20090429 Ostrich Fern in Saint-Guillaume

20090429 72km bike ride to Saint-Guillaume. There, I spotted these Ostrich Ferns (Matteuccia struthiopteris). Because of our early spring, everything is 2 weeks ahead of time, and so is Ostrich Fern picking. They were well advanced, but I managed to pick a few late growing fiddleheads to eat.

20090427 Bust of Gandhi in Brossard

20090427. At Brossard's library, a brand new bust of Mahatma Gandhi. The ultimate pacifist.
From the city's website: «A BUST OF GANDHI offered to Brossard. On January 30, the members of the Municipal Council,along with several political figures, representatives from the Indian community, and the High Commissioner of India in Ottawa, unveiled a bust in the memory of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. This bust is a gift of the Republic of India to the City of Brossard as a reminder of the fraternity and understanding that tie peoples across borders. A quote inscribed on the sculpture perfectly encapsulates the Mahatma’s philosophy: “You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind.”»

20090427 Google Street Views Car in Montreal

71km bike ride to Côte-des-Neiges cemetary. On my way back I spotted this car and stopped to have a look. Just as I suspected, it's one of those Google Street Views cars that are roaming some of the major cities of Canada these days. Here it is parked on Hotel-de-Ville street just south of Rachel street. The 8 lensed 360 degrees camera mounted above the car is wrapped for now. Some paranoid people have reservations about this Street Views thing but I can't wait to see it come up and running for Canada! Bravo Google! While I was there, another blogger who's website is at http://lebagelblog.wordpress.com/ was there taking pics. Seems he did not post any yet!

20090425 Acadia & New-Brunswick Flags

20090425 in Saint-Hubert's big park, this man on a cool 3 wheeler sported bright Acadia and New-Brunswick flags. The man with a distinct Acadian accent was a retired Air Canada engineer. He repaired airplanes for that company. Repairing his tricycle is an easy pastime for him!

20090425 Osprey in Chambly

70km bike ride, 30 to Candiac and back and then an additional 40 to Chambly with GMG. In Chambly there was quite a lot of people because of the "Déscente des Grenouilles" festival. That's when people get into wet suits and let themselves get carried downriver in the rapids. Only this year the descent was cancelled because the water level was too low. In the fort's park, a birder spied in his birding scope this Osprey and he let and even invited the mass of people there to come and have a look. I took this shot through his scope.

20090424 69km Day: the J. W. Shelley

20090424: 15 cyclists (including myself) waiting to cross the Ste-Catherine lock's draw bridge.



Shipspotting: The J. W. Shelley on the St-Lawrence Seaway going west betweent the St-Lambert and Ste-Catherine locks. 20090424: 69km day.

20090422 Macro Stereoscopic Picture

My first attempt at creating a stereoscopic, i.e. 3D, MACRO picture. I already did some at the regular setting, but this is the first time I tried this at macro. Looks promising. I also want to try at very close macro. This is the skunk cabbage, Symplocarpus foetidus, in SFdL. To see in 3D, look straight at the picture and cross your eyes so that the 2 pics ovelap. It will look as if your are looking at 3 similar pictures. Concentrate on the middle one and it will appear in 3D. Good luck!

1955 8mm Film Photomerger

A photomerger of multiple pics of old 1955 8mm film of my parents. I wanted to use this as backdrop for the menu pages of one of the DVDs I'm creating these days, but it just doesnt work. There is just too much contrast between the white of the perforations of the film and the dark of the film itself. This makes the fonts of the titles and chapters difficult to read. Notice that on most regular DVDs, the fonts are set on more or less uniform backgrounds. This picture can still work as a menu background, but only in a modified version, such as embossed, that render it more uniform.

8mm Films to VHS vs to DVD comparison

About 20 years ago, my father had put his old 8mm movies transfered to VHS tape. I never liked the quality of that. There was this yellow bloom all over the images and they never quite lived up to the quality of what I remembered seeing projected on the screen from the original film reels. Lately, I took the tapes and had them transefered to DVD. The difference in quality is stunning. Have a look for yourself (it's much better than you see here of the computer screen filmed with my camera, not a dedicated digital film recorder by any mesure). What you hear is a recording of a comments track of my mom I overdubbed on the early 8mm to VHS to DVD I made before she passed away. I'm using that as a commentaries track for the DVD but since the VHS ran at a slightly different speed than the new DVD (slightly slower, that's why you see me pause the DVD twice so the VHS catches up to it), it's work to have the audio synch with the DVD image.

20090420 Snow Geese trio in BdF

68 km bike ride. There are some snow geese left in Baie-du-Febvre, but yesterday I saw mostly Canada Geese.

