'06 Saturn Vue - my 'new' vehicle that replaces my very tired '99 Montana van

Driving is fun again. 

Fall 2011

Not that I ever look forward to the end of summer but inevitably it happens and thank goodness for the colours of fall, the oranges and reds and even pinks, that help make the change to colder weather a little more bearable.

Fall in Quebec

How beautifully leaves grow old. How full of light and color are their last days.  

~John Burroughs

Heath Road, Clarendon, QC

It's cold here today. 

Ok, so not cold enough to snow but it was only 5C this morning

 and taking a long time to warm up, making me second guess my decision to go back 

to my 'outside' job. BRRRR, I'm NOT a winter person so I'm looking forward 

to the warm fall that the weather man has predicted.

My vehicle has a busted radiator and I have no heat. 

Could it have something to do with my latest run-in with a deer. 

Thinking it's about time I replaced my '99 GM Transport we're going this afternoon to look at a new (used) vehicle, an '06 Saturn Vue. Fingers crossed it's in as good a shape as it appears in the for sale ad. I've been in need of a new vehicle for quite a while but with the demise of my radiator and winter coming I really have to do it.

As for the deer, one less deer in the Pontiac...it's gone along with my deflector and busted rad.

Queen Anne's Lace

Not looking forward to the end of summer.  

Clarendon, QC

We've had some very peculiar weather this summer, violent storms and ominous clouds. 

Tonight is another night with weather warnings of impending storms. 

The above photo was taken a few short weeks ago, not much came out of it, thankfully.

HWY 148, Clarendon, QC

"Deliberately seeking solitude - quality time spent away from family and friends - may seem selfish.

IT IS NOT!

Solitude is necessary for our creative spirits to develop and flourish

as are sleep and food for our bodies to survive."

- Sarah Ban Breathnach -

Johnson's Lake, Ladysmith QC

Remembering 9/11

From the monologue from the Late Show with David Letterman on September 17, 2001, his first night back on the air after September 11th.


"....there is only one requirement for any of us, and that is to be courageous, because courage, as you might know, defines all other human behavior. And I believe, because I’ve done a little of this myself, pretending to be courageous is just as good as the real thing. "

Bleeding heart

     I'm a photographer, or so I've been told. I have a photography business and a partner. My partner and I met a few years ago and became fast friends. Photography is just one of the many things we have in common so when our Home and School Committee needed a new way to raise funds for our local elementary school we thought 'family portraits' and from there our business was born.
     I've always dabbled in photography since buying my first camera to capture the life of my first born son. Over the years I've gone on to capture my 3 children, sometimes to their dislike...you've always got a camera in our face MOM, grumble grumble. So when I needed to take photos of something that wouldn't give me such a hard time I took to the road with my camera in the passenger seat and in doing so I found a 'get away' from life's stresses. Trees, flowers, old houses that used to be someones home but for whatever reasons no longer have a family, fences...you name it, 'still life', quiet life I like to call it. I travel the highways and backroads alone with my thoughts and my camera scouting out anything that catches my eye.
     So over the years I've accumlated quite a portfolio of images. Images mostly just viewed by me until recently when I've started to share them. I use the term 'photographer' to describe myself lightly because of my discomfort with that description. I'm completely self-taught, except for having taken a few day courses at a local camera store, and as in all things in life I'm not done learning. My photography partner is an 'educated' photographer, she went to school to learn her craft, she was/is a photojournalist.
     I'm not entirely sure why I'm reluctant to call myself a photographer. Is it because I'm self-taught and therefore maybe without the 'formal education' I feel I'm not qualified to be called a photographer?! I'm so comfortable on the road with my camera snapping pics of long dead trees and landscapes, etc., but put me in a room full of people, clients wanting that perfect family photo and I become unsure of my ability. My partner on the other hand is so sure of herself so good at 'looking' the part. I also work for a local newspaper in the layout department but because it's a small, bi-weekly with a small staff I'm occasionally called upon to cover an event which means - taking photos - which means at work I'm also called a 'photographer'. I've snapped thousands and thousands of images...the count is well over 70,000.
     So since much of what I do revolves around my camera and taking photos maybe one day I will feel comfortable with the term 'photographer' but for now...you decide.

Pontiac sunset

Softly the evening came 

with the sunset

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow