In case you slept through my Saturday morning interview with Shannah-Lee Vidal—or you’re not in CBC Manitoba’s broadcast area—here’s how the story went.
startrails
Favourite images, 2021

Some of my best photos (well, in my opinion) of the year that was.
Continue reading “Favourite images, 2021”Writing Retreat 2021, day 4

On Wednesday, I:
- Rewrote a scene in “The Slow Apocalypse”
- Got lunch to go from the local coffeeshop with my friend Tim, who’s on his way home from camping at Wasagaming
- Continued outlining for “Praise the Torch”
- Went for a bike ride (it was pretty windy, but at least it was at my back on the way back to the cabin)
- Drove to a side road off Mountain Road and watched for Perseids
I saw about six or eight meteors with the naked eye, and caught a few small ones and one longer one with my camera. I was on the side road in the dark for about an hour. Maybe I was too early for the 40–60/hour that the websites claimed you’d see on the peak night of the meteor shower.


Writing Retreat 2021, day 3

Tuesday, I:
- Wrote more in the outline for “Praise the Torch”
- Went for a bike ride (it was cool when I started, but warmed up as the sun came out)
- Read about a dozen chapters in William Gibson’s Zero History—it’s been a long time since I read it, so it’s pretty much like reading it again for the first time
- Reworked a chapter in “The Slow Apocalypse” and made minor changes in a few other places
- Watched some Firefly
- Met up with my friend Tim (who was camping at Wasagaming) at Spruces for some very dark sky photos (it’s been a long time since I saw the Milky Way so prominent to the naked eye)
I saw a couple of meteors at Spruces, including one large, slow one that unfortunately wasn’t where my camera was aimed.
Star trails at the research station

About ½ hour of rotation.
Star Trails

Warmer than it’s been, but still cold enough to kill two camera batteries inside the space of ½ an hour. I gave up on seeing any aurora and headed home to process what I got.
Update: As it turned out, I got some aurora after all.
About 170 photos, 5 seconds each (for a total of about 15 minutes of rotation), ISO 1600, 11mm, f/2.8.