Artsy Experiment In Photoshop Oils

 Just for fun...

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'Bingo the Chipmunk' Stars In His Latest Movie...

 Here's my latest YouTube video:

Bingo hides his stash of sunflower seeds. I guess he didn't know he was on camera... but we won't tell where they are will we?

Background Music: 'For Mimi' by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...

Artist: http://www.twinmusicom.org/

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A Cute Couple.

 I think this Chipmunk couple lives under our deck.

I saw them on the woodpile today and they don't seem to be too afraid of humans.

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Brrr - Too Cold To Swim This Weekend!

Wow, what a swing in temperature - from the eighties to the forties! The air temperature today was only 38F (4 C) at noon. We turned the heater off yesterday so there's a little heat loss for the next few days. Haha! The pool water is down from a high last week of 92F to 72F already. Oh well, warmer days will be back soon and we'll turn the heater back on.

The recent rain has turned the back yard into a steamy (but cold) jungle of lush greenery.

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Do You Remember The Ground Vibrating As A Steam Locomotive Went By?

Nothing stands out in my mind from when I was a kid like the earth-shaking presence of an imposing, huge, chuffing steam locomotive. Most of you will be too young to have seen these monster machines, incredibly much heavier than a modern diesel locomotive. I used to put pennies on the track and they would be flattened paper thin. Please enjoy this fabricated blast from my imagined past.

Today's 'artsy' composite shows a powerful steamer barreling towards the London station having just crossed the Thames River. The leaning telegraph pole is an artifact from the past that Wendy and I saw on our Greenway healthy walk a few weeks ago. CN 6218 was the last steam engine to carry rail passengers in Canada. You can read about where it is today if you CLICK HERE.

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Opening Day On The Golf Course... AGAIN!

The golf course opened today...

The dandelions in our back yard are doing well, much to the consternation of the passing golfers.

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First One In This Year...

 Yup, it's me.

The water is still a little murky but I hope it will clear up with the filter running continuously. No more green tinge so we have generated lots of chlorine.

Wendy was not far behind as the second one in the pool this year.

The Waubaushene Ferns Are Happy.

My artsy pic for today.

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Our First Shopping Trip In Over A Year...

 Yes, we ventured out to Costco's outdoor garden center and Wendy picked out over $400 worth of plants, potting soil and grass seed in a record Costco shopping time of less than fifteen minutes. We finally got to cash in our $200 rebate cheque from last August so it wasn't too bad.

Since it was all outside (we never entered the store) we felt quite safe and they limited the number admitted. My SUV was weighed down with six bags of Miracle Grow and lots of pretty flower pots.

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'Artsy' Pic From Algae

 Tim jr, said "Maybe you could get an artsy shot of the pollen on the green water?"

Here's the Photoshop fun I had with that:

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Pool's OPEN - Summer's Comin'

 The winter seemed long because of our isolation due to COVID 19. It sure will be nice to be able to swim again. We all need the exercise. 

There was a lot of pollen that worked its way through the safety cover mesh and with the recent warmer weather the green algae was quite prolific.

The new safety cover came off with little effort.

We put our (12 years) old safety cover out at the curb and it was gone within the hour. I hope it went to a good home.

Wendy and Tim rolled up the new pool cover to store away for the summer. Fall rolls around all too quickly.

I had already reassembled the two swing benches and put up the umbrellas after re-installing the pool ladders. Bring on the summer!

Mice have been living under the pool heater cover.  It might be better with no cover at all.

They made a nest from the fluffy lining. 

It doesn't look too appealing yet but the pump, filter and heater are running.

As soon as the temperature rises above 60 F the chlorinator will begin making chlorine and by tomorrow we should see a difference. The water was already up to 57 F when we opened, which explains why it was so green.

UPDATE: 

Saturday - The next day it's always hard to believe how much the pool water improves in such a short time. 

The test shows good chlorine and ph normal and that's with only 2 bags of salt and a jug of chlorine. Of course the electronic chlorinator ran all day yesterday. I switched it off at midnight and back on around 7am this morning.

Monday - The green colour is all but gone and now you can see the drain in the bottom of the deep end. The water temperature reached 77 F (25 C)  Sunday with our target over 85 (29-30 C). The weatherman is calling for air temperatures up to 29 C this week so we WILL be swimming soon.

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Nobody Likes A Clogged Drain!

