Temple's Sugar Camp

So, as I said yesterday, we went to Temple's Sugar Camp with Brannon's family. His cousin Todd, his wife Allison and their son, Charlie, were visiting from the GTA so it was a nice excuse for a trip! I would highly recommend this establishment; the food was nothing short of amazing. They have a lot of variety and have pancakes/waffles/breads made with everything from buttermilk and buckwheat to cornmeal and pumpkin (with lots of choices for sides)! It's also fully licensed for those of you who like a beer with your brunch!! lol
Anyway, I didn't have a lot of time for taking photos as we preferred to visit but here are few nonetheless :)


Lines that the sap runs through.
Charlie *trying* to enjoy his taffy. Unfortunately, it kept dripping on him and eventually led to a bit of a freak-out :)
Sap dripping into a pail :)
I'm not sure what it stored in these, I'd like to think it's syrup :)
The sap POURS into gigantic vats!
Steamy :)

Saturday Stroll

Here are a few more I took yesterday with the macro lens!

I like this first one because you can see a woodpecker hole in the tree behind the (lonely) leaf! They've really done a number on the trees that line the road that goes to my parents' house.
A little bit of bokeh in this one :)
The road has quite a number of log fences and there's always something great to photograph on them, the older the better! Here is a gorgeous blue lichen covered in snow/ice.
The end of a log fence; again I love the blue lichens and green moss!There's no shortage of snow mobiles in the area either. There were six of them racing around the lake all afternoon yesterday.

Back to Autumn

After a couple of days of wedding shots I thought I'd post some more Thanksgiving weekend shots from the lake; oh how I'm going to miss these colours when they're all finished :(

Reflections of Bon Echo

I realize that those of you on facebook have already seen these but I'm posting them anyway :)
On our way back from our hike the water was so calm I was able to shoot some near-perfect reflections.

This one is kind of a fluke. When I took the shot I initially cut off the tops of the trees so the reflection didn't look right; I decided to crop it down to just the reflection and it's not so bad now.

I just wish this one was a bit brighter.

I uploaded this to blogger by accident but the program wouldn't let me delete it. Weird!

The last boat ride

I'm back from a long weekend of relaxation at the lake. I took ~500 photos this weekend and my computer is being a bit uncooperative so here are the first ones I liked enough to post from what I shot on Saturday (Sunday and Monday to come). These were taken on my last boat ride of the season, on the way to and at Lost Lake.
I particularly like this first one because of the strange symmetry these trees have.

There is something about a lonely tree...

No edits at all, it was a perfect day on the lake!

I'm a big fan of the Tragically Hip so when we passed by this boat (it was docked), my dad knew he had no choice but to turn back so I could catch a shot of this witty boat name!This was taken off the dock at my parent's house. No edits here either, it was a weekend of spectacular sunsets!

For Saturday

I love when the sun shines perfectly through a little "hole" in the leaves. It looks edited but all I did was increase the shadows a wee bit...

See-through

This is the work of a pileated woodpecker (the variety that Woody the Woodpecker is!). They feast on insects that live in tree bark; in this case they pecked right through the tree!

My plants

This first photo is of some blooms on my new and *free* tree. The city of Ottawa has a campaign called Trees for Tomorrow where citizens can pre-order a tree to plant on their property. I signed up months ago and finally received my tree late last week. I chose a serviceberry/juneberry tree because it's a relatively small tree and I didn't know where I was going to be living at the time when I ordered it. Regardless, a few days after I got it home (although it's obviously not planted yet since we move in 10 days!!!) it began to bloom. I can't wait to see it next year after it's had a year to grow!

I know you're all interested in how my herbs are coming along...haha.....they were way overdue for transplantation to bigger pots but I gave away all my pots last year (long story) and hadn't found the time to buy more yet so I emptied my cupboards of mugs/little ceramic dishes that I wasn't using and will be using those in the meantime to grow our basil and cilantro. It seemed like overnight the cilantro went from being these long thin plants to having perfectly formed leaves and the colour of them all is gorgeous. I can't wait until they're big enough to eat!

