The Brown Knowser

I took a lot of photos this year. From photo walks to photo studios, from special events to getaways. And, of course, there has been my Bate Island Project , which will continue until March 10, for as long as I cross the Champlain Bridge. As we say goodbye to 2013, I thought I'd share what I feel are the best photos that I took over the year. I started 2013 with a New Year's drive around Wakefield and its environs. And I couldn't stop in Wakefield without checking out the town's covered bridge.  A couple of months after joining a photography group, I signed up for a nude model shoot. Besides the challenge of working in low lighting, I was also challenged with overcoming working with a person with no clothes on. And, after the shoot, I debated whether I would ever share any of my work on my blog. In the end, I decided to post this one photo. Of all the nude shots I took on that day and since, this one is my favourite. In March, I decided that I wanted...

Sometimes, you are faced with beauty every day, and yet, you don't see it. Until you stop and notice. I hate the location of my office: it's in the middle of nowhere, with few buildings in site. At the far end of a dead-end road, it seems remote. Isolated. But on certain days, I see that it is surrounded by beauty. It takes a beautiful autumn day, when the leaves seem to explode in vivid colour. Or, on a winter's day, when the snow settles on the evergreen boughs, when frost paints the branches of the distant, bare trees. Stop and notice the beauty in front of you. What do you see? Happy Friday!

I'm not really here. With Christmas out of the way (did you even see yesterday's post?), I'm putting my feet up and relaxing, because I figure that most of you are relaxing, too. Or searching madly for Boxing Day sales. There will be another post for Photo Friday , tomorrow.

Merry Christmas from the Brownfoots!

I first posted this story two years ago and have now made it my holiday tradition. If you haven't read it before, I hope you enjoy it. If you have read it before, I'm hoping that you make it your holiday tradition in reading it again. Merry Christmas, and all the best over the holiday season! At first, we did it out of excitement, unable to wait. Later, it became a game about how far we could go, how much risk we were willing to take. In time, it became a ritual. The first time we crept downstairs, anxious to see what Santa left us, my younger sister, Jen, and I faced an obstacle: each other. "Go to bed," I whispered, not wanting her to make any noise, thereby arousing the attention of our parents, who had only a half hour or less gone to bed after placing our wrapped gifts under the tree. Our older sister, Holly, was sound asleep, able to contain her excitement and curiosity. The first time that Jen and I met on the stairs, we got our parents' attention...

The very first time I heard Brother Down , by Sam Roberts Band , I loved it. The song was played on CBC Radio, the day before Sam and his band were to perform at Bluesfest for the first time (it was either in 2005 or 2006). As luck would have it, I was volunteering for the Ottawa Blues Society tent that night, and my shift was ending just before the band was set to play. The Sam Roberts Band puts on a great live performance. Despite the pouring rain, I watched the concert, which was held on the main stage, outside City Hall (this was before Bluesfest moved to the grounds of the Canadian War Museum). Sam Roberts thanked the crowd for their enthusiasm, and promised to return every year for as long as Bluesfest would invite him. I saw him perform at Bluesfest four or five times. And on Parliament Hill, for Canada Day. And I've bought every album that he's put out. His latest album, Lo-Fantasy , isn't set for release until February 11, 2014. But Sam and the boys h...

Despite the snow, despite the frigid temperatures, it's still autumn. For one more day. I love the fall. It's my favourite time of year. It starts out dry, with mild days and cool nights. Colours pop, and when the wind picks up, the air is alive with fluttering leaves. It's a perfect time of year for walks in the woods. The days grow shorter, the darkness starts to take over. In late October and early December, the rains come, and if it's cold enough, we are greeted by snow. The rivers seem to slow as ice starts to form. The sunset, seemingly brief, tries to give us one last ounce of warmth, but the cold wins at the end of the day. Today is the last day of autumn. Tomorrow, winter officially takes hold of the land for three months. Tomorrow, we have the least amount of daylight. And then it starts to get better. Goodbye, autumn. Monday, December 16: the last visible autumn sunset in Ottawa for 2013. Happy Friday!

This blog post is a repeat but is  timeless for the holidays. If you haven't read this post before, enjoy. If you have, suck it up I hope you enjoy reading it again. I'll have another traditional holiday post on Monday. When they were little, my kids called me a "Christmas-hater" and the name stung. But only a little. * On some level, I'm not a fan of Christmas. Not of the decorating, nor of the card giving (actually, the Brownfoots have pretty much given up on that front), nor, especially, of the shopping. I hate going near the malls and department stores at this time of year: fighting crowds, standing in lines, searching for that ever-elusive parking space. Not being religious, the spiritual side of Christmas is lost on a cynic like me. My participation in the festivities this year included some shopping, getting our tree, standing it in the house, and helping my wife with the lights and flashy gold garland. I actually left the room and let the...

Tempers flare. Voices rise. In the weeks that lead to Christmas, humanity is lost. People fail to be courteous: a four-way stop? That's for others to obey, not me. If I can squeeze through, right behind the person ahead of me, the others can wait. Why is that person doing the posted speed limit? Don't they know how to drive in the snow? Let me lean on my horn, to prod them along. And, as soon as I can, I'm going to race around them. Show them who's boss! Wait behind that long line of cars that is waiting to make that turn? Not me: I'll just pull out and pass them all, only to cut back in line, closer to the intersection. I'm more important, after all. I've seen these drivers on the road, lately. They aren't in as great a number when the weather is fine and road conditions are favourable. They seem to come out of the woodwork at this time of year, this silly season. It must be the last-minute shoppers, or the ones who fret that their holiday isn...

I don't like to think about Christmas until about 10 days before December 25. It's not because I'm a Grinch—I'm not (I'll be blogging about that later this week): it's just that, for me, it's just another holiday. It doesn't warrant any more attention than Thanksgiving, or Easter, or Canada Day. The stores just want us to place importance on it until our wallets are lighter and their shops are emptied. And so, I don't tend to give the last holiday of the year much attention until it's quite close. Last week, my friend Amanda Cottreau released a new song, Almost Christmas . She contacted her friends and folks on social media to announce the song and to get it the attention it deserves. In a small way, I helped her spread the word by retweeting the news she broke. I also told her that I would listen to the song when we got closer to the holiday, but she encouraged me to listen to it sooner, saying that it was "an aid to get you thro...

I've been doing this for as long as I've had a camera. Every December, I head downtown and capture the lights on Parliament Hill , Sparks Street, and the War Memorial. No matter how many times I do it, how I always freeze my finger tips, there are some photo opportunities that I can't resist. My favourite spot is the War Memorial. Not only does it have the great colours of blue and purple, but you have the harsh spotlights on the ice-cold granite and drab bronze. I love how the lights cast shadows, making the mass of weathered soldiers grow and seemingly come to life.   Happy Friday!

When I was in my teens, I used to tell people, "I'm the best friend money can buy." (I still say that.) But now, I'm also essential. According to OttawaStart , that is. The Ottawa information and events blog named it's top 40 picks for Ottawa blogs in its Essential Ottawa Blogs list, and The Brown Knowser made the list. I'm honoured. I remember reading the list when it last came out, in 2011, when my blog was fairly new (I ended Brownfoot Journal that same year). I saw the blogs that were listed and I thought to myself, I hope I get as good as these blogs, I hope I get a lot of readers, and I hope they like what I do. I'm not worthy. I see the blogs that are on this list and I've read many of them. I'm in very good company. Many of the blogs in this list were also in the 2011 list. And they're still great, if not better. I have to pull up my socks. Thank you to Glen Gower for adding me to this list. Thank you for recogn...

When Steve Jobs died, in 2011, Apple, understandably, displayed a photo of the man on their corporate Web site, showing the man that co-founded the company and the years that represented his lifespan. One would expect no less with the passing of their iconic figure, who seemed as large as the products he created. This weekend, when my wife and I wanted to do some online shopping at the Apple Store, we saw this when we went to the store's Web site. And I was sad. Sad, not just for the passing of a man who eclipsed not only Jobs, but every other world leader that comes to mind, but I was sad for the fact that Apple would display this man on an online store's site. Like he was a spokesperson for Apple. It was, to me, as though Apple was saying, "We're all sad about the passing of Nelson Mandela. And, while you're shopping online, remember that Apple proudly produces the iPod Touch in black and white. In harmony: just like Nelson wanted." I decide...

I was first introduced to the Canadian Indie-rock band, Metric , by a friend who only knew me as Roland Axam . Naomi and I were discussing music when she told me her favourite band had just released a new album, Fantasies . She e-mailed me MP3 files of some of their earlier songs, Poster of a Girl , Wet Blanket , Monster Hospital , The Police and the Private , and my favourite, Too Little Too Late . A week later, I had a copy of Fantasies and had my family loving the band. When Metric came to Ottawa for the 2010 Bluesfest , the Brownfoots were there, in the crush, as close as we could get. Emily Haines was electric on stage: she moved non-stop, bouncing from her keyboards to guitar, dancing end-to-end across stage, and literally bending over backwards to please the crowd ( I have the photos to prove it ). And, of course, she's smokin' hot. When the band announced the release of Synthetica , I ordered it immediately. (It's the last CD I purchased—everything's...

