The Brown Knowser

Not that I had ever stopped my virtual challenges. Even when DW and I were in Portugal, I was counting my steps toward my Appalachian Trail challenge, which I had started on June 30. The bike ride that we took, from Cascais toward Cabo da Roca, also gave me another 20 kilometres. I had figured that I would only cover about 10 kms, maybe 15, while we were on vacation but most days exceeded those distances: a couple were nearly 20K; one day, we surpassed 26. Even after we returned and came down with COVID-19, I managed to travel a bit—though, only from a half kilometre to two kilometres on the worst days. But every step went toward my virtual challenge. Last Thursday, I finally finished the Appalachian Trail challenge, completing the 3,167.6-km route in 119 days, at an average of about 26.6 kms a day. I finished the challenge exactly one week earlier than I had given myself to complete it. Not bad. I was considering stopping my virtual challenges with this latest route. I've no...

If the past few days were any indication, winter isn't just around the corner. Not yet. Autumn has always been my favourite time of year, with the changing colours in the trees and moderate days. It's hard to believe that on the second-last Sunday of October, I was still wearing shorts. DW and I were going to remove the rack from the roof of our car, figuring that our days of going somewhere with our kayaks were finished for the season. And yet, on Sunday, we were on Calabogie Lake, sweating. Not that this was a total surprise: last year, I was taking out my road bike for rides until the second week of November, after we had already put the snow tires on our vehicles. I haven't hung my bike from the ceiling in our garage, yet, and still plan to do more rides. Probably, tomorrow and Sunday, which are shaping up just nicely. Autumn isn't over yet. Will we get one final paddle in? Fingers crossed. Autumn is great, and last weekend and the beginning of the week have proven ...

A bag of gingersnap cookies has never been safe around me. Photo source: Google As a kid, we didn't keep them in the house that often because I would easily devour the bag within a couple of days. I remember setting up an obstacle course around the main floor of our house, where I'd have to jump over broom sticks or crawl under chairs, and bounce my way down the length of our sofa. The obstacle course would take me through the kitchen, where I'd have a stack of cookies awaiting me. As I passed through the kitchen, I'd grab a cookie, pop it in my mouth (gingersnaps are fairly small, even for a kid), and start another lap around the house. When I moved out on my own, gingersnap cookies were always on my grocery list. I'd keep the bag next to the chair in the TV room, and I'd snack on the cookies while watching my favourite programs. I'm older, now, and these addictive cookies go to my belly faster than a pint of beer, so I've sort of given them up, though ...

Honestly, it wasn't much of an effort, though I was prepared to give it my all. Never before have I followed municipal elections more closely than I did during the recent election, which came to an end last night. And it was an education that made me want to be more involved, next time. For me, the choice for mayor was obvious. A candidate who had been a councillor for years, who had engaged with their ward and the city as a whole, and who was dedicated toward positive, solid change for our city. Sadly, more voters saw a radio host with no experience as a better choice, and we'll have to live with that decision for the next four years. I also researched the candidates in my ward who were running for school-board trustee. Even though my kids have moved on to college and university, and I no longer have any skin in the game, I wanted our area to be represented by someone who had the interest of students, who was inclusive and wanted every kid to reach their potential. For my own ...

It's municipal election day in Ontario. Across the province, voters will be choosing who will lead their city, which councillors will represent their wards, and who has been elected as a trustee for their schools. It's an important day. You get to have your say about who you think is the best choice for mayor, who will fight for your best interests in your neighbourhood, and who will steer policy in the various school boards. These are issues and policies that affect you the most, can have an almost immediate impact, and sometimes touch your life more than a provincial or federal election. Get out and vote. If you need more information about the Ontario municipal elections, go to their Web site . To learn more about your municipality and who is running, go the list of Ontario municipalites . If you're eligible to vote, vote. It's not just a right: it's a responsibility. As a reminder, only about 18 percent of eligible Ontario voters cast their ballot in the last pro...

It had been a while since DW and I had visited Mud Lake, so last Sunday's outing was long overdue. We had tried to get in the habit of getting out in nature, and Mud Lake is a good place to go. We usually bring our cameras, as there is plenty of wildlife to capture: all sorts of water fowl and other birds, as well as squirrels, chipmunks, and other critters. But there is one creature that I've seen in other people's social media photos that I have been unsuccessful at capturing, myself. Until last Sunday. We've known that the woods surrounding Mud Lake are home to screech owls, yet we had never sighted one ourselves. With much of the autumn leaves on the ground, we hoped that we'd be able to spy one through the bare branches. And so we kept our eyes on the lookout along the trail. There was a lot to see. At the start of the trail, where it comes close to an opening to the lake, there are always plenty of mallard and wood ducks to photograph. Chickadees approach you ...

I have to admit, I had some bizarre hair styles when I was in my teens. I guess that as a young kid, I was trying to figure myself out and get comfortable with a style that defined who I wanted to be. It probably wasn't until my late 30s or my early 40s that I was truly comfortable with the 'real' me. Now, in my late 50s, I figure that I am who I am: that's not to say that I don't have an open mind for ideas and opinions, but I really don't care to create any new version of myself. I really don't care much about my appearance, these day: the inside me is more important. Sure, I want to be clean and well-groomed, but I essentially leave my hair alone until it gets long enough that it starts sticking in my ears, and then I get it cut short enough that I don't need to worry about brushing it. That's how little I care about my hair. So when I was looking through a photo folder with pictures of me over the decades, I was almost taken aback by a couple of ...

When DW and I set out for our trip to Portugal, a vacation wasn't all that was on our minds. I can see retirement on the horizon, and we were exploring options as to where we could see ourselves living in the next phase of our lives. Cascais was a potential option. We finally had a late start to the morning, sleeping in almost until 8:00. For us, that's a very late start when we're on vacation. We like to get out and do things before the bulk of tourists are on the move. But today, on the tenth day in Portugal, we were going to get a move on at a later hour. I wanted to capture golden hour, if not sunset, on the west coast. We walked down Rua do Alecrim to the train station in Cais do Sodré and were lucky to hop a train that was just about to pull out. It followed the Tagus River, past Belém and many other stops before ending at the eastern edge of Cascais but still within the town. Exiting the station, we saw a traffic circle and the starting point to our main destina...

It's hard to believe that one month ago, today, DW and I had arrived in Portugal and headed up to Porto. For me, the trip is still so fresh in my mind that it seems like it was only last week that we were walking across the Luis I Bridge, from Porto to Gaia, to capture the sunset over the Douro River. That we were stomping on grapes at a quinta in port wine country. That we were kayaking off the Algarve coastline. That we were riding on old trams and eating some amazing food in the second-oldest European city. All that and more are still fresh in my head, and yet we've been home for more than two weeks. Today, I'm going to share some of the highlights from our time in Lisbon that made memories that we will hang onto for years. I'm not going to talk about the day trips that we took: first, I've already shared one of them while I was in Portugal. There's not much more to add. I'll share our other day trip tomorrow, and then that just might wrap up our trip. I...