20090419 Baie-du-Febvre, QC: The Two Towers

67 km bike ride. The two observation towers of Baie-du-Febvre, QC, mostly for birders.

20090410 Northern or Loggerhead Shrike?

Peaullel took these pics of a shrike in Baie-du-Febvre, QC, last April 10th. It could be a Loggerhead Shrike, but I have my doubts. It certainly looks like the common Northern Shrike, but I could be wrong. I'll let persons more knowlegeable about this settle this.

20090418 Birders & Snow Geese in Baie-du-Febvre, QC

66 km bike ride. Here's a short video of birders & snow geese in Baie-du-Febvre, QC. Lots of rare birds to see here. People travel from far and wide to come here mainly in spring. I'm filming this with a Canon Powershot A650 IS held in my right hand while pedaling my bicycle and holding the left side of the handlebar with my left hand. Towards the end of this video I appended 3 short clips of the snow geese I shot while on foot. After clicking on the Play button, try clicking on "HQ" for better quality image. Does not always show or work.

Vélo Planifié avec Gmaps-Pedometer.com

Avec comme base Burlington, Vermont:
Une boucle de 96 km autour du Lac Champlain au nord de Burlington: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1034927. Faut déplacer les vélos en auto en premier. J'avais tombé par hasard sur cette carte et m'en inspirant, j'ai créé les suivantes:
Une autre longue rendonnée vers le sud: 45 km allé-retour du quai de Burlington à la marina de Sherburn Point:
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2738163
Quelques plus ou moin courtes rendonnées:
Une boucle de 55 km qui fais le tour de la Mallets Bay: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2738387. C'est l'image ci-dessus.
Vers le nord: 43 km allé-retour de Burlington au Causeway par les rues et routes: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2737844
39 km allé-retour de Burlington au Causeway par le piste cyclable le long de l'ancien chemin de fer: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2737970 (40 km si on fais le tour du parc juste avant le causeway). Semblerais qu'il y a un ponton qui fais traverser les cycliste d'un coté du causeway à l'autre.
Ou 40 km en passant moin le long de la rt 7: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2738206
Vers le sud, une boucle de 81 km avec deux traversiers: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2738357
Et enfin une boucle de 39 km qui fais passer par Plattsburgh: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2739158

Quelques bon vidéos pour Burlington à vélo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivlJSP3gIAA&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30u0C8Sce34

Une pétition qui vaut la peine d'êrre signé:
http://www.petitiononline.com/bikether/petition.html

20090416 Geese in Baie-du-Febvre, Crevier Island in Saint-François-du-Lac

65 km bike ride. My Facebook photo album isHERE.

20090415 Geese in Baie-du-Febvre

64 km bike ride. Snow and Canada Geese in Baie-du-Febvre. Spring pit stop on their way north to their breeding areas in the tundra.
See my Facebook photo album HERE.

20090414 Sisyphus in St-Robert

Saint-Robert's detour again. A neverending repair. Just like that greek legend of Sisyphus. He had to roll up a mountain a large bolder only to see it roll down the mountain again and again. He has to roll it up the mountain for all of enernety. This road has to be patched up daily. Pathetic.

20090410 The Algoisle at Ste-Catherine

Taken last friday at the Ste-Catherine lock of the St-Lawrence Seaway. Draw bridge raised, the Algoisle ship passing.

20090412 Fox & Bonbon Patate

Saw a fox on one of the islands on Montreal's south shore, the Notre-Dame island. This island was part of Expo 67.




A cropped and Photomerged selection of details of pics of the fox I saw on Ile Notre-Dame. With all the marmottes there, it has plenty to feed on!
Bike ride: 63 km.



Gotta make Bonbon Patate au Chocolat (aka chocolate potatoe candy) twice each year at each solstices, i.e. at Christmas and at Easter. This is this Easter's contribution. I already posted the recepie HERE.

20090411 St-Hubert/Longueuil overpass

The pedestrian and bicycle overpass over the highways 116 & 112 connecting St-Hubert to Longueuil. It has a fun spiraled access!

20090410 Burnt reeds in Brossard

Burnt reeds in Brossard city limits near Laprairie. Ashes are good fertilizer. They'll only grow stronger after that! Bike ride: 62 km.

20090409 Parc Robert-Prévost, rue St-Timothée, Montréal

Parc Robert-Prévost, rue St-Timothée, Montréal.

20090408 Winter's Last Hurrah

Got a bit of snow yesterday morning. Winter's last hurrah (more like a discreet cheer), I hope, until december! By noon it was all melted, so not big deal, Exept for the few who lost control of their cars because of slippery conditions. It's legal to remove one's winter tires as of the the 15th of March. I know mine are off. Luckly I did'nt have to go anywhere early today. Not everyone had such luck. Still some accidents happened even if the cars had their winter tires, so one has to be careful in any case.

