Lit a candle for my Mom on her birthday.
She would have been 89 today if cancer hadn’t taken her. She had the genes and lifestyle to make that number, but not the luck in the cancer draw. . .
Hard to believe we said goodbye 15 years ago.
Small personal rituals and remembrances.
A wee glass of Jackson-Triggs Cabernet Sauvignon, her fave reasonbly priced wine.
And a wee glass of fresh water. . .
OMG. . . This is likely one of the earliest photos that I shot, developed the film, and printed and mounted the photo.
Just found it spilling out of a storage box in my office.
Circa 1970. Teacher’s College, Columbia University, New York.
This was while my late Mom was doing graduate work at Columbia, and my late Dad was doing his psychiatry residency at Bronx State Hospital.
I remember several faces in this photo. It was an experimental “free school” where kids pretty much ran rampant.
I got leave to spend hours in the school darkroom to learn photography, and I’d also beg my teachers to let me go explore the gorgeous libraries at Columbia.
I love libraries and librarians to this day. The research staff at Columbia libraries were wonderful with an early teen who absorbed text and info at a prodigious rate 
.
We ordered textbooks from Canada so that my sister and I wouldn’t be behind when we returned to public school after a couple of years.
I had a good walk around Deer Lake in Burnaby, BC, this morning. There were flocks of munching American Robins, a few Ruby-crowned Kinglets, some Northern Flickers, and a Steller’s Jay.
American Robin
I took over a hundred shots of this flitty Ruby-crowned Kinglet and this was the best I could get of the ruby today. : – )
Northern Flicker
Steller’s Jay
Pied-billed Grebe
While we were patrolling for salmon spawning in Byrne Creek today, I noticed a couple of Ruby-crowned Kinglets flitting around the fence in the spawning habitat.
So cute!
Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner near Byrne Creek in Burnaby, BC, today. Well, OK, a Great Blue Heron .
The heron stood its ground and the coyote passed it by. . . .
I came upon an American Robin eating berries on a walk encompassing Byrne Creek Ravine Park and Taylor Park in SE Burnaby, BC. Also a Northern Flicker, and still some remaining autumn colours.
Downt the hatch!
I rarely manipulate images aside from cropping and sharpening, but I wondered what reducing a foggy morning shot to only black and white would look like.
And some more foggy shots around Byrne Creek Ravine Park and Taylor Park
I had a fun photo safari at Iona Beach Regional Park this morning.
Snow Geese were back in moderate numbers, and I also shot a Bald Eagle bathing, a Cooper’s Hawk, and some Trumpeter Swans among other birds.
Bald Eagle bathing
Cooper’s Hawk
I took a stroll at Fraser Foreshore Park in SE Burnaby, BC, and came upon two hawks.
Red-tailed Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
C’mon luv, give us a kiss? Wood Duck couple.
Eurasian Collared Dove