Ken B

I appreciate the flowers too. Nice touch and happy-making when you come across them at close quarters.

Purple wild asters with gold centers.

Nobody planted this flower, except Mother Nature. This is a beautiful wild aster that I found on my walk along a country lane. The ditches are filled with the wonders of the wild world if you just stop and look.

A real bike painted blue as a planter.

This bicycle planter was in the same garden by the road where I pilfered four cherry tomatoes and where the roses and dahlias were growing right at the road's edge. Actually it was more of a lane than a road. If it wasn't raining & the lighting was better, this would have made a great calendar shot.

A big hornet.

Wifey came running in from house balcony overlooking the yard and said she was chased by a Murder Hornet -one of those big Asian, invasive species hornet. I went out and gave it a swat. It was fairly large, just a bit over an inch, but it wasn't a Murder Hornet. They have orange faces & are bigger.

I just noticed that I misspelled actually. Damn! I wish that you could edit posts!

A bunch of four roses.

the rose blooms were really prolific.

Beautiful large dahlias.

The back end of a dahlia.

These roses and dahlias were among the tomato plants at the side of the road where I was walking (see previous post about pilfering cherry tomatoes). It was a dull, dreary rainy day and I acutually got a bit wet, but it was great to see the flowers still not going to seed like in our garden.

Cherry tomatoes still on the vine.

Flowers and tomatoes along the road.

I actually stole four, but already ate one.

I just couldn't resist. I was out on a walk near home, but on an unfamiliar part of the road, and the owners of the house planted a tomato & flower garden right at the edge of the road. The temptation was too great. Who plants a garden where passersby can pick the produce unseen without any effort?

A cappuccino and a cinnamon bun.

The café was busy.

Someone bicycled here.

I was sitting at my computer working when I went upstairs to make a cup of coffee. Wifey said "I feel like one too. Do you want to go to a café in the village? We can get a treat too." Well the sun was shining so I said yes. It was very pleasant but two coffees and two pastries came to almost $25 !!

Fall colour towering above our house.

Some trees in the ravine in our yard.

On the road home.

Some fall colour scenes around the old homestead in the alpine boreal forest of Québec. Our house hasn't sunk despite appearances -we just live on the side of a mountain.

The "bottlers" said that it was 7.7pH. A pH of 7 is neutral, 7.7 is slightly alkaline. They also claimed that a tin can of water is better environmentally than a plastic bottle. It certainly was more expensive. I suppose that's a good thing.

Stream Water in a can. 7.7 pH

Source Lanark Highlands, Ontario Canada

We were playing golf in Ontario, and again drove to Almonte to get cheap gas (in our neck of the woods in Québec, gas is often 30¢ per liter more expensive). Wifey wanted water. The clerk asked if "local stream water" was ok. I shrugged & got a can called Stream Water canned locally from a stream.

In Ten Years ... 2035 A Look At Where Society is heading

Over 4,000 people have already read my view of what Life will look like in 10 years -- 2035. I've been scraping the news, identifying trends and extrapolating the ways the jobs, happiness & society will evolve. Most of it is already here in some form. The Link:
kenbodnar.substack.com/p/in-ten-yea...

Green leaf with insect marks on it.

This very large Rubus odoratus, the purple-flowered raspberry leaf, has absolutely no intention of showing autumn colours despite being past its prime and attacked by insects. This stuff grows all over our property wild & yet the funny bit is that a local nursery sells it. Fruit is almost tasteless.

I live rurally. I am probably one of the few who doesn't have a Costco membership. I'd like one because you can go for dinner at Costco and fill yourself up on all of the food samples, but I really don't need 140 rolls of toilet paper at one shot, even though I eat weird, spicy & hot foods.

Chinese lanterns on Google.

I thought that Google was celebrating Christmas early. I mistook the Chinese lanterns for Christmas balls. Today is in fact, the Mooncake festival, the Chinese mid-Autumn harvest festival. I've never tasted a mooncake, made with lotus seed paste, salted duck egg yolk, lye water & inverted sugar. Hmm

I actually meant to photograph the avant-garde mannequin in the window, but the reflection overpowered it.

