Jetty

This was taken in Kingston on Easter Sunday. Kingston is on the north bank of Lake Ontario, just where it narrows to become the St Lawrence. It's a really pleasant little town, dominated by Queen's University, with a lot of character. It was settled in the late 18th and early 19th century by Empire loyalists fleeing the United States.

Winter started late in Ottawa this year, and it went on for far too long. FAAAAAR too long! As you can see, at Easter there was still plenty of ice on Lake Ontario, and fresh snow too. As recently as Monday we had nearly 10cm of snow! But then yesterday the sun came out, and today - just four days after all that snow - it was in the mid 20s and suddenly we're all out in our t-shirts and shorts. The transition from winter to summer is so abrupt here in Canada, it's as if spring doesn't happen at all. It's so long in coming, and such a sudden change, it's no wonder that people go slightly crazy when the good weather finally arrives.

Details: Nikon D70, 18-200mm @ 18mm, f/9, 1/800s, ISO 200. 8 April 2007, Kingston, Ontario. Placemark.

Rest

Sorry for the downtime. In a few days' time this blog will officially be one year old (my first post was made on 7 February 2006, back on my original iWeb-created site). I never thought I'd stick with it for a year, but I have, and it has been fun. I'm not finished with it, either, but I am going to be taking a break for a bit. I hope I'll be back before too long, and that you won't have forgotten me in the meantime. Keep your subscription to my RSS feed and you'll see when I start posting again.

In the meantime, I leave you with this buried park bench in the park just beneath the Citadel in Quebec City. We're off there again in a couple of weeks, I can't wait, and I'm looking forward to coming back with some photos.

Sayonara.

Details: Nikon D70, 18-70mm @ 25mm, f/9, 1/400s, ISO 200. Quebec City, 17 March 2005. Placemark.

Eye

This is a picture of M's nearly-six-year-old eye. I'm really pleased with this. You can see me reflected in her pupil. Not easy keeping a nearly-six-year old still for long enough to focus a 105mm macro lens manually and capture a reasonably sharp shot at 1/50s! If they handed out prizes for eyes, she'd win them all.

Details: Nikon D70, 105mm macro, f/5.6, 1/50s, ISO 800. 27 January 2007.

Icicles

Icicles on Mackenzie King's house at Kingsmere, in the Gatineau Park. Lots of icicles at this time of year, temperatures staying well below freezing all day, but bad insulation means that the snow on the roof melts slowly and refreezes as it drips off the guttering. I don't think I'd ever seen an icicle before I came here.

Details: Nikon D70, 18-70 @ 18mm, f/8, 1/100s, ISO 200. Gatineau Park, Quebec, 17 February 2005.

Snowshoes

Terrific day today up in the hills - bright sunshine, fresh snow, bitterly cold - perfect weather for snowshoeing! I hadn't done it before and I was surprised at how much fun it was. The forest is so bright and airy at this time of the year. Can't wait to get out and do it again!

Details: Nikon D70, 18-200mm @ 32mm, f/13, 1/250s. Gatineau Park, Quebec, 20 January 2007.

Ukrainian

This is St John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Shrine in Ottawa (that's a mouthful). The picture is taken from the Hog's Back lock gates on the Rideau Canal, where it parts company from the Rideau River.

I had no idea there was such a large Ukrainian community in Canada before coming here. Apparently the Dominion government actively encouraged immigration from Ukrainians fleeing religious persecution in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, they couldn't find anyone else to farm the prairies and cope with the winters. I think Ukrainians have heavily influenced the Canadian character. Maybe something to do with the social fabric of the community that saw each other through the hard winters. I don't know. It would be interesting to study.

Details: Nikon D70, 75-240mm @ 190mm, f/8, 1/1000s, ISO 200. Ottawa, 30 January 2005. Placemark.

Eat my shorts

This very cool looking creature was laying eggs on my shorts at La Pêche beach a couple of summers ago. I have no idea what it was - some kind of grasshopper I suppose! - but it had an amazing coppery metallic exoskeleton.

Details: Nikon D70, 105mm macro, f/16, 1/40s, ISO 200, tripod. 4 July 2005, Gatineau Park, Quebec. Placemark.