20091030 Winter car port structure

20091030. Time put up the car's winter sheltering port with a little help from a friend. First, the skeleton. Next week the canvas.

20091029 Red Fox on Notre-Dame island, Montreal

20091029. Saw a red fox again on Notre-Dame island. It was roaming here and there along the bike path and over the canal's bridges near to the old Expo 67 Jamaica pavillion, close to the Quebec and France pavillions (those are today the Montreal Casino). Totally unafraid of people. Looking for handouts, it actually approached me and a couple there taking a walk. The man threw it some cookies that the fox ate like a dog would. So it was relatively easy to take some good shots of it. This is the best one, zoomed in at max zoom, slightly cropped and resized by Facebook. If I had something to attract it, I would have done even better. There are plenty of pics of foxes with a nature background out there on the web already. By better, I imagine a pic with background showing context, such as the bike path, my bicycle, or something of what's left of Expo 67.

20091028 Cross at La Commune in Baie-du-Febvre.

20091028. A simple cross in a field at La Commune in the town of Baie-du-Febvre.

20051028 Trashed Kodak carousels

20051028. Flashback to four years ago. Kodak slide caroulels in the recycle bin in Longueuil. Sign of the digital times. Things change.

20091021 Three stenciled squirrels along the Chambly channel.

20091021. Three stenciled squirrels on a pillar of the rt 112 over the Chambly channel.

20091025 Crepidium mieczyslawii as Crepdidium miczyslawi

20091025. Went to an orchid show called the Ochidfête. It's organised by the Eastern Canada Orchid Society, a south shore of Montreal based group. They only have about 100 members and that shows by the size of the ...exhibit, contained in only 2 small rooms. A much smaller exhibit than the yearly orchid show I saw at the De Maisonneuve college last spring, the Montreal Orchidexpo.
Here's a sample of what I saw. It was on the table of the exhibitor called J & L Orchids. We've all seen the flamboyant orchids of wedding bouquets, but what I'm looking out for are the tiny ones. This one caught my attention. It looked like something related to Liparis. It's called here Crepdidium miczyslawi. But I wonder about that. Nether the genus name nor the specie name show up on Google. I get zero hits. Nada. None at all... Nothing... and that usually means that the the genus and/or specie names are spelled wrong. Usually Google suggests spelling corrections but in this case nothing. So it must be spelled terribly wrong! Well, not that wrong after all. I've checked in my favorite reference book on genus names, the Dalla Torr & Harms, and I found a similar name, the Crepidium, placed under Microstylis, a genus related to Liparis just as I thought. Looking up images of Crepidium on Google brings up pics of a plant very similar to the one here. So that must be it! Now, the specie name got me zero hits on Google, but they did suggest me an alternate spelling, but one that was useless to me. So looking up on IPNI, I found a similar name: Crepidium mieczyslawii. So that's it also! Two for two! This specie name gets me only five hits on Google! No wonder I had trouble finding it's proper name! Funny thing about Google: it does not show the IPNI page about this plant, not even in Google Scholar.
See the rest of the pics of the Orchidfête that I kept HERE and HERE.
Exhibitors and species shown are: Paphanatics Unlimited|||||| Cloud Orchids||| Aerangis rhodostica v. luteo-alba|||||| Habenaria myriotricha||||||||| Exotic Orchids Plus||| Oncidium ornithorynchum 'Orchidexpert X Donald'|||||| Schoenorchis fragrans||| Le Paradis des Orchidées||||||||| Phalaenopsis chingrey's goldstaff 'Orchis'||| Phalaenopsis Sogo Manager X Taisuco glory||||||||| Oncidium Twinkle 'Red Fantasy'||| Tropical Gardens Orchids||| Phalaenopsis tetraspis||| Asconopsis Jai Ho's Orange||| Neofinetia falcata 'Kinloukaku'||| Neofinetia falcata 'Seiryujishi'||| Neofinetia falcata 'Isetyabo'||| Tolumnia Spicy Pink||| Doritis pulcherrima 'Bedford Blue Ribbon'||||||||| Panarica prismatocarpa|||||| Les Orchidées MFC||| DiCiommo Orchids||| Encyclia cochleata||| Oncidium Jiuhbao Gold 'Taiwan'||||||||| Ecuagenera||| An-Li & Roger Sheng||| Orchid Inn||| Paphiopedilum hybride primaire Juxius|||||||||||| Paphiopedilum hybride primaire Johanna Burkhardt||| ||||||||| Ottawa Orchid Society||| Hamilton Greenhouse||| Green Poppies||| Les Orchidophiles de Québec||| Jardin Botanique de Montréal||| Dendrochilum filiforme|||||||||||| Trichoceros antennifer|||||| Ceratostylis retisquama|||||| Catasetum incurvum|||Mormodes rolfeanum||| |||||||||||| X Cycnodes Wine Delight 'J.E.M.' |||||||||||||||||| Bulbophyllum gracillimum|||||| Laelia splendida|||||||||||||||||| x Ascocenda Suksamran Sunlight 'Orange Crush'|||||| Lycaste cruenta|||||| Encyclia diota ssp. atrorubens||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Eastern Canada Orchid Society||| Radio Shack Optimus screen protector||||||||| Restrepia cuprea||| Ascocenda Suks anran 'Sunlight'|||||| Bedford Orchids||| Robert Flynn Designer||| J & L Orchids||| Angraecum didieri||| Masdevallia andreettana||| Pleurothallis mystax||||||||| Masdevallia exquisita||| Crepidium mieczyslawi as Crepdidium miczyslawi|||||||||||| Isochilus major 'Fox Den'|||||| Dracuvallia Blue Boy 'Cow Hollow'|||||| Fleurifik||| Plant Exotica|||||| Catasetum fimbriatum 'Golden Horizon'||||||||| ||| Catasetum socco||| Cycnoches barthiorum 'Jumbo Orchid'|||||| Brassocattleya Chief Pink 'Diana'|||||| Grammatocymbidium Lovely Melody|||||||||||| Anne Herbatuk Ikenobo||| Marsh Hollow Orchids||| Habenaria rhodochila|||||| Stelis eublepharis 'Conni's Star'|||||| Scaphosepalum gibberosum 'Marsh Hollow'||||||||||||||||||||| Dendrobium cuthbertsonii||| Wilsonara Firecracker 'Redstar'||||||||| Paphinia herrarae 'Marsh Hollow'|||||||||||||||||| Les Orchidophiles de Montréal||||||||| Stenoglottis fimbriata 'Drayton'||||||||| Dendrobium Pompadour|||||| Colmanara Wildcat||| Calanthe Grouville|||||| Aerangis hyaloïdes||||||||| Paphiopedilum Toni Semple|||||||||||| Dendrobium rigidum||||||||| Dendrobium cobbianum|||||| Dendrobium magnum||||||||| Dendrobium tenuibulbon||||||||| Dendrobium cootesii||||||||||||||| Bulbophyllum purpureorachis||||||||||||||||||||| Peristeria pendula|||||| Robiquetia merillii||| Orchids in Our Tropics||| Dendrobium lawesii||||||||| Stelis argentata|||||| Darwinia Charm 'Blue Star'|||||| Southern Ontario Orchid Society||||||||||||||| Laeliocattleya C.G. Roebling 'Royal Purple'|||||| Lepanthes telipogoniflora|||||||||||||||||| Platystele umbellata||||||||||||||| Lockhartia oerstedii||||||||| Adaglossum Summit 'Frenchtown'

