Let's Make Some Art, Dammit

December 8, 2024. Dried and perfectly preserved wild cucumber. We went for a walk along Crysler Trail today, just near the town of the same name. It was a crisp December day, windy and sunny at times, with plenty of birds. https://flic.kr/p/2qyF2eE

June 17, 2024. Worked from home on a nice Monday and then did a quick loop to St. Albert after. This is a farm just north of St. Albert. https://flic.kr/p/2q1eqUU

April 1, 2024. This is a church in Crysler called Notre-Dame-du-Rosaire, which I photographed while on a 37 km bike ride in the cold and the wind. I also spent some time on my European project. https://flic.kr/p/2pGGaZ3

February 18 2024. It was snowing in the forest today where we went snowshoeing, a bit more than 4 km. Not too cold but snowy and blowy. https://flic.kr/p/2pyWwk4

February 11, 2024. Spotted this squirrel in the bird feeder along the Mer Bleue trail on our walk today. I was trying to photograph birds (without a lot of success) with the telephoto. Puttering on some projects otherwise, maybe watching football this evening. https://flic.kr/p/2pxGmCU

February 6, 2024. This is the Nation River about 5 km from Casselman. I stopped to get a photo while dropping Andrea off at the dentist. Today was mostly a recovery day, catching up on email that had accumulated during our short trip to Quebec City and figuring out how to eat the most recent trove of vegetables. https://flic.kr/p/2pwNKoM

April 27, 2023. Just another dreary spring day commute. I spent the morning preparing all my slides for my presentation (I didn't even have time to join the strike over lunch) and then the presentation was postponed for a week. These things happen. https://flic.kr/p/2owYQAA

April 2, 2023. We went for an 11 km walk along the St. Lawrence River waterfront today. It was far colder than I expected, with a brisk wind that cut through my jacket. Still, it was a good walk and quite scenic. https://flic.kr/p/2oqNVXn

April 1, 2023. It actually got pretty warm today, especially in the bright sunshine, and I was able to get out for an actual bicycle ride. It was pretty slow since I'm warming up the new bike on gravel, and the shoulders were soft from all the rain and snow. No complaints, though. https://flic.kr/p/2oqMsXE

March 9, 2023. This is the Nordstrom at Rideau Centre in Ottawa. I had never been to a Nordstrom, and with news that the chain is now closing in Canada, I thought I'd peer in before they disappear. So today I had a doctor's appointment in the morning (where I discovered that my kidney is fine after all, and got some hoped-for relief from my itching), and we had time to wait for the prescriptions, so we went to Rideau Centre. https://flic.kr/p/2omnGji

February 17, 2023. A pair of blue jays on the back porch after a snowfall. We've been more popular with the jays recently; must be a good selection of seeds and nuts in the feeder. Today the full day is devoted to my technology barriers report. https://flic.kr/p/2ohtKVL

January 24, 2023. This is just an ordinary house I see when I go on my walk, but it's funny how a few trees and some snow make any old house a postcard picture. Had a few meetings today, discussed ontologies and instructional strategies, and gave an informal presentation introducing myself and my interests. https://flic.kr/p/2oe4E9N

January 15, 2023. Snowshoeing in Larose forest. Then football. January winter Sunday. https://flic.kr/p/2obBnBz

January 7, 2023. It took a few days, but the birds have discovered we put food in the feeder again. We had stopped over the summer because of avian flu, and we didn't want them gathering all together. This is a female cardinal; we haven't seen the male yet, but we hold out hope. There have also been chickadees, blue jays, and dark-eyed juncos. spent the full day toying around with node,js on the cloud, trying different things. https://flic.kr/p/2oavRDs

January 6, 2023. We had freezing rain yesterday and today with the result that there's a layer of ice over everything. It makes walking treacherous but I was till out for my lunchtime walk. It's good to take a break, especially in winter when the office walls close in on you. Same work today as yesterday, with about the same degree of progress. https://flic.kr/p/2oaw5MV

January 5, 2023. It hasn't occurred to me to try to make my own hot sauce, but Andrea picked this up in the Costco yesterday and it seems to me like it would be worth a try. I'll report on any results. I've been back to work all week, focusing mostly on instructional strategies, but also trying to make node.js work in a cloud environment using ssl. Slow progress on both fronts. https://flic.kr/p/2oauRX4

January 4, 2023. It took most of an afternoon but I was able to get my blood tests and an ECG done. All this is part of a regular checkup. I do notice that the private clinics of Doug Ford's Ontario are a lot slower, and a lot harder on their employees, than proper hospitals or public health care clinics. Sure, the tests were still covered by health care - this is Canada, after all - but by chipping away at the corners like this, conservative governments are making basic health care harder and harder to access. Which, of course, is their game plan. https://flic.kr/p/2oatseB

November 7, 2022. Charlemagne is a very long cat, which means that when he gets up on hind legs (as he often does) he's a very tall cat... almost as tall as the railing. Today was a day for catching up on a mountain of work after being sick for three days or so. https://flic.kr/p/2nZbTTr

October 8, 2022. We were all watching the game, even the cats. This was a bit before the play that tied the game. It was a pretty shocking outcome, and it's tough to say "wait till next year" so early in the playoffs, but that's baseball. Otherwise it was an indoor day playing with the new No Man's Sky update. https://flic.kr/p/2nRQfDi

September 4, 2022. Walking through Mer Bleue forest. Flowers, fungi, and fruit. https://flic.kr/p/2nJEp51