The Brown Knowser

I couldn't sleep. Some long-forgotten thought lay heavy on my mind, refused to let me push it back into the back of my head and drift to sleep. And so, as the hours approached dawn, I got up, grabbed my camera, got in my car, and drove. This happened more than 25 years ago. I think something in my head told me that I needed to drive out past Barrhaven, on Fallowfield Road. Somehow, I knew that there would be fog, that I would find structures that would cast an eery glow in the sunrise. That this lonely road was where I needed to be. To this day, this old, foggy morning is one of the best sunrise photo opportunities I have ever had. On this morning, I took so many photos that are among my favourite photos of all time. I have displayed photos from that morning here , here , and here . It was a magical morning. Happy Friday!

I believe her. When a woman says she's been assaulted by a man, I take her word at face value. I take her side. But in light of the unnamed NDP MP who broke her silence to tell her side of a story that led to Liberal leader, Justin Trudeau, suspending two of his MPs, including Montreal MP Massimo Pacetti, who is implicated in sexual misconduct allegations, I feel a great deal of confusion. Don't get me wrong: I don't doubt her side of the story, nor to I dismiss her feelings over what happened. According to media interview, woman said that she and Pacetti had attended a sporting event in which they were members and friends. After the event, she says that Pacetti invited her to his hotel room for drinks: she said that she saw nothing unusual in the invitation because, as MPs, they used hotels as apartments as part of the job. It was in the room where things became serious and the two engaged in sex. The unnamed woman said that while she didn't say no to Pacet...

Florida, February 1990 (Spring Break)

The day's dying light provided the definition, gave the depth to the cruel sky. Long-dead leaves took flight, their path not random or leisurely, but straight, and at great speed, racing away from the coming storm. The wind, when you turned to face it, took your breath away. Only the most stubborn of leaves still clung to the branches of the soon-to-be dormant trees. Droplets of rain fell in quick bursts, coming from the side. What would have been a light, gentle shower, was an assault under the influence of a gale. A sign of what's to come? An impending, turbulent winter?   From Autumn's storm, we look to winter, and hope for calm.

She's such a sweet kid. She's kind-hearted and caring. She's smart. She's funny. She likes to dance ballet and jazz. She likes to watch Dr. Who and Sherlock . And she likes to dress in black with high-topped boots, with studs. And she likes to listen to really loud rock. She's my daughter. At 13, she's developed her own taste in music, one that has diverged from the music that was played in the house through her formative years. I guess it's no different from when I was growing up, when my parents played Neil Diamond, Cat Stevens, and John Denver, and I fell head over heels for Led Zeppelin, The Who, and Yes * . This weekend, my family and I drove down to Syracuse, NY, to visit a friend and get some shopping in before the Christmas madness sets in. Syracuse is not that far from Ottawa: even in sleet and rain, we made it in three hours. The trip home was even shorter. During the drive, we listened to music. On the way down, I played songs; on...

When Ottawans think of Sparks Street, we think of a pedestrian mall that has undergone many transformations. Of a strip of many stores that have come and gone, where history meets the modern age—bricks and stone meet steel and glass. Sparks Street isn't really known for its vibrant night life. Once the government offices close and the shop owners and staff leave for the evening, Sparks Street turns into a ghost town. Sure, there's D'Arcy McGee's at Sparks and Elgin, which does well after office hours, but it's along a major street and, being across from the National War Memorial, it is an attractive draw for many tourists and visitors to the downtown core. But Sparks Street has a new restaurant that promises to draw more visitors to this historic avenue. Bier Markt has had a soft opening this week, with a few private parties and then a general opening on Wednesday evening. And it shows the promise of success. Owned by Prime Restaurants, which also owns D...

