Let's Make Some Art, Dammit

May 31, 2022. This is a tractor spotted through a gap in the trees about a mile south of Casselman. I had to vary my usual route since part of my regular route is under (much needed) construction (I hope they repave it, and don't just leave it as gravel). Put a new tire on the bike as the previous one started wobbling - I thought it was the tube (since it was the wrong size) but I also saw a good-sized gash in the tire. End of the month, so today consisted to doing time records and preparing my 'CTE' (ie., work plan for the year). https://flic.kr/p/2np711o

May 30, 2022. This is a little tiny wasp's nest in our crabapple tree in the back yard. We haven't seen any actual wasps around it yet. It's nice to see the tree doing well this spring. Today was a day of puttering and paperwork, trying to get things in order to prefer for the next year. We had a power outage so I was up late and never really got started properly. https://flic.kr/p/2np5HBR

May 29, 2022. We went back to Summerstown Forest for an 8 km hike today, and while the trilliums were done for the season, there was still a lot to see. I had hoped to do the full look, but the furthest section of trail was still under water. Tons of mosquitos. https://flic.kr/p/2noxK8e

May 28, 2022. This is just a random bit of forest under water as seen from the road back from Avonmore. I did my standard 50km loop today, but had a much larger lunch than intended at Rock'n Ronda's restaurant so was a bit slow on the return leg. I also skipped supper! After the late night Friday I was super-tired and went to sleep early. So, a short day but a good one. https://flic.kr/p/2noyVPi

May 27, 2022. We have new seasons tickets - row 27 on the 50 yard line, pretty much perfect. With my new camera I can get excellent photos (and it's not a 'professional' camera so I can get it into the stadium). Today was the first preseason game so it didn't matter but it was still fun to watch them get a last-minute win. Good productive day today (though I forgot to send my newsletters, which is why people got them on Saturday) with two conference speaking proposals submitted (I'm not used to submitting proposals but with a new generation (deservedly) getting all the invitations, I guess I have to learn). https://flic.kr/p/2notoUr

May 26, 2022. These purple flowers - not sure what they are - fill the lawn in the shade of the cedar hedge beside the house. Not quite ready to get back out just yet - especially with a brand new expedition from No Man's Sky being released. https://flic.kr/p/2noyvAm

May 25, 2022. This dogwood is taking over the deck (and I like it). Nice neat back yards are for other people. It's taking me a few days to get back into things after the weekend ride. I took my wheel into the bike shop and will get it back in a week. I still need to do a test ride with all my gear to make sure the bike is up to it. https://flic.kr/p/2noysKm

May 24, 2022. I was at the dentist this morning for my regular cleaning and polishing. I then rewarded myself with a couple of Mozza Burgers from A&W. Back to work, making the newsletter, and I uploaded my cycling trip video. Here it is: www.youtube.com/watch?v=coS3sCO3dZk https://flic.kr/p/2nnL6JL

May 23, 2022. This is one last look at the forest at my campsite in Voyageur Provincial Park. After a very cold night freezing in my light sleeping bag, I cycled 75 km back to Casselman, then got in the car, drove back to the park, and picked up all my gear. https://flic.kr/p/2nnCTU6

May 22, 2022. Scene in Voyageur Provincial park as I cycled today to9 Hawkesbury and back. I was a little surprised at the impact of the storm (it's not like I had a lot of news while camping) and the continuing power outage. It also got a lot colder while I was out on this ride, and it rained on me all the way back. https://flic.kr/p/2nnCRtz

May 21, 2022. At camp in the morning after cycling in the day before, ahead of my planned ride to Rigaud. It was an eventful day punctuated by a huge storm that rolled through, knocking down trees and power lines in its path. https://flic.kr/p/2nnAmR1

May 20, 2022. This is the scene at the entrance to Voyageur Provincial Park, on the Ottawa River between Hawkesbury and Rigaud. I woke up early to deliver a presentation to a conference in Iran. Then I assembled all my gear and took it to the park. Then I drove home. I got on my road bike (ie., the bike without the wrecked wheel, but which could not carry a bikepacking load) and cycled the 74 km to the park, arriving (as you can see) in early evening. Against the wind the whole way. But it was still great; it was me defeating the bad day. https://flic.kr/p/2nnsYZD

May 19, 2022. Disassembled wheel with at least one ball bearing missing. Today was one of those days where anything that could go wrong did go wrong. I tried to repair my broken spoke, couldn't get it to bend around the disc brake, and ended up wrecking the wheel. All on the day before my planned bikepacking trip. https://flic.kr/p/2nnyjVb

May 18, 2022. This is a nice pastoral scene about half way from Casselman to St. Albert. I took the gravel bike on a nice ride before a scheduled bikepacking trip this weekend. And for the first time ever, had a problem with it, as I broke a spoke just a couple kilometers away from finishing. My best guess is that I over-inflated the tire. I've also been doing some work in Mozilla Hubs VR rooms, and the ActivityPub plugin for WordPress. And we had an afternoon meeting planning for the upcoming year's collaborations. https://flic.kr/p/2nmFYL6

May 17, 2022. Julia on the shelf looking outside. Every morning starts the same way - I start the coffee, start the oatmeal, weigh myself, and then go over to the shelf where Julia is complaining that I'm too slow. Up she jumps, and then she gets a nice morning massage before I open the curtains and she can look out. At a meeting this morning - officially 'the most productive team meeting ever' - as we went through and filled out our remote work agreements for NRC. They let the lawyers have a say, so the resulting document was 16 pages long. https://flic.kr/p/2nmJvZD