New Growth

I mentioned yesterday that I'd taken a number of photos outside over the weekend. Here is the first installment. The first is new hosta; I can't tell you how much I adore this shade of green!

I loved how the sun shone on this new leaf!

For those that don't know, this is a trillium - Ontario's flower. The white variety which I'll post tomorrow is far more common than this, the red one. They are early spring bloomers and will be essentially gone in a few weeks. They aren't flowers you see everywhere but there are many at the lake where my parents live.

Tomorrow I plan to show some insect shots!!

Finally a new post!

I've been delinquent for the last week with regards to taking photos, let alone posting them. We've got a lot going on and none of it includes photography. Anyway, on my way home today from picking up my free tree from the city (woot! woot!) I noticed a lilac bush that has buds. I can't wait until they're in full bloom!

I'll try to post again a little more regularly!

Mooney's Bay

I spent the day in my office and took a quick stroll through Mooney's Bay park on my way home. People were everywhere, enjoying the sun. I wasn't dressed for the sunny outdoors today so I didn't last long but I did manage to take a few photos. It would have been a perfect opportunity to sneak some people shots but I only had my kit lens with me so I would have had to have been sitting on top of them to get a shot....hence, no people :)

I like this first shot because you can faintly see the rays of the sun over the beach! I couldn't get much closer to the water's edge because just last week the area was flooded so the beach remains quite muddy.

They haven't cleaned all the plant debris off the sand yet...

Trees that are just sprouting leaves...

Flying High

I was out this morning *trying* to capture a bird collecting various debris for her nest.....you'll notice that's not what I'm posting :)
She wouldn't sit still long enough for me to shoot anything useful but just when I was about to give up a plane flew by....

Blowing Snow

I happened to catch some powdery snow falling out of the trees; I didn't think the picture would come out well but it's not too bad...

I'd also like to wish my dad a happy birthday!

Bearing Fruit

It is the end of January and this tree is still bearing fruit (I'm pretty sure it's a crab-apple tree); mushy and over-ripe to be sure but it's still there!
Pardon the angle, I had a really tough time getting close to it as it was hanging on the other side of a deep ditch!

Subject: sky (again)

I'm very much looking forward to getting my camera back.....

In memory

As most of you will realize, I lost my paternal grandfather unexpectedly on Monday in a car accident. We've been quite busy as you might imagine, making plans, etc., but today was actually a pretty good day. I spent the morning searching through what seems like a million photos, starting from when my parents were first married and, in some ways, it was fun to reminisce.

We also had some wild weather today, which I'll get to in a new post, and I found some time to get away and take some pictures. After a visit with my grandmother I decided to take some pictures in memory of my grandfather.

In the above photo is the house in which I grew up and it is directly next to my grandparents' home; my parents moved last year and my aunt lives there now. Seeing those trees always makes me laugh because my grandfather had poor vision and when those trees were first planted (there were 6 then, lining the driveway; now there are 3) my grandfather would continually run over them with his big lawn tractor, some of them many times over. I'll never understand how any of them ever made it, especially to that size, and that they aren't distorted in shape. I was a bit late taking the picture so it was almost too dark to get anything.

My grandfather was a mason. He was long retired but he kept some of his equipment outside at the back of his shed. He was very good at his trade and couldn't drive down a street in my home town without pointing out the houses he'd bricked over the years - which were many.

This is what my grandfather always called "the park". It's at the edge of his property and was once a forested area. Over the years he cleared a lot of it and spent a great deal of time maintaining this area. Apparently he even had a "pet" grouse who would visit him here. I do hope that, in his absence, someone will be able to keep it up the way he did.

Oh, and the tops of the trees are cut off because I only had my zoom lens and I literally couldn't get far enough away to capture their complete height.

He burned wood almost exclusively to heat his house. I found this interesting specimen on the top of his wood pile in "the park".

Lastly, some flowers in one of the many arrangements we've received. I think this is waxflower and it's a flower I had really wanted in my bridal bouquet, however, it was too purple for my pink peonies so omitted it but I think they're gorgeous.