Flowery Friday 5

I've somehow been busy on Friday's and haven't done many Flowery Fridays. But there's still lots of flower photos. These are from early June.

Yes, I'm finishing up the packing this morning for the Great Sand Hills expedition. Yes, I'm taking the film camera with both colour and B&W film. Stay tuned.

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Of the Day

Driftwood

Lily, since flower and peony are already done, and I wouldn't want you to get jaded.

Landscape

A walk with Sean in Horse Thief Canyon. Or was it Horseshoe?

Green Fools

Clowns doing musical chairs. Note, they are having an open house next week. Check it out here.

Film (GW690 on Ektar 100)

From a walk with Jordan that started at Reader Rock Garden, and migrated into the cemetery so he could explore the views of downtown. In a technical note, there is a faint streak leading upwards from one of the buildings. This was driving me crazy because it's not on the film. It's not on the lens because I swapped cameras and re-did the photo with the newer digital camera, and it doesn't show up. I've carefully looked at the sensor for the T6i, and can't see anything that would produce that line. I gently blew some air in, and tried again. The line moved slightly. I'm suspecting there is a tiny hair somehow suspended in the space above the sensor, perhaps caught in the mirror mechanism. I figure it will eventually take care of itself, and if there's a shot I like enough that I have to get rid of it, and doing so in Lightroom doesn't work well for whatever reason (complicated background, for example), I'll just use the other camera and take another photo.

Experimental

As I start this blog, I have no idea what you'll end up seeing. None whatsoever. You might want to fasten your seatbelts. This could be scary.

1. This image has bubbled up to the top of my not blogged in 3 months folder. I was out doing flower photos at twilight when I realized there was a stiff wind at cloud level, and none on the ground. I got a neutral density filter and started playing with settings to get a composition with something stationary in front of smeared clouds. Not entirely a success. Maybe if I had light painted the tree. Hmmm.

2. An outtake from the selfie session back in June with Michelle. This is what convinced me I needed expert help.

3. A deep crop of an image, wondering if it would make a nice abstract. It didn't.

4. Two related water images, playing with a longer exposure.

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6. If I had had the wit to cover the lens with my hat when I (deliberately) moved the camera while the shutter was open, this actually would have been kinda cool, with the faint images of the trees in front of the lake. Alas, the brighter stars betray what happened.

7. A reflection shot that is kind of boring when right way up, and just weird when inverted, though that works sometimes.

8. I'm not sure what I was thinking when I took this photo, but perhaps a selfie in the drops, or a rainbow pattern. Maybe I was thinking abstract?

And I think that's enough weirdness. Back to the regularly scheduled features.

Of the Day

Driftwood

Flower

And a serendipity from 2016. Who recognizes these feet? Bonus points for the occasion.

Peony

Lily

Landscape

Writing on Stone park.

Green Fools

Clown wedding.

Film

Fitting in with the experimental nature of today's photos, I was watching the kettle boil for coffee, and started thinking about what steam would look like with a slightly long exposure. This is GW690, Ektar 100, f5.6 1/30

Two!

There I was, chugging away on Wordle. I got it in 3 today, in about 5 minutes, which is excellent for me. Linda was just getting started as I headed into the kitchen to make breakfast. I'd barely got the cutlery out of the drawer when there was a triumphant cry of TWO! 

She went from having one letter in the right place to having all of them. And she wonders why all her friends think she knows all, and they all know she has a competitive streak. You should have seen her playing cards with her mom and sisters. What a bloodbath! Good thing I was just watching. And then there's the train game we play with friends. Linda wins most of the time. We live in fear of the "Doot-de-doo!" of triumph, which means she's landed a big contract or has just won. 

That apple didn't fall far from the tree. Her mom played the train game just once, needed help to get started, and she totally kicked our butts. Normally, one person wins, the next person would have won if got to their turn, and most of the rest of the players are within a few turns of winning. Not that time, nobody was even remotely close. 

The heat wave is still happening here. I took the cover off the barbecue yesterday to grill some duck breast for lunch, and the thermometer said 225 F, before I turned it on. Let's just say it didn't take long to warm up to cooking temperature. 

The heat is good for the dahlias, though. Linda over-wintered a bunch of them as an experiment. Then the spring was cold and snowy, so they got planted late. She wasn't even sure they would bloom, but here you are.

There are a few other buds, but we've no idea what will happen. We could have this heat wave till the end of August, then a day later a big snowstorm or cold snap. We had that happen one year, it snowed about a foot during the Labour Day weekend, and never really stopped. One of our neighbours had just finished getting their house siding re-done, with the crew working frantically late into the evening to finish up. They said they'd come back the next day to take away all the scaffolding. Except it snowed, and kept on snowing. Several weeks later they sent a crew with shovels to dig up the yard to get their gear.

Or, we could have a long lovely Calgary fall, with the days being sunny and a nice temperature, and the nights gradually getting cooler, until well into November. In one sense, Linda loves this, since her garden keeps going with a bit of help covering the more vulnerable plants. Except that it makes it hard to know when to draw the line and tuck the garden to bed for the winter.

Summer reading.

Doom, The Politics of Catastrophe by Niall Fergusson

An interesting, if somewhat long read. The idea is that we're getting worse at dealing with catastrophes as our social systems get more complex. By we, he means governments of all stripes, Chinese, American, capitalist, communist, whatever. And even though we can bring to bear impressive computer modelling to bear, we often don't ask the right questions, or believe the results. Cassandra strikes again, and again, and again.

