a place where nature, photography and writing meet
It’s been quite cold in this area for the past few days, so I haven’t been able to spend as much time outdoors as usual. I’m very much looking forward to some mild temperatures so that I can go out looking for snow surface insects and spiders, a pursuit that can keep me occupied for […]
After an unseasonably mild winter, we’re finally into cold weather. This morning, the temperature was at -24C (about -11F). With the windchill factor, it was supposed to be about -37C (-35F). It was colder during the night. The snow has taken on that dry, granular quality that allows it to quickly sift in to fill […]
No, this photo wasn’t taken this weekend. It was taken during the big ice storm that swept through this region in January ’98. This morning, as I look out the window into the backyard, I see green grass and falling rain. It looks like we’ll have a green Christmas — which is actually fine by […]
This isn’t the post that I had planned for today. After dealing with the messed up blog and database situation this morning, I lost my train of thought and decided to just leave the original post for another day. However, today’s excitement suggested another post on a somewhat related theme of chaos and restoring order. […]
I believe we’re just about due for an update on the Monarch butterflies, so consider this to be it. The past couple of days were probably the peak as far as butterflies eclosing. We had 8 on Sunday, and 7 more yesterday. Most interesting in all of this is that we had more emerging butterflies […]
On Tuesday, my mother stopped by to visit, so we decided to go for a walk along the trails that lead through the back of the farm. The following are a few of the sights observed along the way. (Note: To view larger versions of the photos, just click on the thumbnails – and most […]
This is a story. It happened a long time ago. Our family cottage was built among the dark and brooding coniferous woods along the Ottawa River. We drew our drinking water from a well located up a forest trail. In summer, my younger brother and I had the small task of drawing the occasional bucket […]