photography

Bike Ride, May 20, 2024

Posted on by Patrick
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.

Lilacs against the blue sky
white flowers against the sky
Pink flowers against the sky
Pink flowers against the sky

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; Bike Ride Pho­tos, May 10, 2026; The neigh­bour­hood at twi­light.

Foot­notes

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

Aurora — May 11, 2024

Posted on by Patrick
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.

Faint aurora and the moon above a pine tree; the lights of a passing car are a white streak at the bottom of the photo
Purple and green aurora at the zenith; a slow, bright satellite makes a white streak
Bright green aurora above a bright white light in the smoke
Green aurora with a hint of purple
Looking south: Green aurora over the city lights of Brandon
Aurora above a building's bright light, its beam visible in the smoke
Aurora above a building's bright light, its beam visible in the smoke
Green and purple aurora next to the moon, above a pine
Green and purple aurora next to the moon, above a pine
Green and purple aurora next to the moon, above a pine
Green and purple aurora at the zenith
Green and purple aurora next to the moon, above a pine
Aurora: purple above, green below
Faint aurora above two pines, backlit by headlights on the side road
Brilliant green and purple aurora next to the moon, above a pine
Brilliant green and purple aurora next to the moon, above a pine
Brilliant green and purple aurora next to the moon, above a pine
Green and purple aurora next to the moon, above a pine
Green and purple aurora next to the moon, above a pine
Green and purple aurora next to the moon, above a pine
Swirling aurora behind a couple of pines
Green aurora behind a couple of pines
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

Posted on by Patrick
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” →

It seems to be autumn

Posted on by Patrick
Trees with golden leaves

I may not be ready but I guess it’s here. At least it’s pretty.

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; Bike Ride Pho­tos, May 10, 2026; The neigh­bour­hood at twi­light.

Saturday night’s show

Posted on by Patrick
Aurora Borealis (panorama)

We went down to Bois­se­vain on the week­end to help out with the Dun­rea Flea Mar­ket[1]It rather out­grew the avail­able space in Dun­rea., and stayed over at our friends’ farm­house a few miles south of town. There were a few shows put on by the North­ern Lights that night; I caught one of them. They danced for about 20 min­utes while I watched. Here are some of the pho­tos I got.

Aurora Borealis
Aurora Borealis
Aurora Borealis
Aurora Borealis

I tried to cap­ture a panora­ma, to show just how much of the sky was involved. Unfor­tu­nate­ly my image-stitch­ing pro­gram balked at cre­at­ing a panora­ma; the auro­ra were mov­ing too much for the soft­ware to find sim­i­lar­i­ties in the pho­tos. I man­u­al­ly aligned them instead.

Aurora Borealis (panorama)

And I did up a quick time­lapse. The 33 sec­onds of video rep­re­sents about 33 min­utes of pho­tos, each one a 5‑second exposure.

When the show was wind­ing down, I turned around and saw that the Milky Way was high above the farm. One more pho­to, I thought, then I’ll go inside.

The Milky Way above the farm

Foot­notes

Foot­notes
↑1 It rather out­grew the avail­able space in Dunrea.

Writing Retreat 2022: Wrap-up

Posted on by Patrick

How’d I do against my goals?

  • write at least 10,000 words in “Dried Flow­ers”: Check. The nov­el went from 33,000 words to 45,000.
  • get some astropho­tog­ra­phy done. Check: see below.
  • read some books. I read the last chap­ter in Fugi­tive Teleme­try, the last 6 chap­ters in The Book of the New Sun, and made my way a bit over half-way through Catch-22. Also, I bor­rowed the next Sand­man col­lec­tion from one of the library’s online resources, and read a cou­ple chap­ters in it. 
  • ride my bike. A lit­tle; one 6km ride and a few quick runs across the dam into town to go to the cof­fee shop, so as to use their wifi.
  • go kayak­ing. I got out on the water on Thurs­day and Fri­day, for a total of about 8½km.
  • relax. Yes? I had a hard time sleep­ing past 7 am, but oth­er­wise it was a relax­ing week.

All in all, this was a good retreat. As always, I wish it had been longer, but you know what they say: so it goes.

The Milky Way
Star Trails from the deck of the cabin
The Milky Way
Panorama: post-sunset glow (red and orange below, dark blue above) reflected in a pond
Cabin chic: a golden sun figure hanging on the outside wall
The Milky Way above the lake
The Milky Way above the spruces
Star trails above the spruces and the lake
Cabin decor: a mirror reflects the ceiling

Series: Writing Retreat 2022

The entire series: Writ­ing Retreat 2022: Goals; Writ­ing Retreat 2022: Mon­day; Writ­ing Retreat 2022: Tues­day; Writ­ing Retreat 2022: Wednes­day; Writ­ing Retreat 2022: Thurs­day; Writ­ing Retreat 2022: Fri­day; Writ­ing Retreat 2022: Wrap-up.