2011-06-08 BURA meeting, GLB club 11-06-08 BURA AGM. At the Glenridge Lawn-Bowling Club. Have to take pics by available light. Only a few keepers. Hope everyone forgets by the time the next newsletter goes to press that Derek was taking pictures. I hate flash photography, partly because of the deer-in-the-headlights look that it gives people. Partly also because of not having the knack of jollying people into interesting poses. This is probably something I should learn. To counter my tendency towards scenery, still lives and things. The Schutzes at Woodside for dinner after the meeting. The others discuss the olden days at B.U., and I, when I can shoehorn a word in with Herb, the problems of photo management if you have a big collection. He supplies, out of his own resources, most of the pictures he uses to illustrate his books on European history.

D251-015
11-06-08 -

2011-06-14 Around home

D251-047
11-06-14 -

D251-056
11-06-14 - 11-06-15 Wed Bike recon. The Steve Bauer Trail. Start at Pelham Town Square. S. on Station St. Trail proper starts at Station St. and Port Robinson St. A small parking lot. Has pulverised stone surface. S. toward Welland. Trail curves S.E.-ward to S. of Thorold Rd. Continues S. along Prince Charles Dr. on separated path. Last 1km to Welland R. is rougher but passable. We turn back at the bridge. About 15km, return. 11-06-17 Fri Bike recon. The Poison Ivy Trail. Park near Hansler and Holland Rd. A dead-end at 406. N. to 406 tunnel, on to Youngblutt Rd. Loose gravel, coarse crushed stone to Beaverdams Rd. Nearly impassable. Back S. and on to Merrittville Hwy. and across. Again stopped by loose stone. Looks like trail continues to Fonthill. Surface not suitable for skinny-tire roadbikes. Route follows old RR right-of-way. Peculiar undulations in many places. A regular roller-coaster set of waves. 15ft crest to crest. Plenty of birds and plant life in the surrounding fields.

2011-06-18 Biking 11-06-18 Sat. Merle on BTC duty today to help in a marathon run ending at Queenston. D. to living room to brood on the artistic enterprise, specifically the notebook/ sketchbook/ fieldbook issue. He has spend a considerable portion of his artistic brooding time (and computer programming time) plotting methodological improvements in diary and album keeping. These photo albums are the latest iteration of that process. After. we drive to NOTL via Lakeshore Rd to look for strawberries for Diana. Back to the Port Weller beach beside the STP. Breeze, westerly. Good! Biked through Malcolmson Park, the way blocked by fallen tree. Portaged bikes. Then down the Welland Canal trail to Queenston and back More than 15k, without any effort. 28C, cool breeze, still air, but we are moving along at about 15kph. Headwinds in both directions. Odd till you think about it. Like a round trip that goes uphill in both directions. Or, like the distance from Toronto to St. Catharines: close to 200km, A major safari. But the distance from St. Catharines to Toronto is more like 100km, a mere hop, convenient for us to visit you. At least that's the way some people see it. You know who you are. On the Welland Canal W. bank, Port Weller.

D251-063
11-06-18 -

2011-06-19 Around home

D251-071
11-06-19 -

2011-06-19 At the Silvers' Sunday. To the back patio for Fathers' Day. Bubbly lunch, bubbly people, Effervescent weather. Or was it effervescent people and bubbly weather? The big old pine tree leaning over the back of their condo is to be removed at $1000 a pop. Too much shade. Too many squirrels. Too many pine needles in the eavestrough. Following this, south, to Arts Place, Port Colborne, for Linda Hankin's show opening. A small crowd, but much chatter. A red dot on an empty wall space. Sold! I can visualize sawing out a portion of plaster to take home. How to explain the importance of dry-wall art to a sceptical viewer. Anne and Marc-Ivan Audet-Giroux arrive. (Used to think the name was O'Degiroux, of Franco-Irish origin.) We visit them later in the Loch Ness golf complex and housing development near Welland. We're given a tour of the perennial border and the basement ductwork. Anne's sister and her husband arrive. They know Zweibrucken, Germany, where the Richardses were stationed in the 1950s. We natter extensively about the olden days at No.3 Fighter Wing, the R.C.A.F. Base, before departure. I have recently scanned all my colour slides taken when we lived there.

D251-076
11-06-19 -

D251-083
11-06-19 - Definitively Dan

D251-084
11-06-19 -

D251-090
11-06-19 -

D251-093
11-06-19 -

D251-093A
V11-08-18 - Chapeau FX

D251-097
11-06-19 - Birdwatching, Merle?

D251-103
11-06-19 - On the Silvers' fridge

2011-06-19 - Biking trail

2011-06-19 - Linda Hankin at Arts Place

D251-116
11-06-19 -

2011-06-22 Walk, Port Dalhousie 11-06-22 Wed A walk in Port Dalhousie. Our usual pier-to-pier route. Start at the E. pier parking lot. Water seems higher this year, within a foot of the pier surface. Swallow nests under the roof of the outer lighthouse. Back at the hydro dam where Lakeshore Rd crosses the Pond, we decide to try the new footbridge across Martindale Pond instead of continuing to the W. pier. A fresh route. The remains of an old wreck is visible from the bridge. We end up going back to the car via side streets and Ontario St. Pass Kayo R.'s old house on Ziraldo. Wood chips are available on a help-yourself basis at the old Welland Canal entrance in Optimists' Park, off Ontario St. The garden needs more roughage to conter clay constipation.

