There once was a boy named Luck
Whose folks didn’t give a… HOOT.
“Go jump off da pier
‘n don’t come back ‘roun’ere!”
But they didn’t have that kinda luck.
The above photos were taken near a storm management pond in Northwest Waterloo. The unnamed area is a small oasis of engineered nature tucked into the suburban landscape that cradles it.
As I walked the trail with my camera the signs of abandonment were evident. The milkweed seeds have long flown, mature enough to leave their summer womb behind. An empty nest that sheltered a new generation once hidden in the dense foliage now barren and exposed. The small white seed globes are all that remain where the flowers of a Canadian Horseweed plant once bloomed, its remaining leaves black and shrivelled from an early frost.
The chlorophyll-laden hues of summer and the fiery shades of early autumn have long since faded, replaced by muted tones and subdued colour as this place waits for the snowy white of winter’s grip. For now, there is still plenty of beauty to be found in that which has been left behind and abandoned.
Images were captured in November 2022, in Northwestern Waterloo, Ontario.
Photo Details (left to right):
1) Canon EOS 60D, EF70-200mm ƒ/2.8L IS II USM | 200mm, 1/400 sec. at ƒ/2.8, ISO100
2) Canon EOS 60D, EF70-200mm ƒ/2.8L IS II USM | 130mm, 1/60 sec. at ƒ/4.5, ISO100
3) Canon EOS 60D, EF70-200mm ƒ/2.8L IS II USM | 200mm, 1/13 sec. at ƒ/11, ISO100
Additional processing via Adobe Lightroom/Photoshop.
The shop’s bell rang as Lilith entered, high on thoughts of exacting justice.
Ancora was accomplished, a bibliopole with access to ancient texts. Her services came with risks, but she’d track down an early edition of “Spells and Curses.”
Welcome to T-Shirt Wisdom Tuesday. It’s exactly what it sounds like. Every other Tuesday I will post a quote that I’ve seen printed on a T-Shirt or think should have been.
I think we’ve all worked with or for this person at some point, or worse lived with them!
Check back weekly and see what witty, funny, or plain old ridiculous T-Shirts wisdom I’ve been able to find or come up with. Suggestions are always welcome.
Welcome to Five Word Weekly. Each Monday, five words will magically appear on Greg’s Blog at 5:00am Eastern Time (Canada/United States). Your task is to craft prose or poetry using any or all of the word prompts. How you participate is entirely up to you. Your work(s) can be a single piece, a series of stand-alone projects, or an epic serial. Let the words be the inspiration that takes you wherever your imagination leads.
carnivore | pretentious | slight | ship | blind
Click here for rules and guidelines
Abigail’s students gathered along the escarpment edge.
“I can see my home,” one student said pointing.
“Everything below, including your home, was once at the bottom of a great inland sea,” Abigail replied. “This outcropping was one point along a thalassic shoreline, nine times longer than today’s remnant lakes combined.
Welcome to Five Word Weekly. Each Monday, five words will magically appear on Greg’s Blog at 5:00am Eastern Time (Canada/United States). Your task is to craft prose or poetry using any or all of the word prompts. How you participate is entirely up to you. Your work(s) can be a single piece, a series of stand-alone projects, or an epic serial. Let the words be the inspiration that takes you wherever your imagination leads.
various | tower | barrier | jumpsuit | fog
Click here for rules and guidelines
We were out and about today and in our travels ended up behind what appeared to be a new MINI Countrymen. The compact British car line was founded in the late 1960s and is now owned by German automaker BMW. I was born in 1968 in Canada so the brand never really entered my consciousness until I watched “Auston Powers in Goldmember”, the third film in the James Bond spoof series starring Canadian actor and Saturday Night Live alum, Mike Myers. That was around the same time BMW released the current iterations of the iconic British car into the wild. A history of the MINI used in the movie can be found here.
As we were pulling up to an intersection behind this new MINI something just didn’t look right. When I finally spotted it, I said to my wife, “Who designed that?”. Don’t get me wrong it not going to cause an accident and there won’t be a recall anytime soon but what exactly were the designers at MINI thinking. Naturally, I had a blog idea so we followed the vehicle long enough to capture the video for this post.
See if you can spot the design fail and let me know in the comments below. Would love to hear of other design flaws or features you’ve seen or heard of on other products too. If you post design fail content of your own please link back to this post for everyone to see and tag it #gbfail.
The only other failure that comes to mind was more of a marketing faux pas than bad design. As the story goes, when GMC released the sixth generation Chevy Nova (the 1980s subcompact not the muscle car from previous decades) to the Mexican market sales were dismal. Sales had been good in other markets but nobody could understand why the affordably priced Nova was not selling in Spanish speaking markets. Turns out “no va” closely translates to “it doesn’t go” or “not going” in Spanish. Would you spend money on a car that didn’t go?
Click here if you are interested in a brief history of the Chevy Nova. No mention of the naming faux pas of course.
Welcome to a special Remembrance Day edition of T-Shirt Wisdom Tuesday.
Today marks the day hostilities officially ceased and World War I came to an end. In Canada and many commonwealth nations, November 11th is known as Remembrance Day. A solemn holiday to remember the brave men and women who gave their lives in the Great Wars and other armed conflicts to preserve the freedoms we take for granted every day. It is customary to observe a moment of silence at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, the date and time the armistice treaty officially came into effect to honour our fallen soldiers.
Now more than ever we must remember the reasons these brave individuals sacrificed everything and find the resolve to build bridges to strengthen our democracies and preserve our way of life.
While out and about one afternoon I saw an individual wearing a T-Shirt with an image on it. I have recreated it here to share.
Lest we forget.
Welcome to T-Shirt Wisdom Tuesday. It’s exactly what it sounds like. Every other Tuesday I will post a quote that I’ve seen printed on a T-Shirt or think should have been. The idea came from a post called Science Lesson I uploaded last week.
So, without further ado, here is this first T-Shirt wisdom post.
Check back weekly and see what witty, funny, or plain old ridiculous T-Shirts wisdom I’ve been able to find or come up with. Suggestions are always welcome.
Greg's Blog 