I can't help it

I have a dental appointment first thing Monday. No, I'm not stressed about that. My teeth are in pretty good shape, a bit of staining from coffee and wine aside. Plus my dental hygienist is awesome! I've been seeing her now since some time in the mid-90's, and I'd bear her children if she hadn't already done that for herself. Best hands in the business. I'm going to cry when she retires.

No, I'm flashing on the last dental appointment I had, when working for my current manager. That was the day Penn West spilled it's guts all over downtown, demonstrating they had not one effing clue about what they were doing. That was traumatic for all involved, even me.

Now they've moved on, as have I. Still, I can't help thinking of it. I hope I haven't triggered anything for my manager. If so, sorry, and I'll buy lunch next time. I've no reason to think a repeat is remotely likely, but then, one never expects the Spanish Inquisition either.

Unless you live in the USA, they're firing up their own version of the inquisition. Instead of heretics, they're looking for women, people with anything other than pure white skin, people who go to the wrong church or none at all, people who seek to cross the border going in, and people with enough functional brain cells to string together the endless stream of lies from the Trump kleptocracy and decide to vote against them, if there's another election. All those people are being assaulted in any number of ways, mainly to soothe the egos of those who have been running things since forever (mainly old white men) and who are terrified of sharing the pie.

I digress. I've been trying not to follow the news from the USA, but it makes me nervous. What happens there will happen here, unless we stop it. There's a foothold of stupidity established in Ontario. The voters were rightly pissed at the Liberal government, but I think they cut their nose and head off to spite their body. Or something.

Here, we have Jason Kenney. I saw him in action on the weekend. I first saw our local councillor, Diane Colley-Urquhart. She showed up at the pancake breakfast, flipped pancakes, and settled in with the rest of the volunteers. The wind was making it hard to keep the pancake griddle going, and they were working with tables and foil wrap trying to shelter the burners. She was right in there working as part of the team. She stayed till after the event's published end time. I saw her working on a coffee with one hand, spatula in the other, but I didn't see her eat.

Kenney showed up with an entourage, flipped a few pancakes, posed for photos, shook a few hands, worked the line up a bit, and disappeared. That is exactly what we are getting from him as an elected rep, the 'Leader of the Official Opposition' no less. Except he doesn't participate in debates and yanks the whole caucus out. Recently he complained about funding for police, yet voted against the NDP increasing funding substantially. He is only in this for himself. I think he's biding his time while Trudeau is in office, figuring it would sully his image to oppose him.

But opposing the NDP, and restoring the "natural order of things" in Alberta, that seems to be something he can tackle. He's done better than anyone has expected, but then, he's not actually a stupid man. He sees where the opening is, and what buttons he can push to motivate a group of people into becoming his base. And boy, is he good at pushing buttons.

As one of the volunteers asked, when they saw me getting some photos of Diane, had I managed to get any of Kenney? "No," I answered, "I didn't want to risk corrupting my camera sensor."

On to happier things.

The first day lilies are out! These yellow ones were glowing in the morning sun.

The roses were doing pretty well in the morning sun too.

Working hard

Still hot. Worked a photo gig for the community association and you can be sure I was well slathered in sunscreen. You can see the results over on my other blog, if you should want to look at some hard working volunteers, a city councillor pitching in, and lots of people enjoying themselves. There's a few shots I'm really pleased with.

I might take the camera downtown one day and look for Stampede photos. It's probably best if I put some thought into what I'm looking for. There are some things you can't un-see, and that's liable to happen if you wander around aimlessly.

In the meantime, there's still some flower action happening here. Lots of it. These are all from almost a month ago. Like I say, sometimes you get photos from earlier today, sometimes it's from a while ago. I wouldn't want you get bored.

I didn't quite get the white centered in the purple, but it still worked out the way I wanted it.

Celina, of course. This photo made it Facebook a while back, but I'm sure it will just kill you to look at her again.

I've no idea what this is.

Somehow this makes me think of that Star Trek original series episode with the giant domesday machine that ate spaceships.

Still waiting

Some things are slow this year. Spring and summer, for a start, and everything that relies on them. Our flowers are blooming a month later than last year. I'm beginning to worry about the Dahlias just beginning to bloom as the frost comes. That would be so disappointing for the bees. They love the Dahlias like nothing else.

This lily has been working on blooming for months. It looks dark and gnarled, almost burned, but Linda says that's the way it should be, and all is well. the other lilies are budding, but I think we're a ways from seeing blooms. At least there's been no lily beetles for a while.

The pink peony in the back. It puts on a big show as well, and is even more ruffled than the white one.

One rose bush, blooming like crazy.

One rose bloom, backlit by the sun.

OK, this was an accident. There were some pelicans (some of you are smiling because you'd know why I was interested in photographing pelicans), and I got this. A bit of dressing up and I've got another abstract I kind of like. There's a certain mood to it.

The pink peony again in different light. I sent this one to my mom. I hadn't known that she was getting some of my photos from the blog and there's an app that creates puzzles, and you time yourself. I sent her this as a nice quality photo, better than what you see on the blog, and that was a half hour she'll never get back.

It is smoking hot in Calgary today. The thermometer in the back said 38 C. At least it's a dry heat. I mowed the lawn first thing, trying to beat the heat, and I was a bucket of at the end. I'm glad I'm not trying to run in that. The rest of the week isn't much cooler. Linda is watering morning and evening trying to keep the plants from shrivelling up and dying. Stampede grounds will be an oven.

Ok Susi, warn the people around you

So my dear friend Susi has recently had a thing about bee bums. Sure, they're kind of cute, but I find their little faces so much more photogenic, and a much more difficult target.

