Affection

Patty kisses my favourite horse, Zelda. She is two years old today. She has an leg injury that is now healing quite nicely.

Joe and I visited with Patty, Randy and Kylee. Kylee is turning 6 on April 3rd and we had a small party for her.

We checked out the horse stalls and the paddock and there is at least two horses that may be pregnant. The farm is growing.

A Coincidence

Today I was going through the old photo albums and came across pictures from my parents 30th wedding anniversary. As it turns out, my mom died on this day 16 years ago.

The photo shows my mother, Audrey and my father, Armand.

A balmy day

Hello everyone:

I am at home today because of an illness. Without going into details, I have had some discomfort for quite a few weeks.

The day is balmy. It is about 11 degrees and expected to go to 16. There is some rain in the forecast and windy.

We will be having my brother Randy and Patty for dinner tomorrow. They will get the first family members to see the new reno project.

NDP Poster

Strike Deadline

Tomorrow at 12:01 a.m. we will either be on strike or have a tentative agreement. I am hoping for the later.

I have moved my bed and stuff back into my room. Peter finished it off but still has some other items to attend to before Joe moves back upstairs.

Joe made a wonderful vegetable and lentil soup for lunch. Yumm.

Again, we have been having trouble with our internet network server. It was working all morning and then it stopped. I thought that I would log off and then log back in but that didn't work. Sheesh. I contacted the technical staff and they must have reset it and am now back in business.

Springlike

Today was even nicer that yesterday. Lots of sunshine and fresh air.

I took on a couple more tasks today getting things ready for spring. I did some more lawn clean-up and trimmed some trees. I should say that Joe trimmed some tree. He wanted me to know that it is just as easy with a pruning saw and put my chainsaw to rest. I managed to get the chain saw started but never used it.

I'd like to show you some pictures from today:

The Door

The door has been installed in the front where the closets were before. The door is much larger than the original and had a row of bricks removed at the top to accommodate the door. Since we also installed glass blocks, they also reflect and enhance the bedrooms and the hall.

On another note; I visited a longtime friend from my early days of the gay publication: 'Out.' It seems that my friend is quite sick with cancer and is not expected to live much longer. I can only hope that he lives his life with little discomfort and that he and his partner have many happy days together.

The day is quite nice although cloudy but I managed to pick up some of the branches and spruce cones that have fallen from wind storms.

Tomorrow, Joe's brother and sister-in-law visit and we will get hair cuts as usual and play some cards.

The finished pine planks

The floor are now finished. We're just waiting for them to dry.

They turned out beautiful. They have a nice warm glow and are in good shape.

When the house was built, 140 years ago, they likely would never have finished the floors but instead put an oil cloth in the middle of the room and painted the outside perimeter. This is the reason that they are in such good shape.

The floor people took 2 days to sand and seal the floors and then today they put on 2 coats of satin finish.

They are definitely worth the time and effort and expense.

Reno 2009

Another renovation project is underway. This time it's the second story of our home in the country.

There used to be two closets in front of a door in the hall. They were ripped out and the hall has now been expanded. A closet will be built into the bedroom. The picture shows the door to a small outside open deck.

In addition to redoing the floors (wide clear pine), we will re-plaster the ceilings and the interior walls.

We decided to go ahead with this project because of low interest rates and that our favourite contractor is still in business.

I'll be posted more photos as the project progresses.

Old scans

As a winter project, I have decided to go into some of the old photo albums and scan some early pictures of family and friends. Here is the first of what I hope is a series.

Calgary 1977

Joe and I travelled together for the first time in 1977. We lived in Calgary for about 8 months. This picture was taken along the Bow River.

I'm taking on the task of scanning most of my old photographs. It's winter and should be a good time to do it.

From Wayne's Blog

The sheds

Two sheds on our property are in the middle of demolition. They served their purpose of a potting shed and greenhouse but the greenhouse was falling down and I moved everything that was in the potting room to the barn. Both buildings were used prior to my arrival as bedding for the horses and one of the sheds was a stable for one horse.

