my personal space
This week is winter carnival in town. Yesterday, Isaw the ice blocks set up in the town square and a crew working away at carving them. I took Andrea out this afternoon to look at the results and to snag a few pictures. Andrea took most of them partly because my glasses tint in the sunlight and I can barely see the lcd screen on the camera. In any event, with some ropping, one of the pictures I took is now my desktop wallpaper. If you click on it, you can get the full size image.
We have always wanted to have a picture of our house from across the river. Our previous digital camera only had digital zoom and you rarely got a clear shot if you used the zoom. On Saturday, I was over in that area on an errand. I didn’t have the camera with me, but it reminded me that we were probably running out of chances to get the picture. So, on Sunday, I took the camera while I was dropping Sarah off to work. After dropping her off, I went across the bridge and up river until I was at one of the good spots to see our house.Given how steady my hands are, I wasn’t sure how the picture would turn out at a full 10x optical zoom. I was pleasantly surprised:
If you hadn’t already heard from Andrea, I have the new camera this week. My office is also about a minute’s walk from the Saint John River. And, I was rewarded this week with a couple days of picturesque scenery.
Looking across the Saint John River.
A second shot from further back, later in the day, using the zoom. The car was probably moving at about 30 mph.
Yesterday morning it was cold enough that frost formed on almost everything, including the trees.
Another shot taken yesterday of the the other side of the river while looking over the library roof.
I think I like it 
For those outside of Canada, today was Canada Day which means that this is a long weekend for us. I’ve also taken a day’s vacation and will not be going back to work until Tuesday evening. A few months ago we decided that this weekend we would sand the floor in one of the bedrooms.
When we bought the house, one of the bedroom floors had been stripped sown to the hardwood (maple) and refinished. In the other 3 bedrooms, the wood floors were covered with carpet and under the carpet were the hard tiles that were all the rage 30-40 years ago. Two years ago, after we had removed the tiles from a second bedroom, I sanded the floor with a drum sander and refinished it with a clear urethane. Like many houses built a century ago in this area, while all the floors downstairs were hardwood, only some of the bedrooms have hardwood floors.
Although I’m not certain, I believe that this bedroom floor is hemlock. Over the last few weeks, we have worked away at getting the floor ready to sand. Here is a pic of the floor before I started sanding it today (click for full size):
And here is how far I got today:
In the long run, I’m not particularly looking to remove all of the finish that’s on the floor. Softwood floors look really nice if they are stained or painted. So, that is what we will be doing with this floor. None the less, I expect that this would look spectacular if it were sanded down and a clear finish applied.
The trip was better than I expected (I’m not much of a travel for work traveller). It was definitely worthwhile from a work perspective. I got to meet a few people that heretofore I had only exchanged emails with. Also, on Wednesday night I met up with a long time internet friend. I have to say long time because I don’t remember when it was we had our first chat via the internet but I would expect it was at least 6 years ago.
Even though the trip went well, there is nothing like being home again. So, for tonight, I’ll post some pics of this week’s arrivals in the garden (hover to see description, click to see full size):
I wanted to wish all the homeschooling dads out there a happy Father’s Day. When I got home last night, Addison was just putting the finishing touches on the preparation he was making for the weekend:
Mom had helped him with some areas of the yard, but as I understand it, he did most of it. The mowing and hedge trimming extends to the back yard (I didn’t get a picture clear enough to post). The green in the landscape caused the green in the house paint to be pretty washed. There are hundred of blooms in between the front and back yards of irises, day lilies, columbine, roses, bleeding heart, chives, forget-me-nots & phlox.
Click on any image to see it full size.
I think Sarah took this picture of a brooding sky. I thought it might make a decent desktop wallpaper:
Emma takes a pic while we are driving:
We stopped in to take a picture of a small castle I drive by twice a week:
Andrea took this while we were driving through the world’s longest covered bridge. We weren’t driving at the speed the blur suggests:
A couple of light effect images (both by Sarah):
I mentioned I bought a new computer (I have to hear alot of ooOOoo’s and aaaaahhhhhhhhh’s):
Last night I worked on some functionality for Homeschool Journal. Tonight, I’ll be finishing that off. Andrea and I are in process of compiling a comprehensive prioritized punch list of things to do for the site. So, I won’t be posting anything succinct here tonight. In lieu of that, one of the reasons I brought the camera with me this week was that I wanted to take some landscape shots. I got some good ones and some ok ones but before I show too many off, I’ll need to do some image editing.
Before Christmas, Andrea and I were looking at a 5.X megapixel camera which took incredible pictures. I’m really looking forward to the day when we get one. In the meanwhile, here is one of them that will give you the sense of the shot I was going for. Use your imagination to create a crisp image 
This yearling was gracious enough to stand on the road while I coasted up for a close up shot. Once I got about 15 yards away it decided it was time to go. So, I didn’t get a chance to zoom in.
I brought the camera with me this week. Last week, I decided to try another route to the western half of the province. There is no direct route from Miramichi to here. The route I tried is the northern route. As it turns out, this highway’s reputation is much worse than it is in real life. It is better driving than the way I had been going, takes about 20 minutes less time and I use noticeably less gas. Nonetheless, there is a sign at the eastern end of the highway after the last of the houses which one would only be likely to find in Canada (you can click on all the images below to see the full size image):
The translation for the sign is, “make sure you’ve got a tank full of gas and supplies. This road is not our top priority.” About 50 km from the sign (into the wilderness) is this stream/river. The first image is upstream. The second is downstream.
After another 50 km or so, I also saw this river/stream. Both of these rivers are in a protected wilderness area. Upstream and then down.
At about 125 km after the sign, I arrive in Plaster Rock. Plaster Rock is home to Tobique Log Homes, who built Plaster Rock’s handcrafted log tourism center:
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