When someone asks me what Twitter is all about, I say this: Twitter is like a giant room where everyone talks and anyone can hear, unless you "whisper" to someone in a private chat. What you say in this big room is witnessed by anyone who follows you or who is "listening" for a key word that you might use. If anyone who follows you likes what you have to say, they may repeat it to those that follow him or her, and so on, and so on. You may earn more followers based on how your words spread, and that's what builds the Twitterverse. However, when you put something out there on Twitter, you open yourself to whoever is following you or whoever retweets your tweet. Everyone is on a level playing field in Twitter, so if you don't want to have someone—anyone—respond to something you throw out there, it's best to keep it to yourself. That's Twitter, in a nutshell. I follow more than 1,000 people on Twitter and almost 1,100 people follow me. A mod...

Personally, I don't go shopping this early. I like to wait until the 24th of December to do my shopping, which drives my wife crazy. She's the responsible one. And for all of you who love to start your holiday gift shopping early and get it out of the way, I have a deal for you. Or, rather for that book lover on your list. My book . Autographed. In paperback form. I have copies that I am offering for $20, tax included. If you live in the Ottawa area, I can arrange to have it delivered to you, free of charge; outside of my home town, you would have to pay for shipping. To take advantage of this offer (I have limited quantities), send an e-mail to me at roland_axam@yahoo.ca, and we'll talk. Thanks for your support.

And now, for something completely different. I'm not all about rock and adult alternative music. I also love blues and jazz, and when it comes to jazz, my tastes vary as much as the available styles. I love big-band sounds and bossa nova, but nothing gets my toes tapping like Gypsy jazz. Yesterday, my family battled the snow on worn-out summer tires to get to the small Gatineau town of Wakefield, where we joined family at the Black Sheep Inn to see a performance of the Halifax band, Gypsophilia . The six-member ensemble features guitarists Alec Frith, Nick Wilkinson, and Ross Burns, with Burns adding percussion and a few obscure instruments to add colorful and creative sounds. Burns also spoke for the band between numbers, though all of the members were engaging. Adam Fine played a mean stand-up bass; Matt Myer played keyboard and trumpet, his trumpet harmonized beautifully with Gina Burgess and her violin. The performance was held to a full house with a wide variety of ag...

For the past few Wednesday evenings, I've found myself in Manotick, waiting for my young daughter, who has been enrolled in an activity (that's enough information: her private life is her private life). Because the activity only takes an hour, it's not worth my while to drive home, and so I find myself looking for things to do. As lovely as Manotick is, it's not a hotbed of activity. One week, in search of a coffee shop, I learned that the only place that is open at that hour is the nearby Tim Hortons . I don't like their coffee and I try to avoid doughnuts at all costs, so I either have to choke down that hot, coffee-like beverage (their new dark roast is only mildly better) or I have to find something else to do. The following week, I decided to go to one of the town's pubs, The Black Dog Bistro , which has a great selection of local craft brews on tap. It's a much-better option to Tim's, but also much more expensive (I guess you get what you pay...

I only had one clue left. It was a giveaway clue, something about this not being the time to slack off. But I didn't need that clue. And while this month's Where In Ottawa challenge took longer to solve than any other image, an easy clue wasn't necessary. November's location was the old Merivale Public School, Nepean Township's thirteenth school.     Here are the clues, explained: It's how they used to do things—you know, like, old school. This one-room school has been around since at least 1845. Unlucky number—this was school number 13 in Nepean Township. Risen from the ashes—the stone school that exists today, on Slack Road (see where I was going with the final, untold clue?), replaced an earlier, wooden school, which burned to the ground. Oranges & Buddhists—after the school's closure, in 1955, it became an Orange Hall and, later, a meeting hall for the Buddhist Society of Ottawa. Class dismissed in 1955—as I said, the school closed ...

This is a day of few words. Having seen the beaches of Normandy, this summer, knowing the place where young Canadian soldiers put their lives on the line or made a great sacrifice on D-Day in World War II, words cannot convey my gratitude and pride. In Ottawa, at the National War Memorial, the risks and sacrifices of our soldiers is deeply felt. We remember.

