First robin of spring. In crabapple tree.

 

First robin of spring. In crabapple tree, near Akwesasne, Ontario. Merle d'Amérique (Turdus migratorius) Some robins do overwinter here.

Ravens roost for the night, January 11, 2026. Next to Winners store, Cornwall, Ontario

 

1947 Emerson model 553A

I learned a new word from this 1947 AC/DC 1947 Emerson model 553A portable radio - 'hanked' - coiling rope so it's neat.

It was portable, and could run on AC power as well as batteries. The batteries were  large 'A' and 'B' cells batteries: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_tube_battery

 

Jenny Woo Oi!

In order of appearance: Stagger Lee, Down Here from Hill, Duck Tape Band, Jenny Woo Oi! Project. Knights of Columbus Hall basement, Cornwall, Ontario 22 March 2026, 15  dollar all ages show

Woo and me, babe!

Yes, definitely an all ages show! Duck Tape gave them rubber ducks and they started squeaking for the rest of the show. Most of the kids were wearing ear protectors.

I wish the Knights of Columbus would change their name. Columbus was horrible. But it was a nice venue, $15 dollars, four bands, bartender was great and had worked with his dad as a child at La Maison, a more than 100 year old bar in Cornwall that has closed forever because the high rise apartment being built next to it accidently dug into its foundations and made it unsafe. There was a crucifix on the wall, but you can see the Duck Tape  bass player wore a Satanic Surfers T-Shirt and someone in the crowd was sporting a Bad Religion T with a cross with a circle-backslash symbol over it. 

Punk on a smoke break - roadkill skunk purse!

With skinny suspenders ('braces' in the UK)

Jenny Woo - songs from 45:

Athena, all women project with Woo. I thought it was a CD, and was about to put it into my car's player. It's a 45!

Oi! can be associated with white supremacist groups, but Woo herself is part Asian, and is a feminist who speaks out against racism.

 

Punk Rock crafters fair

 

Punk Rock Crafters Fair, 21 March 2026, Royal Canadian Legion, 415 Second St W, Cornwall, ON, sponsored by Diversity Cornwall. My theory on the Deadpool guy is he's Ryan Reynolds promoting his brand.

And then you get used to not using a single temperature bidet attachment like a caveman.

And then you get used to not using a single temperature bidet attachment like a caveman. (Box with 'The future always seems weird at first.' for a dual temperature bidet attachment.)

 

Snow geese and Canada geese, resting in St Lawrence

Canada and snow geese rest during migration, St Lawrence River, Glen Walter, Ontario. The Canada geese were mostly gone two hours later, but the snow geese were still there.

 

Snow coats trees, Ottawa

Late winter storms swept across North America - frost coats trees near Ottawa. March 17, 2025

 

Roots over limestone bedrock

Roots over limestone bedrock, Rockwood Conservation Area, Ontario, 1990s

 

Rockwood Conservation Area, 1990s

p. 877a - BW negs 27/02/2026 - TMAX 100 35mm

 

Pothole, Rockwood Conservation Area

I think this is a pothole in the Rockwood Conservation Area, Ontario, 1990s

p. 877a - BW negs 27/02/2026 - TMAX 100 35mm. Rockwood has caves in it. I met a couple who crawled into a tiny entrance at the base of a cliff. I asked them if they wanted me to stick around since they didn't have anyone on the surface but they didn't say anything to me. Maybe they were C.H.U.D.s.

 

Aztec Camera?

 Roddy Frame, co-founder of the 80s pop band Aztec Camera, said in a Top of the Pops X post  "It was in one of my deep thinking, psychedelic periods when I was about 15… because the bands we were listening to had names like The 13th Floor Elevators and all that ridiculous crap, we came up with the name Aztec Camera.".

Leica released an "Aztec" limited edition presentation case and attache case for its R-3 and R-3 MOT cameras in 1979, which would have been around when Frame was 15.  The only thing particularly Aztec about them were they were made from amatl wood, the bark of which the Aztec used to make paper.

Leica ad via eBay

Steve Hibbert

 Sad to hear Steve Hibbert died suddenly. He's best known as the Gimp in Pulp Fiction - he friended me after our mutual friend Krystal died and I enjoyed reading his posts. He liked posting art by painters who lived in California where he had lived, like this painting by, as Steve put it,  "Laguna Beach's own Edgar Payne" :

 (Edgar Alwin Payne (1883 - 1947), Red Mesa, Monument Valley, Utah, 1935, oil on canvas, 25 x 30 inches, purchased with funds from the Phyllis C. Wattis Endowment for Modern and Contemporary Art, Museum #2008.14.1)

Cornwall Square, 1989 or 1990

Taken from pedestrian bridge, 

                                                          Ilford HP5, 120 film, 06/06/2026 879a
 

Miniature Horse, 1990s

One of a group of miniature horses, at a fair I think in Fergus, c.1998

p. 877a - BW negs 27/02/2026 - TMAX 100 35mm

 

Harris Woolen Mill Ruins, Rockwood Conservation Area, Ontario Infrared, c. 1998

The tent was for a wedding. Konica Infrared 750nm film made the sky dark and the tree leaves white.

 

Kathleen, Elora, c. 1999

Kathleen, 1999ish, Elora, Ontario, TMAX 100, Mamiya c220

 

Misty Mountain Ridge

I stopped to take a picture of this ridge that wasn't there when I drove by an hour before. It's really smoke from burning brush that someone is clearing that's trapped under an inversion, with warmer air on top making a kind of lid for the smoke beneath.

 

Johnston Hall, University of Guelph, Infrared, c. 1998

Johnston Hall, University of Guelph, c. 1998, Konica Infrared 750nm 35mm. Grass and leaves are light and sky is dark because it's infrared. 

 

Chinese restaurant or bar, c. 1993

The image reminds me of the bar scene in the Kubrick move The Shining. I think this was a Chinese restaurant in Toronto, maybe on Spadina, sometime around 1993. Ilford HP5+ film, developed after about 30 years. 

 

Your own infrared Jesus

♫ Your own infrared Jesus ♫ (With apologies to Depeche Mode)

This is another old film I just had developed at Boréalis Laboratoire Photo, in Montreal, a lab that still develops, scans and prints film. They did a good job, even though this film is more than 30 years old. It's Konica Infrared 750 nm, which had been stored at room temperature since it was taken, so having anything on it is surprising! Probably Mississauga, early 1990s. As I remember the guy didn't think he was Jesus but was just trying to spread his message. Note how the grass is white and the sky is dark, since the film is 'seeing' in a wavelength of light that is not visible to people. The focus point is different from visible light because it has a longer wavelength, so 'Jesus' is a little blurry.