A barred owl

A barn owl

Correction, not a Barn Owl, but a Barred Owl. I just read the label more closely. A Barred Owl is on the left and a Barn Owl is on the right. I don't know my owls that well. Not wise enough I guess. It looks like the box would do for either. Google photos, not mine.

A snippet of Mozart's Haffner Serenade, to accompany a bumpy but happy ride through the symphony of autumn colour in the alpine boreal forest of Québec.

A Barn Owl nesting box with a huge branch bolted to is. It is huge.

This big box with a branch bolted to it, is sold as a Barn Owl nesting box. I couldn't believe it! They wanted $380 plus tax. I put the toe of my shoe in the photograph, so if I ever got the urge to build one, I could roughly scale the measurements from my shoe. Even I have the skills to build one.

Wild Highbush Cranberries.

A bush loaded with wild highbush cranberries.

If Harriet, our resident wild turkey is still alive & around this winter, she's going to love this crop of highbush cranberries that we have growing in the ravine in our yard. The bush is loaded with them. When I had a horse farm, I planted these for the wild turkeys on the advice of a game warden.

An colorful ice cream stand on the main street of Almonte, Ontario. It has a yellow door.

Whenever we see an ice cream shop, it is treat time. There has been an ice shop and/or ice cream factory on this spot continuous from 1919 to the late 1900's in Almonte, Ontario, called Peterson's Ice Cream. Peterson's ice cream was a real high butterfat ice cream. Even the colours are happy-making.

Approaching the ferry to go back home.

Quyon is the name of the town on the Québec side.

The ferry captain sits on the bridge.

Approaching the Québec side, you see the ubiquitous French-Canadian church steeples that you see in every village.

Whenever we want to go to Ontario from Québec, we have two choices. We can drive down the highway to take one of the inter-provincial bridges, navigating the city traffic on both sides of the river, or we can take the pleasant ferry at a fairly remote spot. The ferry is hassle-free & costs $10.25.

Selfie of me in a shop window with the street reflected in it as well.

I couldn't help it. A selfie in a shop window. If you haven't noticed, I daily photograph the flotsam & jetsam of my life. It is much easier than keeping a diary. I really don't have time for that, even though I used to do it. I've been taking daily photos since high school. Even had my own darkroom

A zinc pale and a couple of zinc watering cans.

Wifey loved these these watering cans and pails. If we didn't have golf clubs in the car, I am sure that she would have bought some of these vintage gardening aids. She is not a fan of that infernal plastic garbage that cracks, pollutes and breaks. They don't make things like the used to.

Sign says Rustic Town Barber. Graphic of a shaving brush, a straight razor and a barber pole.

I like vintage and rustic things, but I don't think a haircut is one of them. I have hair that if it is cut too short, it stands straight out on my head like I was surprised or have electricity flowing through me. But, I do like the hot foam neck shaves and trims with a straight razor & hot towels.

Golf ball with the Texas Longhorns football club logo.

Played golf today at Greensmere, the Premiere course, in Ontario. It was a pleasure to play a links style club. It had the barren feel of Saint Andrews. I found a golf ball that was a long long way from home. This ball had the logo of the Texas Longhorns football team, University of Texas in Austin.

Yeah, I see that out on my road trips out of the hills as well.

We ate out of transferware at our family cottage. It was very homey and comforting.

Red, yellow, orange and green leaves in their autumn colours.

After posting photographs of our road trip to Ontario, I can't not post a photograph of the autumn spectacle of leaves going on in my driveway in the alpine boreal forest of Québec. Vive la différence!

It's really sad. We have an heirloom collection of china and silverware passed down from the family and we only haul it out for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Our usual dinner parties are quite informal, or served with food (like pizza) that doesn't warrant fine china. I miss those family times.