In May, 1988, Berlin was still firmly divided, and for a young Canadian visiting the historic German city, alone, without knowing the language, I found it somewhat intimidating. And exciting. And scary. I walked through Checkpoint Charlie, from the American Sector into the Soviet Sector, knowing that I was entering this repressive district with a plan to explore back alleys, away from the tourist areas. I had a micro-cassette recorder in my camera bag, and I would use it to make notes about a novel I was working on. It was a spy novel, with Roland Axam as the main character. It was only on my return to West Berlin, as I was smuggling the unused West German marks in my shoes, that I realized that had the border guards decided to listen to my recordings, they would hear me speaking about alcoves in apartment buildings that could hide entrances to a tunnel to the west. About names of defectors. Not knowing that one-and-a-half years later, the wall would come down, I sweated...

A definite sign that winter is around the corner in the national capital can be seen when the Rideau Canal has been drained and the National Capital Commission ( NCC ) has placed the change huts on the yet-to-be prepared, world's largest skating rink. Drivers who usually use Colonel By Drive may have encountered tie-ups as cranes hoisted the modern facilities from flat-bed trucks onto the muddy beds of the canal. Photo credit: CBC I like the new change huts: the curves and glass are welcoming. The interiors are bright and warm. And while the price tag of the seven new huts make most gasp—at $750,000 apiece, each hut costs more than double what my house is worth—in the grand scheme of things, I'm sure they're a worthwhile investment. At that price, I really hope they last a long time. Photo credit: www.canadianarchitect.com I call these huts "new," though we've had them for a couple of years—they were unveiled in January of 2012—but I do so to d...

Ever since my kids could communicate, whether by speaking or in writing, they have been inquisitive. They have wanted to know how a TV works, why we have to stop when a traffic light turns red, and how we vote for our leaders. And I have done my best to answer these and other burning questions in a direct and honest manner. Except when it came to topics to do with our holidays and traditions. When I was asked about Santa Claus, about where he lived and whether he was real or not, I stuck with the common childhood belief: he lives in the North Pole, I would say. Yes, he's real. The same went for the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny. Over the years, my kids would continue to ask if these characters really existed. I figured they were encountering debates at school: some kids believed; others did not, depending on his or her religious and cultural beliefs. And so I would maintain, when asked, that these folks were real, just as long as you believed that they existed. On Christ...

Do you remember that episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation , entitled " The Game "? How Commander Riker was introduced to an electronic game that rewarded the player with pleasant sensations when a goal in the game was reached? Remember how Wesley Crusher discovered that the game was detrimental to the crew of the Enterprise and how he resisted the game to save the day? Yeah, that. Resistance is futile. You will play the game. My wife doesn't care for computer games, for the most part. She doesn't think that time should be wasted in non-productive activities for any prolonged period of time. In the past, she has limited the time that any family member spends on a game. If we find ourselves lost in front of a screen, she has been good at bringing us back to the real world. It was my eldest daughter who first started playing the game, and dear daughter number two was quick to follow suit. It seemed like a harmless game, where the player manages time and...

Fall is clearly in the air, the days are getting shorter, and the weather is crisp and clear. This is my favourite time of year, when the coloured leaves crunch underfoot and you can see your breath, but the snow hasn't come yet. This is the time of year that I really like to get out and take photographs. And this weekend, I got out to shoot a trail in Gatineau Park, to photograph something I've been meaning to shoot for years—something that isn't far from my neighbourhood—and shoot a location for my monthly blog contest. The forty-first edition of Where In Ottawa is ready to go. If you haven't played this challenge before—or even if you have but you've forgotten the rules—here are the conditions of play. The following photograph was taken somewhere in the greater Ottawa region. Your job: locate it. If you think you know the location of the structure in the image, leave your guess in the Comments section of this post. Answers sent to me by Twitter, Facebo...