Bridlewood Flowers Slideshow

This is a slideshow of our Bridlewood flower garden in Spring of 2026.

 

Farewell to The Old Oak Tree

Our Old Oak Tree (actually the city's tree) which we have had since we moved into our house in 1979, although it looked healthy, had enough damage to make it a safety hazard, so it has come down. It will be replaced by the City with a new Oak tree next year. The photo collage below shows the tree in the beginning, the end, and after it was gone.

 

The slideshow below memorialize the tree. The first two photos were taken in 1980, the rest in December 2025. The photos were taken with my Panasonic Lumix FZ300. Photo editing was mostly done with Franzis Photo Projects software.

My Annual Desktop PC Wallpaper Slideshows 2021-2025

For at least the last seven years I have been using my own photographs for my Desktop PC wallpaper, although the photos may not have been taken during the year they were used.

These are slideshows of those photographs for 2021-2025

2025

 

2024

2023

 

2022

 

  2021

  

 

My Desktop PC wallpaper slideshows for 2020 and 2019 & before are here:

THE FIFTH COLUMN: Sharing My Desktop PC Wallpaper Collections

Portugal Bike Tour Slideshows

These photos were taken during the excellent Pedal and Sea Adventures  Portugal’s Blue Coast Cycling Tour in May 2025 featuring excellent guides and lovely accommodations. There was a lot of climbing and some wonderful descents, but at 75 I was fortunate to be on an e-bike as I would not have managed on an ordinary bicycle.

Map of Route

 

Altitude Profile

 

Lisbon Before Portugal Bike Tour Slideshow

 

Portugal Bike Tour, Day 1 on the bus Slideshow

 

Portugal Bike Tour, Riding Day 1 (Sesimbra to Setúbal) Slideshow

Portugal Bike Tour, Riding Day 2 (Setúbal to Santiago do Cacém) Slideshow

Portugal Bike Tour, Riding Day 3 (Santiago do Cacém to Vila Nova do Milfontes) Slideshow 

 

 Portugal Bike Tour, Riding Day 4 (V.N. Milfontes to Alejezur) Slideshow

 

 

Portugal Bike Tour, Riding Day 5 (Alejezur to Lagos) Slideshow

Portugal Bike Tour, Final Day at the Hotel Slideshow

Vienna After Portugal Bike Tour Slideshow

 

Evolution of an Image – Photo Versions

I have been trying for a few years to get this photo of the vegetation by the Emerald Meadows pond in Bridlewood but have not been happy with the results.

These first photos were taken in November 2023 with my small Panasonic Lumix TS5 camera that I used to keep with me all the time on the bike. Unfortunately even when set for Vivid it’s pictures look washed out and need to be improved with software,

These images are the first one I tried, from the camera, and then edited with Simply Good Pictures. It did not turn out too bad but still was not what I was hoping for.

 

So I tried another one, but was still not happy after editing it with Simply Good Pictures. Then I tried enhancing the reds in Photoshop Elements 2023 and further enhancing it with Franzis Color Projects, which I think I overdid. These images are those photos in that order.

I tried again in October 2024 with much better results, likely a result of a bright day with better lighting and using my new Panasonic Lumix FZ300 camera. The first photo is from the camera and the second is enhanced with Simply Good Pictures and Franzis Color Projects. I am quite happy with that result.

 

Upon reflection I began to think that this photo would be a good candidate for playing around with in Franzis Color Projects as well as Franzis Black & White Projects to see what kind of variations and effects could be created. The following slide show, starting with the final version above, shows the kind of variations and effects that can be produced.

 

Digital Photography Nostalgia – Sony Mavica FD-91 Photos

What is this about digital photography nostalgia. Are we not supposed to be nostalgic about film photography rather than digital photography. But early digital cameras were not the market dominaters today’s are. Indeed at that time there was debate over whether they would ever produce images of sufficient quality to replace film for professional use. Now of course it’s only hobbyists and fine art photographers that use film cameras.