May 16, 2022. This is the device the optomitrist uses to examine my eyes; there are some 148 lenses inside. Had a couple of meetings this morning, did the newsletter, and caught up on some email. https://flic.kr/p/2nmJv6j

May 15, 2022. Our next door neighbour is slowly expanding his front lawn into ours.The actual property line (so far as I know) is three or four feet from his driveway. But they routinely mow well on to our side, they've trimmed our spruce trees and cut down our daylilies, and as you can see, they're using it to store their hockey net. Now I'm not one to start battles with neighbours over territory, but it does appear than I'm going to have to get it surveyed and put in a little fence. No hiking today because I mixed up my meds. https://flic.kr/p/2nkQTib

May 14, 2022. This is the distinctive tartan-clad water tower in Maxville., I cycled there and back today, 57km total, with 30 degree heat and a light breeze. The ride was a bit slower because I paused to take video a number of times, creating a YouTube video www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9Cz7K3IIQU and shorter Tiktok. Enjoy. https://flic.kr/p/2nkKfU2

May 13, 2022. This is just outside Casselman, and is typical of some of the gigantic soybean fields we have around here. It's changed a lot from when I was young and all of this was divided into fields and 100 acre farms. Today I gave a presentation on educational opportunities in the metaverse to a smart cities conference in Morocco (online of course). https://flic.kr/p/2nkuJX2

May 12, 2022. Another day out cycling after work, and today I photographed these cows enjoying the sunny weather. Still cleaning up the debris from the data literacy work and arranging for it to be published on NPARC. https://flic.kr/p/2nkvTg2

May 11, 2022. A farmer near St. Albert tills the soil on a beautiful but breezy spring day. The weather has turned to HOT and I am enjoying being able to get out on the bicycle after work. Today was mostly about cleaning up and doing errands that stacked up while I was working on data literacy. https://flic.kr/p/2nkuGWR

May 10, 2022. This farm is on the long way back from St.Albert. If you were wondering, this is what farms look like these days - the traditional barns and silos are a thing of the past. Beautiful warm day (at last!) and quite pleasant to cycle. Mostly spent the rest of the day cleaning up - work on my data literacy has left my office looking a bit like a bomb hit it. ecoving and organizing again will take several days. https://flic.kr/p/2njXcqU

May 8, 2022. This is a spring azure butterfly, small, flighty, hard to capture. With wings closed, like this, it looks a little brown, but when they're flying you see the bright purple. We went to Bank Street to pick up some bicycle tubes (and ended up walking a couple km) and then to the East Trail in the Greenbelt for a 6.75 km walk. It was a brilliantly blue warm spring day with nothing but sunshine. https://flic.kr/p/2njgCCr

May 7, 2022. This is my Aunt Marilyn, whose life we celebrated today. She passed away in the middle of the winter after a long and interesting life, and since there's no rush to inter her urn, the early spring celebration allowed the entire family to get together, including some cousins I haven't seen for ages. One of my fondest memories is of visiting her when I was a child in (I guess) 1970 - we saw 'Oliver!' and 'Two Mules for Sister Sara', my first movies ever. I hadn't seen much of her in the years I lived out west and in the Maritimes, but since moving back to eastern Ontario five years ago I was able to get to know her again, which makes me happy. p.s. I'm not sure exactly when my family switched between having funerals and having celebrations of life, but we have and I think the celebrations are much better. https://flic.kr/p/2nj9J8Q

May 6, 2022. Just a small backyard bridge I spotted on my bike ride through St.Albert. Other than the bike ride, my day was spent working on data literacy, which is so close to being done. https://flic.kr/p/2njc1tJ

May 5, 2022. This is a cow outside the St.Albert cheese factory, which is where I go on my regular 25km bike ride. I took this photo in the context of recording a TikTok video (I'm up to 156 TikTok followers now!). Had a bit of an issue with my data literacy project (lost the password to my website and had to hack into it). https://flic.kr/p/2niU2fN

May 4, 2022. Andrea came rushing into my office saying, "There's a new kind of bird." She was quite right; it was a brown thrasher, which we haven't seen before. Got new slippers today. Tried to start a No Man's Sky Circumnavigation project that may have failed (there's zero video). Otherwise, the usual work on the usual project. https://flic.kr/p/2nixwQs

May 3, 2022. This is a view of the Nation River along my cycling route (the usual 25km to St. Albert). Still practicing with the camera. Started the day with a couple of meetings, which means I'm not generally very productive thereafter. https://flic.kr/p/2nis7xL

May 2, 2022. As the title suggests, it's a crow in a pine tree. I'm still learning my new camera. Focused on the data literacy appendix. It was an indoor day today, too cold to enjoy cycling. https://flic.kr/p/2niA2K6

May 1, 2022. This is a wet section of Summerstown Forest - it's pretty hilly and there are wet spots and good spots for trails. It was our first time in this forest and it was a good one. Lots of spring flowers just getting started (the flowers are all late this spring even in a southerly forest (it's near Cornwall) like this). https://flic.kr/p/2nhWt3b

April 30, 2022. This is a pond at the far end of King Street in Limoges, right at the dead end near the highway. I was more concerned about learning teh Fujufilm X-T200 camera than getting great composition, so this is testing exposure, iso, depth of field and the rest. https://flic.kr/p/2nhHWRF