We are not sure what we will do with the added space but will likely increase the parking area.

The shed on the right was originally used as a horse stall.

Long Point

A beautiful day in Long Point. For October 10, this day was exceptional. We spent about 4 hours walking the beach and enjoying the gentle breezes of Lake Erie. Joe and I both got touch-up to our tans.

Sunday Haircuts

Today we are visited by John and Cecile, Joe's brother and sister-in-law. We generally have dips and then lunch and then we get our hair cut. After, that we have a good card game (wild card rummy) and then more treats and food and goodies.
I have had a great weekend and even thought this is a soggy one, I managed to go outside and sit on the porch and just watch the day go by. Originally they called for 200 mm of rain to fall yesterday and today, but I don't think that we will get those amounts. This would be an amount equal to about 3 months of rain. The rain we get today is the left over from Hurricane Ike.

Long Point

We were going to go to Long Point today but the weather was uncooperative. It was neither warm or sunny enough.
I wanted to show the beautiful beach at Long Point and the fact that it is so close to our home. The picture shows Joe in the lake with his sandals on the beach.

Off to the beach

We are going to Long Point for only the 2nd time this year. This is unusual. We generally go at least 10 times a year. The day is excellent, the temperature will reach 28 and lots of sunshine.

Montreal, August 2008

In July, Joe, Paul, Jim, and I went to visit Montreal. We visited with Jim's sister and she lived in an area called NDG. Next to this community is another one called Hampstead. The picture on the left is one of the houses is this upscale neighbourhood. We took in the usual treats like corned beef sandwich at Swartz's and sat in the park at Carré St-Louis. Took in Divers/Cite and hung out in the gay village.

The Adventure

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here is a link to them all.

http://picasaweb.google.com/wybell

We've arrived

We are now in Budapest and enjoying some very nice weather. We travel to Kisiroszi and weather promises to stay very warm.

The next adventure takes us to Prague and back to Budapest and then to Romania. I'll be posting some very good pictures when I return.

You would hardly think

You would hardly think looking at the weather here that the temperatures in Cyprus are in the mid-twenties. But it's true. Check this out.

There are signs of spring here in Canada and in our yard.

The trip begins

We are about to depart on a very adventurous journey. Within a few weeks will see places that we never saw before. Like, Cyprus, Larnaca, Famagusta, Kyrenia and Nicosia, Prague, Budapest, Sibiu, Cluj and Timisoara.

The days will be filled with sun and relaxation in Cyprus and lots of sight-seeing in Hungary, Prague and Romania.

Stay tuned as we conquer yet another adventure in Europe.

It's coming soon

Well, it's coming soon. Joe and I are going to Europe once again. We have lots planned and lots to do. First up, Cyprus. Six solid days in Cyprus with lots to see it both the Greek side and Turkish side. First, 2 nights in Larnaca.

I plan on taking my computer and I will likely post on a regular basis.

Stay tuned, lots to come.

Moonlight over the field

A few days ago I took a picture of the full moon just before the eclipse. The results are here. The film speed was set to 800 asa and the exposure is for 2 seconds.

Snow

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. And that is just what it did.

Yesterday we got quite a dumping of snow, about 20cm. I have been taking pictures at slow shutter speeds with some interesting results. Here are two that I took last night.

Our laneway.

The carriage house.

Experimenting with low light

Anything is possible with low light, a camera and a tripod.

Recently I took a picture at 4 seconds and put myself into the picture for half of the time. Here is the results.

We're doing it again

We are off to Europe for our 6th visit. This time we plan on visiting Cyprus for a week and Hungary for a week and Prague in the Czech Republic for a weekend. We haven't finalized all of the details but we definitely are going.

If there is any time left over, which I doubt, we also have plans to go to Romania once again and likely visit Cluj.
Stay tuned!