I got my first digital camera in 1999, and I went for the big zoom. The Sony Mavica FD-91 was one impressive looking camera for it's time. The 14X zoom on the Mavica was huge, a 35 MM equivalent of 37-518 MM and with Sony's Steady Shot image stabilization system it could be hand held at the full zoom. The camera was unique in that it used 3.5 inch floppy disks for image storage and though it was under a megapixel (1024X768 pixels) it produced decent 8X10 prints, even though the experts claimed that was not possible. It was a large camera but I was used to the size and feel of an SLR and preferred it over smaller digital cameras.

It really was a fun camera to use, even if I had to carry a box of floppy discs with me and change them after every 10 shots, and the telephoto was great with a zoom over double my 200 MM Konica zoom lens. And it was a lot lighter than my Konica and its bag full of interchangeable lenses. Of course the quality of images was nowhere near that of my Konica SLR or my current Panasonic FZ300, but it was good enough for me as an amateur.

Here indeed are some examples of what the camera could do, a slideshow of Mavica photos chosen and edited for my Desktop PC wallpaper that I change weekly.

 

Fernbank Road Pond Photo Versions

Slideshow of photos taken along the Fernbank Road Pond in Stittsville in July 2023 with my Panasonic Lumix FZ100 camera and edited with Photoshop Elements 2023, Simply Good Pictures 5, Franzis Color Projects 6 Professional and Franzis Black & White Projects 6 Professional.

 

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Sharing My Desktop PC Wallpaper Collections

When I'm not mountain biking or cycling, mapping trails or ranting about political or social issues I may be taking photographs. The last few years I have been using the better ones as computer wallpaper, changing it every five days or so. These are slideshows of these collections.

2019 and before

2020

The Lime Kiln Technical Trail Will Never Be The Same

Today we finally had the opportunity to hike the Lime Kiln Technical Trail for the first time since the Lime Kiln area fire in the Stony Swamp Conservation Area.

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Things are looking pretty good for the first part of the trail, although you start to see larger and larger signs of fire as you look alongside the trail and then you are in the middle of the Fire Zone. At that point on the map you can see the hike diverging somewhat from the trail as we tried to follow the trail on the GPS and keep watch for the silver Rideau Trail triangles (silver because in most cases the blue paint was removed due to the heat of the fire). Most of the trail within the Fire Zone was unrecognizable although there were a few recognizable trail features along the route we followed.

The fire zone ended shortly before one of the fire roads crossed the trail. At that point the trail continues on the other side of the fire road but due to all the debris pushed up alongside the road we were unable to follow the trail. Knowing it reconnected further along the Fire Road we continued following the road, intending to follow it back from the other end, but when we reached that location we again had the problem of the piled up debris hiding the entrance into the trail, so we ended up missing about 200 metres of trail. After that the Fire Road wiped out most of the trail except for a short portion that ran just alongside it just before the Lime Kiln Bridge.

My guess would be, taking into account the first section of trail, and the section we by-passed, plus the short section of trail at the end, that close to 50% of the trail might be intact in it's original condition. The other 50% will probably need extensive rehabilitation and some of the technical features might never be recovered.

My inclination, however, would be that it would be best to let the natural environment and vegetation recover on it's own before attempting to rebuild the trail. We did notice that there already appeared to be some new growth within the fire zone and on the fire roads. At the appropriate time I would hope that the National Capital Commission (NCC) would consult with all trail users, including mountain bikers, in developing a trail rehabilitation plan.


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"Tour de Sudbury" - Cycling in Sudbury

Our hometown of Sudbury is not known for it's cycling infrastructure or even for a positive attitude towards cycling but there are organizations like the Sudbury Cyclists Union, the Rainbow Routes Association and the Sudbury Cycles Project that are trying to change that and there is even a proposed Bicycle Technical Master Plan For The City of Greater Sudbury.

It was the Rainbow Routes Association map of non-motorized trails in Sudbury that inspired us to try out some of the cycling routes in Sudbury as they did look promising.