D251-123
11-06-22 -

D251-129
11-06-22 - Wreck

2011-06-25 Art show, Park, St. Catharines

D251-137
11-06-25 -

2011-06-28 Painting aftermath Tuesday. Interior house-painting done. Two rooms. $300 labour + $130 materials = $430 for kitchen and bedroom ceilings, and some walls. Was supposed to take 3-4 days. Late as usual. 8 days all told, of which 2 were our own put-away and put-back days. The 2 unsightly ceiling spots are history, we hope. And now we have our kitchen, bedroom and dining-room back. Welcome to the Mad Hatter's Tea Party in the dining room where we stored everything from the kitchen shelves. The March Hare is seen in the background. Late as usual, for a very important completion date.

D251-141
11-06-28 - The mad hatter's tea party

2011-06-28 Biking to Arts PLace Thursday. Merle is minding Arts Place Gallery today in Port Colborne. She goes by car. Derek sets off after lunch on his bike. Home to Port Robinson 1:09 hrs:min 16.0 km P.R. to Main St, Welland :26 6.9 M.S.W to Port Colborne, A.P. 1:35 13.1 ==================== Total 3:10 36.0 Past dragon boat training on the way south at the rowing club quarters. Someone beats a drum to pace the paddlers. Recalls the galley scenes in the movie Ben Hur. Beside the docks, hordes of muscular young women wait their turn on the water. Recalls memories of Miriam at the St. Catharines rowing club in Port Dalhousie, and Anna Kazdan's amazement that the girls picked up their own rowing shell with no help from the boys. Past Dain City, depletion symptoms already. Headwinds. Totally exhausted on arrival in Port Colborne. I flop down on the gallery floor to rest. Merle attempts to get me a drink from the variety store across the street. She's stopped by a visitor to the gallery who natters on for 30 minutes about Life, the Universe and Everything. But you never know, he might be a customer.

D251-143
11-06-30 -

D251-147
11-06-30 - At Welland, hot

2011-06-30 - Woodside garden

D251-164
11-06-30 -

2011-07-01 BTC pig roast 11-07-01 Fri. Canada Day. Bruce Trail pig roast. To Warner Rd, Andy Panko's place. Early, so Merle can help set up. Derek, despite the heat, sets off on bike to explore Warner Rd. and tributaries. Visit Warner burying ground and that Georgian house we used to admire in our real-estate-admiring days. It was once said that a dissolute Toronto artist lived there, and held wild parties. Up the escarpment, across the RR tracks (bridge blocked to auto traffic) into the edge of Niagara Falls, then back down the hill again. East on Warner Rd to a riding stable and return to Andy's.

D251-172
11-07-01 - Margaret K.

D251-173
11-07-01 - Andy Panko's place, Warner Rd. 11-07-01 Fri At the Pig Roast. Returned to the Panko place from bike riding, hot, tired and seriously depleted. Sat like that in the shade for most of the afternoon till evening, moving very little. Roused up to take a few pictures, including pig's heads for the grotty file. Margaret K. wearing flag head-dress. Pete K. masterminding a BBQing pig on his own spit. Two more pigs roasting on our host's spits. The crowd gathers. Wine vouchers available. Jazz group from Collegiate playing. Eventually plates of salad and pig meat for all.

D251-179
11-07-01 - Fave house on Warner Rd

D251-190
11-07-01 - High School Musician

D251-194
11-07-01 -

D251-197
11-07-01 - 11-07-01 Friday evening. Home at 8pm after the pig roast. Collapse into bed. Up every half hour all night to pee. Burning sensation, fever. This continues till next day, 6pm, Saturday. Fever 38.7C. Merle drives me to the Dieu, Urgent Care Department. First in line, report symptoms, donate urine sample, taken seriously. After a brief wait, given intravenous anti-biotic. Admitted on the basis of a quick phone call to the General. Pass a bad night, peeing boiling water, pushing IV pole in and out of the bathroom, listening to the machine's irritating clockwork ticking. Two more days and nights like this. Temperature finally down below 37 on the 5th. The doctor visiting in that day, with a cheshire cat smile on her face, says: Rejoice, you had E. Coli not C. Difficile.

D251-205
11-07-01 - Propaganda for the veggie cause

2011-07-05 Home Tuesday. Home from St. Catharines General Hospital. Weak but feeling miraculously better. This is the real Rapture Day. Coming up Hampton from a visit to the mailbox, am struck by how lovely everything seems: a perfect day, heightened colours, objects seem clearer, more vibrant. Un qualite de la lumiere, peut etre. Even the shapes of trees, bushes have an almost surreal beauty. The world looked ugly, even nauseating on my admission to hospital. A place of wonder on my homecoming. Survivor euphoria? Rapture of the discharged? Our Last Supper for Diana, Danny and Merle before their Siamese trip. (I'm staying home.) The food is highly edible. Babette Feastish, even. Another cheery note: am now entertaining a jumping spider on my computer monitor. It attacks the mouse pointer when I move it on the screen. I love jumping spiders.

D251-208
11-07-05 - Antidote to carnivorousness

D251-211
11-07-06 - Jumping spider chasing cursor

D251-214
11-07-07 - Rapture Day

D251-215
11-07-07 - Vacation pictures