There were a few of them posted for Susi here, if you missed them.

Here's another couple more of them. Now, Susi, before you scroll down to the second one, warn your neighbours to don the appropriate hearing protection. You might want to tape up your windows to prevent them from shattering.

I'm not kidding Susi, prepare yourself. Prepare those around you.

Spacer. Not sure if she reads on a laptop or what.

More spacer. Maybe I should put something else in.

Maybe I will.

Here's a lovely peony for you. Just to build the suspense.

And ta-da!

Now I need to worry about the bee pervert police showing up for taking naughty photos.

The little clematis that could

I can't help but love this little clematis. We planted it this year beside the gate to our patio, along with some Pansys. I'm not sure how happy they are, but the clematis is going nuts! It is scrambling up the trellis by leaps and bounds, and finally reached the top. As soon as I saw it, I pictured it peering around, having one arm hooked onto the top, and the other raised in celebration. Maybe it's in a competition with the other clematis, since they're all doing really well this year, except for the one that produced a beautiful 4 star blossom, then succumbed to a fungus.

Some days I get inspired by the plants and bees. They do their thing. If something gets in their way they go around it. I'm not sure where this clematis will go next since it's quite a jump to the next bit of trellis. Perhaps we'll put some twine up for it to cling to. If we do nothing it will find it's way to the posts, and grow up them. They don't complain to us about the weather. They focus on what's important to them, absorbing sunlight, drinking rain, pulling nutrients from the ground, and growing.

A close up of the stalk on a new hens and chicks plant in the front bed. Did I get it's good side?

A somewhat more conventional view of that same stalk. I prefer the first.

A couple of the poppies in the back. For some reason I haven't been feeling the poppy love, and haven't been happy with many of the photos, till these two.

I shot this looking for the texture on the bud, but all the action is in the water drop.

One of the white poppies. I missed the light by THAT much! Sigh.

Battery recharging weekend

Well. That was nice. I deliberately didn't want to plan too much for this weekend. It's been a busy few weeks and I've been starting to drag my tail a bit. Some down time was badly needed, and I'm feeling much better today.

Even so, I got lots crossed off my to do list. The big thing for my readers, of course, is the June Image of the Month. About the only thing left is a series of related tasks involving excavating my desk, starting to get my corporate tax year end stuff organized, and getting all the tax stuff filed. It always seems like I need last year's, so I just leave it out.

After a pathetic swim last Wednesday, I had a nice swim on Friday, and an even nicer one on Sunday. The pool was full for a swim meet, but that's ok. It's kind of fun to watch the kids warming up.

The last wine kit of 2018 is now bottled, and everything put away till next year. I'm pretty sure that's going to go by in a blur. On the off chance you live near Calgary, make wine or have a buddy that does, and need some clear bottles, get in touch with me. I've got 14 doz Bordeaux style with the dimple in the bottom for sale at a very reasonable price.

I was even out for a brief photo ramble this afternoon, hoping I could work the dramatic skies into a shot. They didn't work out quite as nice as I had hoped, but the important thing was being outside for some fresh air and sunshine.
Still, this panorama shot gives a bit of the sky drama I was hoping for.

And some white peony shots, in case you are pining. Some of these are from the 4 star collection.

June Image of the Month

That was quite the month for photos. 3376 photos if I believe Lightroom, and 1300 of them were on the same day. The white peony was the main star of the month, putting on a great display of blossom. The red peony was trying hard as well. The roses are just getting their stride at the end of the month, and none of the big lilies have shown up yet.

Not counting the mass edit and export for the Wild Rose tri, I edited 163 photos. Those get 3 stars, just because. (1 star is during my initial pass to mark things to look at again to figure out what to edit. 2 stars is a no brainer to edit.)

4 stars are what I think are really good photos, and a 5 star one makes me go WOW! The problem is that my standards are going up all the time, and to some extent the ratings depend on what other shots happened about the same time or my history of similar shots.

An example here is the shot of Mr Travis Bee I got last August. (As a bonus you get a smoky sunset and a lovely red begonia.) That is a spectacular shot, and I might not get a better bee shot in the rest of my life as an active photographer. It affects the star rating of every bee shot now. There are lots of photos getting 3 stars now that would have been 4 or 5 stars a year or more ago.

This month has 34 photos with 4 stars, and 11 of them are the white peony. Again, there are some really nice shots, so that makes it hard to judge the rest. Here's a screen shot of the contenders. Some of them will be new to you because they haven't made it to my blog yet. If there's any in particular you want to see, let me know. (Oops, 7 MB image, if you're concerned about your data package usage.)

Number 13 has a blue background as a marking for something I did. Don't worry about it. Like, or don't like that image just like all the rest. There is no one stand out shot for me right now. Maybe tomorrow I'll look at these and wonder if I'd lost my mind, and the next day I might pick something else.

I always like it when I see the shot in my mind, then get it in the camera. The second big plant leaf with the blurred background is one of those, as is the blue geranium. The red tulip near the beginning of the month was a regular favourite. I'll stop now, I can say something nice about all these photos, they wouldn't have 4 stars if I couldn't.

So here we go.
2nd runner up, the red peony. It had rained overnight, and I was loving the raindrops and the red in the morning light.

1st runner up, a rose. I was working on putting the blossom between the camera and the sun, and many of them turned out well. It was this or the geranium from the regretted post.

And the winner! I knew it would be the peony, the question was which shot? Another morning shot after an overnight rain.

Happy Canada Day everyone!