20071024 Mailbox/bicycle in Nicolet

20071024. Two years ago today. Here's an original concept: a mailbox on a bicycle. After the mailman passes, use it to carry stuff! Pic taken in Nicolet along the Rang Saint-Alexis.

20091023 Sun, clouds, airplane and wires over Notre-Dame island

20091023. Sun, clouds, airplane and wires over Notre-Dame island.

20091022 First snowfall in Brossard

20091022. First snowfall in Brossard.

20091021 Montérégiade II fermée 1001 au 0531

20091021. Along a 100km bike ride to Mont-Saint-Grégoire, I saw this bike path sign that says "FERMÉE DU 1er OCT. AU 31 MAI", i.e. "closed from October 1st to May 31st", on the segment from Richelieu to Mt-St-Grégoire. That is totally ridiculous. We can cycle well into late October and even right into early December in some good years in fall and from March in spring without getting your tires in the snow. That early in spring there would still be snow along the bike path, but not on the road pavement, but there still is some meltwater there. I did once cycle during a warm spell on a February day about 10-15 years ago in St-Placide, but that's unusual.

20091020 Monument about the 12 November 1955, Nicolet

20091020. Monument about the big landslide that happened in Nicolet 12 November 1955 that killed 3 persons.

The plaque below says:
ICI
LE 12 NOVEMBRE 1955
UN ÉBOULIS
FIT TROIS VICTIMES
ET DÉTRUISIT
L'ÉVÊCHÉ, L'ACADÉMIE
ET
QUATRE RÉSIDENCES

SOCIÉTÉ ST-JEAN-BTE.
DE NICOLET.

Translation (none of the automatic translators are accurate):
Here November 12th 1955, a landslide took three lives and destroyed the Bishopric, the Academy and four residences.
St-Jean-Baptiste Society of Nicolet.