He tries to look at catastrophe response in terms of systems, not just a political leader, or political system. The perspective shift brings new thinking to bear, looking at a wider, more complicated world. And if there was one word to describe our world, it's complicated.

I think the book would have been more focussed if he had dropped the COVID-19 pandemic chapters out. Much of it was written early in the pandemic, when it wasn't remotely clear how the various responses would play out. A similar book written once we got some perspective on it might be really interesting. 

I remain convinced that we're still going to see a wave of excess mortality from all the people who were managing a condition through regular medical care, and had their treatment disrupted by COVID, and in Alberta, the UCP war on the medical system to enrich their buddies through privatization. There are people dying in Canada because the ambulances are tied up waiting for hospitals to accept the patients.  Don't get me started.

Of the Day

Driftwood

But first an evening serendipity from 2017.

Flower

Peony

Lily

Landscape

One of the last examples of "elevator row" still standing.

Green Fools

But first a serendipity. I can't believe this hasn't been blogged, from the 2017 Yukon trip. Can't wait to head back there in a couple weeks. 

The innocent looking start to The Great Chicken War.

Film

But first a double serendipity. A post-frost rose from 2017.

A happy day lily from 2017.

The actual film photo, from Voitier's Flats during a walk with Sean, using the GW690 and Ektar 100. I was pleased to see the rays of light showing up in the trees, and of course, the nice reflection. A tricky exposure, with the bright morning sky, and the deeply shaded river.

The half trip wasn't so bad

For the people wondering how the half trip turned out. The race was at the Rocky Ridge YWCA, which I had never heard of and had no real idea where it was. It turns out to not being in Rocky Ridge at all. The map apps are your friend. I got there and back far quicker than I thought possible, though the intersection of Sarcee and the Trans-Canada still bewilders me. You really have to pay attention there, though the same is true for most of the new ring road. The intersections are not what I'd call intuitive. Paying attention to the signs and which lane you're in is important.

As an aside, my first apartment in Calgary was in Varsity, and I lived for a while in Dalhousie, which is the next neighbourhood over. At the time, Ranchlands, bordered by Nose Hill Drive and John Laurie Drive were the end of the world. Nose Hill park was open to the world at the north end. Now the great Calgary blight continues, endless suburbia spreading in all directions. 

We moved into a house built at what was then the very south west end of Calgary, in Woodbine. To go south was 37th St, at the time a two lane road, with a one lane bride over Fish Creek. It was just a little hairy at night during the winter, and the 90 degree bends at each end of the bridge didn't help. The great blight continued southward as well. Now we are considered just outside the ring of inner city. At least I know several ways through the great blight of Somevergreenwoodnessy. 

During the late 90's, I was on a road trip for work. We were coming back from Whitecourt. Being the junior guy, they made me drive. My colleagues all lived in the NW, and they navigated me, late at night, through streets I'd never heard of, to their homes. I couldn't have recreated the route the next day if you paid me. Arbour Lake, Hamptons, and Hidden Valley all looked exactly the same to me. At least the last one was near an exit onto a road I'd been on, and knew it connected to Deerfoot, and thus to home. 

If you draw an east west line across Calgary about the top of Nose Hill park, and west of Deerfoot, everything in that area is a great mystery to me. While looking up the Rocky Ridge YWCA, I was reminded that there is a Sarcee Trail in the NW. It used to be a short chunk of road between Crowchild and John Laurie, and thus not terribly useful. Now it is, and goes way north, connecting a bunch of neighbourhoods. Just don't get on it thinking it connects to the major roadway called Sarcee Trail in the southwest. That would be a big mistake. There's a number streets in Calgary with the same name that are not connected to each other. I used that as the basis for fake ID in some of my writing.

The race site is on the far end of all that, and along the way I saw all sorts of things for the first time. I was amused by the new Calgary Farmer's market. As you head west, it is extremely prominent on the right. However, it's too late to drive there anymore. All the roads to get at it are behind you, and a U turn doesn't look easy, given all the construction in the area. Once they finish the ring road, this will be much closer to us. It might even be closer than the one on Blackfoot. I'm still rebuilding my maps to include the ring road near us.

So if you want to see lots of race photos, the links are here.  

Now I get to think about the next thing, which I think is the Gobalfest fireworks shows in NE Calgary. Getting there takes some planning. We tried the shuttle bus system the last couple years, and that seems to work well. There have been two pickup locations, downtown and Marlborough Mall. Each have their advantages and disadvantages. I'll have to think about it.

I was out chasing bees the other day. Still getting warmed up.

Summer reading.

Under a White Sky by Elizabeth Kolbert

I'm not sure what I think of this. Yes, there's lots of doom and gloom and species going extinct or rogue. Yes there's some hopeful prospects, like CO2 capture and storage, which is more advanced than I thought it was, to various forms of geo-engineering. 

But there's a line in there somewhere, something like, we have  become gods and we're running out of time to get good at it. I'm pretty sure the context was genetic manipulation. So far our efforts there have unintended side effects.

There's lots of bits looking at all kinds of different areas, but nothing really seems to be holding it all together but the idea that if we don't start doing something dramatic about climate, we're fucked, and the climate will get even more dramatic about doing something to us. Which pretty well everybody but idiots already know.

Of the Day

Driftwood

Flower

Peony

Lily

Landscape

Green Fools

Clown Funeral

Film (GW690 Ektar 100)