We mixed a combination of Sudbury history and waterways in our route selection.

Looking to the history of Sudbury:

The City of Sudbury was founded in 1883 at a point on the railway known as Sudbury Junction, where the branch line to Algoma Mills joined the main line of the CPR. Prior to the establishment of the mining industry, (which occurred around 1900), Sudbury's stability and growth depended both on the railway and on the lumbering industry. (Source:)

We decided to create a route that started by following the historical Junction Creek along the Junction Creek Waterway Park and then went around Ramsey Lake and through the Lake Laurentian Conservation Area

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We started our ride at the Rotary Park by the Adanac Ski Hill in New Sudbury wwhere the City is building a BMX park and followed the Junction Creek Waterway Park pathway to downtown





It was a very enjoyable ride along a very scenic hard-packed gravel path. For the most part it was well signed and even on my Backroad Mapbooks background map on my GPS.

However when we came to transition to the connection to the "Tour de Sudbury" route along Ramsey Lake we had to rely on our map along with our previous knowledge of Sudbury to make the connection.

It was unclear from the trail map whether the route around Ramsey Lake was on a dedicated path or on the road, although the fact that it followed the roads exactly (except where it went through the conservation area) was a pretty good clue that it was mostly a road route, although most of it was on some of the few marked bike lanes that exist in Sudbury. It was still a pleasant ride and traffic did not seem threatening at all.

The most interesting part of the ride along Ramsey Lake began when we left the pavement and entered the Lake Laurentian Conservation Area and were away from "civilization" for awhile. You definitely wanted to be on a hybrid and not a high-end road bike in this section especially for a few loose gravel downhill sections. The scenery was lovely especially near the boardwalk.


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And it stayed interesting when we rejoined the pavement at South Bay Road and what must have been the steepest uphill I have ever ridden. Thanks to our Ireland bike tour I was able to climb the whole thing, albeit with some rest stops.

After a few more ups and downs it was back on the flat and continuing our ride till we stopped at Science North for lunch, then on along the pathway along Ramsey Lake through Bell Park, back over the old Iron Bridge and and back along the creek to the start of our very enjoyable journey.

We hope to check out some more of the cycling opportunities in Sudbury on future trips up north.

Ireland Bike Tour - Post Bike Tour Slide Shows

After the bike tour we stayed in Ennis for a few days and took a bus to Limerick for a day tour.

The most interesting observation we made was that while Ennis had narrow streets with one lane one way traffic and narrow sidewalks, much of Limerick had wide streets with one lane one way traffic and very wide sidewalks. And both towns had portions of their centre cores that were pedestrian only.

While in Limerick we visited King John's Castle.

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The slide shows above portray the streetscapes and scenes of Limerick, followed by King John's Castle. The slide show below features those wonderful red Irish flowers in Ennis.


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Ireland Bike Tour - Cycling Day 6 Slide Show

This was the longest ride of the tour but not too bad as far as hills go, except for the last ride into Westport, up and down and then back up and down again. Lots of scenery but not too many photo stops because of the long ride and then drive back to Ennis in the van.

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The slide show above starts with the obligatory photo of a rainbow in front of a mountain and features more of the Irish landscape, including hills and streams, and of course sheep, as well as the Irish famine memorial.

Ireland Bike Tour - Break Day Slide Show

We took today easy, went for a walk near the lodge on Lough Inagh in the morning and managed to talk Jeff into driving us to the Kylemore Abbey in the afternoon where we explored the grounds and the remarkable gardens. There is some real interesting history about this place.

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The slide show above features the mountains and landscape near the lodge followed by the Kylemore Abbey and gardens.

Ireland Bike Tour - Cycling Day 5, Sheep Shearing, Flowers and More Slide Shows

If you’ve ever been to a county fair or watched a movie about Australia you have seen sheep sheering, but usually with electric shears. In this part of Ireland they use hand shears and probably sheer the sheep faster and cleaner than with the electric ones. This was a great day for photos, including a good number of flower close-ups. There was a really great mountain behind our Lodge that I was so tempted to try to climb up.

