Sixty-some years ago I had inherited a black-and-white roll-film Box Brownie camera and was the envy of my friends ... sometimes I even had enough pocket money saved to put a 12-shot roll of film in it and sometimes my parents paid to have it developed. This was high technology on the opening [...]
Not as cold this morning as anticipated, maybe -5C with a bit if wind but by tomorrow morning we are looking at -25C and with windchill an effect -35C to -40C which will give even hardy souls like us pause for thought before going out. Even with good snowshoes this was a hefty [...]
Over a long lifetime I have gathered (moss and rolling stone etc) odd items from aged relatives. Now I am an aged relative myself, I have looked out a couple of old photograph albums that came to me from relatives in Leeds and which have gathered dust and been unopened for maybe [...]
Yesterday there was a lot of freezing rain falling and coating the world in sparkly ice. Being sensible people we stayed indoors, exercised in the basement, and ventured forth this morning to see the world glittering. Freezing rain is a pain, and potentially dangerous, for anyone who has no options but to go [...]
This post is really about interesting atmospheric conditions but birds do creep in, inevitably. Every year we do “our” route in the annual Christmas Bird Count centred on Hudson in Quebec, just west of Montreal. We have been censusing birds on this same route for at least 20 years now - it isn’t [...]
Almost the year's end ...
Quite a glorious day - this afternoon was a pleasant 14C temperature and warm sunlight to take the edge off. J was on duty at the library so I wandered down with her and then enjoyed the riverside which simply looks at its best in October. There are worse places for a chap [...]
There is something about the garden's very early morning light at this time of year, as summer starts to fade and autumn waves enticingly from the wings, that really starts a day off well. All the more so with a mug of tea. It doesn't get much better than this. Verse [...]
Approximately this date but taken ten years ago at the end of the road - resurfaced from the archives. Never throw anything away, one day it will be of use. Last night there was a pretty violent wind storm with gusts up to 100km/hr and power outages all over the province ... thank goodness [...]
This photo was taken in a forest on the west coast of Scotland about five years ago and was remarkable for the mossy layer covering around and bark - extraordinarily atmospheric. More recently, I happened to be reminded of Terry Pratchet's "Wee Free Men" and for some reason this image bubbled to the surface [...]