cab­in, packed, and head­ed home.

So how’d I do?

I delib­er­ate­ly did­n’t set myself any goals this year. I took my bike, my lap­top, my cam­eras, and a bunch of books; this, I decid­ed, would be a vaca­tion vaca­tion, not—as it’s kind of turned into over the years—a work­ing vacation.

I read Rules for a Knight by Ethan Hawke, a book I did­n’t know exist­ed until Corey Redekop post­ed about find­ing it at a used book store; I read Anni­hi­la­tor by Grant Mor­ri­son and Fraz­er Irv­ing; and I read about ⅔ of Kurt Von­negut’s Blue­beard[1]And once this is post­ed, I’m prob­a­bly going read some more.. I wrote about 3000 new words, I think, in my “derelict star­ship” sto­ry. Since the cab­in own­er have Dis­ney+, I watched a sea­son of The Man­dalo­ri­an. I took a lot of photos.

It occurred to me, ear­li­er today, that this “writ­ing” retreat was real­ly about 65% pho­tog­ra­phy by weight, and I’m OK with that. Should I call it a “pho­tog­ra­phy retreat”? An “art retreat”? Maybe, but I’m not going to. I’m the one writ­ing these posts, after all, and I’ll title them as I see fit.

Good night, and good luck.

A branch, with a nearly horizontal tree in the very blurry background

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.

Series: Writing Retreat 2024

The entire series: Writ­ing Retreat 2024 (1); Writ­ing Retreat 2024 (2); Writ­ing Retreat 2024 (3); Writ­ing Retreat 2024 (4); Writ­ing Retreat (5a — Milky Way); Writ­ing Retreat (5b — Auro­ra Bore­alis); Writ­ing Retreat 2024: 6; Writ­ing Retreat 2024: 7; Writ­ing Retreat 2024: The End.

Foot­notes

Foot­notes
1 And once this is post­ed, I’m prob­a­bly going read some more.

Bike Ride, May 20, 2024

Panorama of a country road

I went about 22km and took a bunch of photos.

A map of my ride

The trees were all start­ing to flower. Even the lilacs had blos­soms on them.

You can talk all you want about robins red­breast, but for me the truest sign of spring is when the yel­low heads of dan­de­lions[1]Or, as the French would have it, «pis­senl­its». appear.

A ditch full of dandelions

I’m glad to see the Ukrain­ian flag is still hangin’ in there at the pub­lic gar­dens, too. I imag­ine that I’ll be pho­tograph­ing sun­flow­ers there lat­er this summer.

Weathered Ukrainian flag at the public gardens

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.

Foot­notes

Foot­notes
1 Or, as the French would have it, «pis­senl­its».

Aurora — May 11, 2024

The crescent moon, reddened by smoke in the air

The sec­ond night[1]First night is here. of the show was a bit tamer, and tem­pered by smoke in the air that ampli­fied all the ground lights. Still, it was a good night. I spent a cou­ple hours snap­ping pho­tos with my friend Kevin.

Brilliant green and purple aurora next to the moon, above a pineBrilliant green and purple aurora next to the moon, above a pine
Left: unedit­ed; right: colours edited

The smoke turned the cres­cent moon red­dish-orange, too.

The crescent moon, reddened by smoke in the air

Time­lapse. See if you can tell when the light was strong enough that I could see it reflect­ing off my hi-vis vest.

I was out from about 10:30pm till about half past mid­night. It was anoth­er good night.

Foot­notes

Aurora, April 23, 2023

Aurora Borealis, April 23, 2023

Last night, Kath­leen said to me, “I hear the auro­ra should be good tonight.” I checked the app on my phone that shows me the auro­ra data. Every­thing looked pret­ty good except the Bz val­ue, which was about +17. (For a good show, you want the Bz to be neg­a­tive. The longer it’s been neg­a­tive, the better.)

Con­tin­ue read­ing “Auro­ra, April 23, 2023”