Another from yesterday

There was one other photo that is worth posting here. It takes in most of the garden, fencing from the corral and the farmer's field.

A magical day

Yesterday was one of the days that made me think I was in a magical world. It started out as being a foggy day but when the temperature dropped and began to freeze, it turned beautiful. I was at work and in wonder but called Joe to take some pictures and boy, did he take pictures. Eighty-two in all but I only saved 61. Here are a couple that I found fascinating. They were all taken in our yard near Washington, Ontario.

My computer

I recently bought a new computer for traveling. It will allow me to download pictures from my trips abroad and store them on the computer.

Lately, I have been using the high speed wireless connection at the Plattsville library. Nice.

I have really got into using Google Earth. Something that I was unable to use using a dial-up connection. I've been able to see some of the places that I have visited in the past and some that I hope to visit in the future.

One more feature

The Canon G-7 also has the ability to switch colours. It involves assigning one colour and switching it with another chosen colour.

In this post I give you an example of one of our perennial gardens and the colour switched was: Orange replacing a variation of green.

Another colour accent

Earlier this year I told you of my new Canon G-7 Camera and it's ability to accent one colour in a scene.

I have been experimenting with this feature and have a better picture that I want to show.

It is a picture of the winter wheat late in the summer season. The colour that I highlighted was the orange glow of the field.

Our little kitty

About 5 years ago, a stray cat adopted Joe and I. She is a strange cat. She loves Joe and I to death but doesn't what to be bothered by others.

She is so at home with us that she often shows her tummy. Something that most cats do not do.

The other night, we had a fire lit in the wood stove and she just loves the heat from that. She often goes halfway up the stairs were the hot air is rising and basks in the heat.

Here is a picture in that position on the stairs.

The Boy's Weekend

Warren, Greg and Randy in front of the log cottage.

One of the fancy hotels in Bayfield.

For the first time on one of our bi-yearly trips, we decided to go to Bayfield. A pretty little town on Lake Huron.

In addition to our usual past-times we also took in the village and enjoyed the shops and the shoreline. Lake shore property is sure getting expensive.

My brother Greg, took up his movie camera and we took pictures of the band playing. The band is made up of brothers, Greg, Warren, Armand and Randy and friend of the family, John. While taking some camera shots and angles from the floor, I lost my footing and fell backward. That should make for even more artistic shots.

Joe and I go back to Montreal

Joe and I visited Montreal again this year. We took in Divers/Cité in the gay village. We saw Lila Downs (we own most of her CD's). There were 3 stages, each with a different theme. We took in the Festival Latino and the drag show called Mascara. After the shows each night, before midnight, everyone seemed to go to the gay village. Rue Ste-Catherine was closed to traffic but there were so many people that it was almost impossible to walk.

Catch up time

I have a lot to catch up on. Since June, we had many visitors and we saw lots of places.
Julia visited from Budapest, Hungary. We went to Toronto for the Pride Parade, Montreal, Stratford (Stratford Festival), Long Point and took two trips to Woodstock.

The trip to Montreal was most memorable. In addition to the regular stops the city was busting with excitement and entertainment. We visited the botanical gardens as well as the Gay Village. We went to the top of Mount Royal and visited the shops and restaurants of old Montreal.

Since a picture is worth a 1000 words here a few pictures.

Pride Parade in Toronto.

Julia with a young weasel in our back yard.

Joe, a drag queen and Julia, in front of Mado in the Village in Montreal.

Julia and me in old Montreal.

Randy and Patty's Day

Today is the wedding day for Randy and Patty. They have asked me to be their official photographer. I am always reluctant to do such things because it means so much to them and me. I am always afraid they may not like my work.

Pictured: Gale, Walter, Patty, Randy and Kylie.

Yesterday, Frank from Reno, visited and we are having some good times together. We watched a movie that is a bit of cult film from 1969 called Easy Rider. It was actually my first time to view it. I liked it. Great backgrounds of the south and mid-west America.