20090407 Détour à Saint-Robert

For a few months now the main road leading to the highway to and from my home has been the victim of a short but nasty detour. The bridge of Rt 132 at Saint-Robert is being demolished and rebuilt. It's taking months. It should be done by the last day of April but I have my doubts. Meanwhile, the short detour is into a country road that is not meant to handle such heavy traffic. It has to be repaired continuously or else it will turn into a dirt road, and with spring thaw conditions as they are, a very muddy dirt road to boot! Nasty. One goes through it very slowly. Fortunately, it's only about 4 kms. Today was the heaviest repair I've seen yet: a big hole had been dug out, big enough to contain a small car! And now a Ministry of Transport vehicle is in place, I presume to make sure the contractor finishes without or with the least amount of delay! I think everyone is pissed by this. They should have started this last fall and be done with it before spring while the roads are still frozen.

Got this newsbit in french from the web from local radio sation CJSO-FM 101,7's web site HERE.
Saint-Robert...Dur dur pour les voitures
Saint-Robert, (cjso) 31 Mars 2009 - Pas facile pour les automobilistes qui empruntent la route 132 et qui sont obligés d’utiliser une voie de contournement à cause de la reconstruction du pont qui enjambe la petite rivière Bellevue, à Saint-Robert. En fait, ce n’est pas tant le détour qui irrite les automobilistes mais bien l’état lamentable de la route.Le dégel printanier et les véhicules lourds, qui ne devraient pas passer sur cette route, donnent du fil à retordre au ministère des Transports. Les nids de poules, qui ne se comptent plus, et les morceaux d’asphalte obligent les conducteurs à faire du slalom pour ne pas briser leur voiture. Les réparations effectuées par le ministère des Transports ne tiennent pas le coup. Les solutions demeurent la prudence et la patience…Pas données à tous les automobilistes.Bonne nouvelle malgré tout; on nous assure au ministère des Transports que les travaux de reconstruction du pont vont bon train et que l’échéancier est respecté.Rappelons que la reconstruction du pont, connu sous le nom de pont Champagne, était rendu nécessaire puisqu’il n’était plus sécuritaire et qu’il faisait l’objet d’une limitation de poids pour les véhicules en surcharge.

Finally, it says construction of the new bridge is on schedule. Remains to be seen.

20090406 New Dental Crowns

Got new dental crowns made. Cost a bundle but I needed these molars repared to have any that I could use to chew with. My dentist does the crowns in the clinic while I wait.

20090405 Imagine John & Yoko in Montréal

Went to the Monteal Museum of Fine Arts to see the new exhibit. Called Imagine, it's mainly about John Lennon & Yoko Ono's famous Bed-In that took place at Monteal's Queen Elizabeth Hotel in May 1969. Admission was Free !!!!
One VERY enjoyable aspect of this exhibit was that taking pictures was not prohibited. WOW!!! How VERY unusual for a museum. But whe I saw people taking pics, even flash pics, and the guards did not intervene, I understood and started doing the same! No holding back! This is the first weekend of the exhibit so there were many people there. I may go back to make a better photographic inventory of the exibit at a later date when there will be less people about.
The exhibit was very entertaining. Thanks Yoko! (Just refrain from singing please)
See my Facebook photo album HERE.

20090404 Vista BSOD

Got this a Blue Screen Of Death on my laptop's Vista OS. Sucks.

20090403 First Bloomings

Saw my first flowering plants in bloom today. Some crocuses and as shown above some skunk cabbages. See more HERE.

20090328&0402 Rhus radicans

I'm posting this for comparison: taken two weeks apart, Side by side comparison. 18th of march on the left and 2nd of april on the right.
Notice that not only most of the snow has melted away but that the poison ivy seeds have fallen to the ground. Surely not a coincidence: they fall just as the ground water is melting making the soil acceptable for the seeds to germinate. They stayed on the plant the whole winter just for the spring thaw. Bike ride: 61 km.

20080402 One Year Ago Today

The cycle of the seasons stay the same, but are different a bit also. Last year at this day there was still thick snow to do some cross-country skiing. Today, no way! It's practically all melted away already mostly because we did'nt get much this winter compared to last winter's record breaking quantities. Last year's april fool's day pics are HERE.

20090331 Snow Geese in BdF

60 km on my bike today. Cloudy and cool weather but not too cold. Saw some Snow geese in Baie-du-Febvre but not as many as could be in the days ahead.