In May of 1988, I boarded a train in Glasgow, Scotland, and headed to Berlin, Germany. It was the first time that I had travelled abroad, my first time in Europe. And I travelled alone. I was doing research work for a story I was writing about Roland Axam, and for that I spent some time in Edinburgh, in North Berwick, and finally, East and West Berlin. Because I spoke no German at the time, and I found that not many of the locals spoke English, I spent most of my three days in that Cold War-torn country without speaking more than a couple of words. To eat, I pointed to pictures of food on menus. I knew how to say "ein bier, bitte" and "danke," but otherwise kept my mouth shut. I stayed in a pension off the Kurfurstendamm, the Kima, and spoke to no one. Not the hotel staff, not to the other guests. When I cleared my breakfast dishes from the table in the dining room, I received laughs from everyone for my efforts. My only solace was that I wandered the grea...

Where In Ottawa has been solved. And the contest itself may have been saved. Thanks to the encouraging comments I received through Facebook, Twitter, and other means, it's apparent that there is still enough interest to keep it going. Congratulations to Andrea, who correctly identified The Sassy Bead Company , in the Byward Market. Here is the only clue she needed: Cornering the Market since the early 90s—when Ottawans think of beads, I'm sure the majority think of this shop, which has been in the Byward Market since the 1990s. It's not exactly on a street corner, but it's darn close. While the jury is out on whether I should shut down this contest, which has been running for almost two-and-a-half years, I think I'm going to take a break. When, and if, it returns, I may end the giveaway or come up with something different. Thanks for playing.

I have been writing since I was in elementary school. In the fifth grade, a couple of friends and I wrote a kids' book, The Hiccupy Monster , about a pseudo-dino/dragon who had a case of the hiccups and how his friends helped him get rid of them ( a shout out to a social-media friend of mine, Maureen Turner , who helped me last week, when I couldn't shake my hiccups ). One of my friends drew the pictures while my other friend and I wrote the story. In grade six, we spent time, each week, working on creative writing. I would write mini-mysteries, adventures, and an ongoing saga called Biff the Bionic Bullfrog . My teacher, Mr. Townsend, encouraged my writing and had me read my creations to the class every week. While I enjoyed writing, I didn't actually decide that I wanted to be an author until I was in my mid teens, when I began reading the spy stories of Len Deighton . I loved the imagery that Deighton crafted, how his main, nameless hero was real, made mistakes, an...

I'm feeling the end is at hand. Over the past few months, looking at my stats, I see that the interest in my monthly contest, Where In Ottawa , is waning. Fewer people have visited this post than I used to see, and very few people actually leave a guess. It's as if you only want to leave a guess if you're certain of the location. Maybe I'm completely wrong, but this month's challenge will be a barometer to whether there is still an interest in the contest. If you play the game, leave a guess, no matter how outlandish it may be. And who knows? You might actually be right!  If I see that there is a significant interest in this post, it will live on. If the stats show me that the interest is at the current level or lower, this will be the last time I run it. So, are you ready to show you like this contest and want to keep it going? Let's get the rules out of the way first: If you were with me when I took the photo, you cannot play. If you have won Wher...

As this week drew to a close, I realized that I haven't taken many photos this week. Apart from my Bate Island Project photos, I haven't pulled my camera out since before the snow fell. As a precursor to the snow, we had a very foggy Friday, last week. From my office, I would look out the window and see the fog intensify. At one point, it looked like my office building was up in the clouds, that I was looking out into nothing. As I left the office, camera bag slung over my shoulder, I knew that I couldn't let the weather opportunity pass. I took this photo from the parking lot of my company, looking out onto Highway 5 in Gatineau. The next day, the snow fell. It wasn't much, but the temperatures refused to let it melt. Wednesday's snowfall covered the grass for the season. But I'm certain that the fog will return. Happy Friday!

So, we've had it: the first snow storm of the season. Though we don't officially reach winter for more than three weeks, we in Canada typically think of late November as winter. Because, really, any time after November 1st, and on rare occasions, before, the snow can come to Ottawa, turning the city into a winter wonderland. And yesterday's storm packed a good punch. Almost 25cm (almost 10 inches) of wet, heavy snow blanketed the city by the morning. It was a good cardio workout, clearing the driveway (and again, later, after the plow pushed a short wall back in. I don't mind the snow too much, just as long as I have enough time in the morning to clear it, and the roads are plowed, for when I have to get somewhere. Luckily, for this dump, I was planning to work from home anyway. But what gets me is how people seem to freak out at the prospect of snow, how the Twitterverse and radio were trying to come up with a name for the impending storm. All day, on Tuesda...