20091019 Conférence Vélo Qubéc: Jean-François Bédard: Cuba

20091018 Gilbert Boyer 1991- La Montagne Des Jours, Mont-Royal

To make a special happening today, we did this circuit of the five mable carved plates scattered around the Mont-Royal mountain park in Montreal. The artwork, called La Montagne Des Jours (the mountain of days), was done in 1991.
The texts on each discs are:

at l'Abri:
G. BOYER 1991
APPUYÉES À UN ARBRE
leaning against a tree
DES TACHES DE LUMIÈRE
stains of light
LE VENT DANS LES FEUILLES
the wind in the leaves
OUI MOI AUSSI ÇA FAIT LONGTEMPS QUE JE NE SUIS PAS RETOURNÉ... BIENTÔT... TU AURAIS DÛ M'AMENER ICI AVANT
yes me too it's bee a long time since i came back... soon... you should have brought me here sooner
DES FOIS JE FERME LES YEUX, J'IMAGINE QUE JE SUIS LÀ-BAS. TU SOURIS. TU SAIS ÇA ME MANQUE BEAUCOUP.
sometimes i close my eyes, i imagine i'm over there. you smile. you know it misses me a lot
TU VA M'ÉCRIRE SOUVENT? À TOUS LES JOURS!
you'll write me often? every day!

at Le sommet:
G. BOYER 1991
VOLER AU-DESSUS DE LA MONTAGNE JUSQU'À S'ENDORMIR LOIN LOIN LOIN
flying above the mountain till i sleep far far far
C'EST BEAU NON? QUAND JE VEUX LIRE LES DERNIÈRES PAGES D'UN BON LIVRE JE M'INSTALLE ICI
it's beautiful no? when i want to read the last pages of a good book i do it here
DE TEMPS EN TEMPS, JE LÈVE LES YEUX. IL Y A LE PAYSAGE COMME ÇA. JE FAIS DURER LE PLAISIR
from time to time, i raise my eyes. there are landscapes like that. i make the pleasure last.
ÉCOUTE... FAUDRAIT Y ALLER. C'EST À LA VEILLE DE TOMBER
listen... we've got to go. it's going to rain soon
ON VA PASSER PAR LE CHEMIN DE LA DAME. JE VAIS TE MONTRER QUELQUE CHOSE
we're going to pass by the lady's road. i'll show you something
TONNERRE
thunder

at L'escalier sous l'observatoire:
G. BOYER 1991
UNE PLUIE FINE
a fine misty rain
LE ROCHER
the rock
TOUTE LA VIE
all the life
ODEURS
odors
AH! UNE PERCÉE DE SOLEIL. JE TE L'AVAIS DIT. NON? ON FAIT LE GRAND TOUR
ah! the sun breaks through the clouds. i told you. no? we do the big tour
MOI, J'AIME TOUJOURS ÇA VENIR SUR LA MONTAGNE. ÇA ME FAIT DU BIEN
me, i always like to come to the mountain. does me some good
PAS LOIN D'ICI. CHARLES ET MOI. ON S'ÉTAIT CHICANÉ
not far from here. charles and me. we had a row
JE NE ME RAPPELLE MÊME PLUS POURQUOI
i don't remember even why

at La côte placide:
G. BOYER 1991
TU ES AU COURANT DE CES HISTOIRES QU'IL RACONTE TOUT LE TEMPS À TOUT LE MONDE, ET BIEN... AVANT PROMET DE NE RIEN DIRE À PERSONNE. C'EST UN SECRET.
you know the stories they tell all the time to everyone, well... first promise me to tell no one. it's a secret
DIMANCHE LUNDI MARDI MERCREDI JEUDI VENDREDI SAMEDI
sunday monday tuesday wednesday thursday friday saturday
ÇA VA, ON A AU MOINS UN QUART D'HEURE AVANT QU'IL ARRIVE. IL VA NOUS REJOINDRE AU VIEUX PEUPLIER
it's ok, we've got at least 15 minutes before they arrive. he'll meet us at the old poplar
DEUX TROIS ÉTOILES UNE BOULE DE BRUME AUTOUR DE LA LUNE
two three stars, a ball of fog around the moon


at Le lac aux Castors:
G. BOYER 1991
VEUX-TU ALLER TE BALANCER? LE PREMIER ARRIVÉ
do you want to go on the swing? the first there
MOI JE PEUX MONTER PLUS HAUT QUE LE CIEL
me, i want to climb higher than the sky
UN PETIT GARÇON A RETROUVÉ SA MAMAN, ELLE A UN CHANDAIL BLANC
a little boy found his mother, she's got a white sweater
HÉ! T'AS UNE COCCINELLE SUR L'ÉPAULE
hey! you've got a ladybug on your sholder
NON, ENLÈVE LA PAS, ÇA PORTE CHANCE
no, don't remove it, it brings good luck
DES POISSONS ROUGES! IL Y EN A PLEIN!
red fishes! there are lots!
MAIS , L'HIVER OÙ ILS VONT?
but in the winter, where do they go?
AEIOUY
aeiouy

See my Facebook picture album of all five discs of this circuit HERE.