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The slide show above features more of the Irish landscape including ruins, mountains, streams and beaches, as well as sheep and sheep shearing and ends with lovely views from our hotel.

The slide show below features Irish flowers.


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Ireland Bike Tour - Cycling Day 4, Discovering Ireland's Sheep Slide Show

Today was a day at the beach as we stopped at a wonderful little beach along the route, as well as made a visit to the lovely town of Clifden. More scenery, and did I mention the sheep. The sheep in Ireland seem to have priority over the roads, followed by bicycles and then cars.

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The slide show above starts with a view from our hotel dining room followed by views of the grounds, then it's on to the landscape with an emphasis on geology. We have our first encounters with Ireland’s sheep, as well as stop for a visit to a lovely beach. Final views are from our new hotel room window followed by a visit to the town of Clifden.

Ireland Bike Tour - Cycling Day 3, The Aran Islands Slide Show

Most of the day was spent on one of the Aran Islands. It was a great day for photography as it was actually sunny and there was so much to photograph, from a remarkable fort to literally hundreds (maybe thousands) of stone fences from millions of stones dividing up the tiny allotments that people had to tend to survive from farming. Did I mention the dolphins swimming around in the harbour beside the ferry, which unfortunately we took no photos of.

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The slide show above is mostly concentrated on the remarkable landscape of the Aran Islands followed by some photos of the mainland landscape ending at The Cashel House, a lovely country inn sitting beside Bertraghboy Bay.

Ireland Bike Tour - Cycling Day 2, To The Burren Slide Show

Today we did a circle route through the remarkable Burren, a landscape that almost defies description, although parts of Ottawa's Lime Kiln Trail with it's underlying Limestone hints at it. And, of course it's Ireland so there were more ruins. This was the second hardest climbing day of the tour.

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The slide show above starts with a view from our hotel room and covers more of the Irish landscape, more ruins of churches and castles, cemeteries and stone fences and finishes going through the remarkable geology of the Burren.

Ireland Bike Tour - Cycling Day 1, The Irish Landscape Slide Show

Today we got setup on our bikes with our self-guiding instructions so we could ride on our own while Jeff went ahead with the van and then would mysteriously appear on his bike cycling towards us to make sure we were not lost. We rode to the Cliffs of Moher which reportedly has spectacular views, but all we saw was fog. But after the longest climb of the trip, 220 metres, we were not riding back up there again no matter how sunny the next day was.

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The slide show above features the remarkable Irish landscape including those famous stone fences, a scenic beach, ruins of castles and a remarkable old cemetery, but no photos of the Cliffs of Fog.

Ireland Bike Tour - Ennis Slide Show

We arrived a few days early and got to know the town of Ennis which was full of stone walls, first thing we noticed, and lots of local shops and pubs - no Walmarts or big box stores. The only chain store we noticed was a large Irish department store, Dunnes. The other big attraction is the Fergus River.

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The slide show above features:

The Old Ground Hotel
Residential Streetscapes
Ennis Friary (being restored)
Fergus River
Ducks along the Fergus River
Downtown Ennis
The Suburbs (1960s style houses rather than 1860s style houses)

The Geology of Kakakiwaganda Lake (Rock Lake)

Every summer we spend about a week at our favourite Bed and Breakfast Whispering Pines On the Bay which is about half-way between Sudbury and Killarney Provincial Park. Not only does it have gracious friendly hosts and interesting guests from all over the world, it is also located on beautiful Kakakiwaganda Lake, or as the l̶o̶c̶a̶l̶s̶  settlers (edit 2023-09-11) call it, Rock Lake.

We also get out kayaking on the lake at least once every visit and one of the most interesting things about the lake is the geology and rock formations along the shore. The photographs in the slide show below were taken from my kayak as I paddled around the lake.



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