Last night Wendy announced that the dishwasher was pumping dirty water back up into the kitchen sink. This is not something anybody wants to hear after dinner, especially in the midst of a pandemic. Three or four hours later after disconnecting the plumbing under the sink and trying numerous stabs with a cheap hardware store 25 foot drain auger, we all gave up and went to bed. There's always tomorrow. 

The next morning:

Of course we didn't want to call a plumber due to our isolation plan and the fact that Tim jr hasn't had his shot yet. (He's due to get his 1st Pfizer shot Friday) After I tried a few more times, unsuccessfully in the kitchen, Tim went up on the roof and inserted a huge and much longer 1/2 inch x 75 foot sewer snake (...inherited from Wendy's dad Howard)  After a fair amount of physical encouragement and hard work the snake was forced around a few right angle bends and finally hit a mushy blockage of kitchen grease mung at 50 feet from the vent stack. Well, it could have been worse. It could have been winter!

Tim sits on the roof straddling the roof vent pipe where we accessed the clog.

You can't take nice pictures of someone unblocking a drain so I posted this picture of Tim cleaning up after his success! Wow! We were extremely lucky to have a long enough auger! This could have gone very, very badly.

Bright Ideas/Failed:

Remove under-sink plumbing and auger drain.  -  Auger came out clean. (not long enough)

Force water from garden hose into the drain.  -  Water filled up the vent and overflowed on roof.

Cap off kitchen drain and force water down vent  -  Water leaked from vent stack inside wall.

Quite a few hours of dirty work and stressful worry went by before we finally got to the root of the problem and resolved the clog. The learning experience will allow a quicker response if (when) it happens again. Hopefully on another nice day like we had.

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Dogwood Blossom

 

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Backing onto a golf course we are very fortunate in that even though we are in the city, we often see a wide variety of wildlife from our windows. I hope the hawk didn't get our favorite Woodpecker.

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Another 'No Driving' Healthy Walk

 Today we just walked out our back door and we were there! Wow!

Our hour-long walk took us around most of the periphery of the golf course.

 

It was an opportunity to enjoy the beauty of this prestigious course without the presence of any golfers. A rare event indeed!

For over three weeks now, since the shutdown the course has been closed to golfers. The maintenance people have been working tirelessly as usual, meticulously keeping things just so.

 

The rough areas and swampy wetland is budding into Spring splendour.

We've never seen a sign like this before. It looks like they don't mind visitors as long as they don't have a golf club with them.

In over thirty years we have never been able to stroll around on the course when the golfers were active.

Today we only saw two other walkers and two maintenance workers on the whole course. 

A view looking back towards the clubhouse with the city in the background. It's almost surreal. 

The fairways are like greens and everything looks perfect. No wear and tear from the golfers and carts. Not a stray leaf or anything out of place. A contradiction of nature.

Hopefully we can get out a few more times before the course opens back up. What an amazing place to have in our back yard.

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Happy Mothers' Day Wendy...

Since Erin moved out last year in order to continue with her work and her life, Wendy has taken over her bedroom as a TV sitting/reading room. For Mothers' Day this year we ordered a new reclining chair which replaces a well used old wingback. 

Wendy invites our cat to join her in her new chair but Benzy is apprehensive of this mechanical marvel and not yet completely on board.

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Keep Those Planes Coming!

 

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No Driving Required - Healthy Walk Local

The map below charts our course and where I clicked each picture below.

We didn't have to go very far to get to our 'Healthy Walk" this week. In fact it started as we stepped out the door of our house. 

I almost hate to admit it but... can you believe that in the 33 years or so that we've lived here, this is the first time I have ever explored this public trail? Picture taken on the map as #1.

 

You can tell by the path and the wear and tear, that there have been many many people who have have enjoyed the views before me. It doesn't feel like we're even in the city. Picture taken at #2 on the map.

Over a year on isolation with little exercise has definitely taken its toll on me as I huff and puff to keep up with Wendy. We definitely need to do more walking!

Our trek was only about a kilometer which really doesn't count as much of a 'Healthy Walk" but it certainly showed me that you don't have to drive all over town to find places of interest. The picture above is looking back west to our street in the distance. See the map #4.

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My Irish 'Artoon"

 

Ooooh, that's bad!

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Our Dogwood Is Blooming

Just outside our kitchen window, the Dogwood tree is in bloom.

Things are really becoming lush with the recent rainfall. The garden path to the backyard is turning into a walk through a beautiful jungle.

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