20091917 Aconitum napellus in Brossard

20091917. Aconitum napellus on Brebeuf street in Brossard. I liked the simple disposition with the cedar post fence

20091016 Sugar maple in Montreal

20091016. Sugar maple in fall foliage color. Deep red with some orange in it. Actually, I used the "Foliage" setting on my camera to saturate the colors and so give it an even deeper red coloring. Makes for a more striking picture. Pic taken on Notre-Dame island.

Google Street Views @ Googleplex, Mountain View, CA

An interesting series of images from Google Street Views is the once-around-the-block of Google's complex of buildings in Mountain View, California. Seems all the employees were asked to go out and be as crazy as nerds can be! Check out also the satellite image of the roof of the buildings. They are all covered in solar panels! See it HERE.

20091014: First Frost in Brossard

20091014: First Frost in Brossard. Actually, last Saturday the 10th at about 11 PM, we saw a bit of frost in Vaudreuil-Dorion on the car, but the temp warmed up during the night, so that doesn't count as much.

Google Street Views, 74 Côte De la Montagne, Québec, QC

A group of people, mostly children, actually waving at the Google Street Views Cameras! Picture taken at 74 Côte De la Montagne in Québec City. This is also a good example of the blurring of the faces. We can see that on this image and on the adjacent ones that not all the faces are blurred. I have no qualms with that. I'm sure that some people, myself included, would love to see their face on a GSV picture!
See it HERE.

20091012 Larix laricina in SFdL

20091012. Larix laricina planted in my back yard in Saint-François-du-Lac. Turns a brght yellow in fall.

20091011 Coprinus comatus à SFdL

20091011. Coprinus comatus in Saint-François-du-Lac. A very good edible mushroom commonly seen in lawns in fall.

20091010 Google Street Views, Canada

20091010. Google Street Views in at last on-line in Canada! Yay!!! I just LOVE this app. Not all the streets in Canada are visible just yet, far from it, but you can see most of Montreal and it's suburbs, same for Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary and Vancouver. Some of Quebec City is visible also. This image is in Old Montreal right beside City Hall.

20091009 Guy Laliberté in Space

20091009. The Cirque Du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté is in space! He's Canada's first private citizen to go in there. He payed $35 million of his own money for that one week trip. I say go for it if you can! Tonight he put on a unique TV show from space to promote his One Drop foundation.
The show, called Poetic Social Mission, featured the likes of Peter Gabriel, U2, Al Gore, David Suzuki, Shakira, Gilberto Gil, Bindi Irwin, Salma Hayek, Lila Downs, Jean Lemire, Matthew McConaughey, Joss Stone, etc, and I'm dropping only some of the people I know here! A poem by Yann Martel was read by some of the people cited here, some others performed songs. The show was broadcast from around the world. We loved it!

20091008 Feuillage d'automne et roc

20091008. Fall foliage is at their best now in the Laurentians. This is along the Petit Train du Nord bike path, between Saint-Adèle and Val-Morin. Pic taken while on a 46km bike ride between Piedmont and Val-David.

20091007 Piedmont mushroom semi-circle

. Mushroom semi-circle as seen overhead two floors up zoomed in. Growing in the lawn at Loftboutique phase 3 in Piedmont.

20091006 Laccaria laccata à Labelle

20091006. Laccaria laccata along the Petit Train du Nord bike path in the Laurentians in Labelle. Edible. We picked some.

20091005 Bolets à Morin-Heights

20091005. Bolets à Morin-Heights.

20091004 Geastrum saccatum à Saint-Sauveur-des-Monts

20091004 in front of 38 Av Filion in Saint-Sauveur-des-Monts. Under spruce on a lawn. I believe this is the first time I see such a mushroom. Called Earthstars (Étoiles de terre), they are simply puffballs wrapped in a casing that opens up along slits. This action raises the mushroom off the ground making it easy to get accidentally pushed around by animals, rain or wind to aid in spore dispersal.

20091003 Fall foliage in Saint-Sauveur-des-Monts

20091003. Fall foliage in Saint-Sauveur-des-Monts.

20091002 Rose des Vents du Parc de La Cité-du-Hâvre

20091002. Le pont Jacques-Cartier vue du Parc de La Cité-du-Havre.

20091001 Withering Phalaenopsis

20091001. Last February 9th, I got an orchid plant at Costo, a Phalaenopsis (See it then at http://aildoux2009.blogspot.com/2009/02/20090209-phalaenopsis.html). This week, after an amazing 8 months in bloom, it's final flowers started at last to wither! I got my money's worth, and it will bloom again and again in the years to come if it goes like another Phalaenopsis I had years ago. Nice!

20090922 Broken DVD

20090922. This is what happens to a DVD if you break it between the fingers of one hand. Luck I didn't scrape myself.