Cool - it now matches my car.

Here's a screenshot I took, centered more or less on where I live. Note the rate of 48 strikes/min! It really did feel like being in the middle of a bombardment.

Here's a late addition to your gallery, showing the flooding along the pathway at the west end of Britannia Beach.

A nice cinco de mayo sunset this evening at Britannia Beach in Ottawa, where there is still significant flooding.

I hope Gordon Lightfoot continues to rest in peace on that carefree highway - he died on May 1, 2023 (ok, I'm a day late, and definitely a dollar short). Here he is with two other departed Gords, and I see @ronsexsmith.bsky.social, or at least his paper proxy, looking over the shoulders of giants.

There's no statue plated with fool's gold of him yet (that I know of), but here's another fat fuck who is fully deserving of the same treatment.

I always hated his music, and now I also despise him as a person. The circle is complete. How's your Earth Day going? Check out this snapshot I just took of how Ontario's electricity is being generated 23.4% from gas, and 0.8% from solar, on a day that is sunny nearly everywhere in the province.

Sunset admirers gathered at Britannia Beach on the Ottawa River tonight (photo taken with handheld camera phone, unprocessed).

A sunset dip in the pool, on our last day before returning to winter in Canada. Saint Martin, Valentine's Day, 2026.

I'm all for that. And here's an idea for our forthcoming high-speed rail system... it might need some adaptation for our climate.

My shot just after sunset at Britannia Beach this evening was photobombed by a dog.

These two posts appeared consecutively in my timeline today. I'm betting a lot, perhaps the majority, of our 'rearming' materiel will come from sources in the US.

The aftermath of our recent freezing rain event (from a second-floor window). Happily, no damage or power outages here.

The news today is bleak, and it's an unusually chilly first day of March here in Canada's capital, but I have a sunny window by which to repose, and I'm making the best use of my time by reading Science Under Siege, by @michaelemann.bsky.social and @peterhotezmdphd.bsky.social. Highly recommended.

In case you haven't seen it yet, here's something that's right in your wheelhouse.

Here's one I snapped last night with the phone camera when I stepped outside for a few seconds... it was quite hazy from the cloud cover. That's Jupiter on the right.

Here's a couple of their northern brethren (in Ottawa, Ontario) that we encountered on our walk today in a nearby conservation area.

He could've added that Norway is the global leader in EV adoption with more than 90% of new vehicles this year being EVs. Meanwhile, Trump is hellbent on destroying the planet by discouraging renewable energy development, rolling back environmental protection, & accelerating fossil fuel extraction.

I had my first little xc ski outing yesterday near Mud Lake. Seconds after I took this pic, I was enveloped by a snow squall!

My headquarters for awhile this morning after I finished shoveling snow with the wind chill north of -20°C. That's my Kobo e-reader with Ed Yong's excellent book An Immense World within. Alas, the sun never got close to full strength, and soon faded completely.

Our backyard bird feeder, for one thing. This week we have an unusual visitor, a Fox Sparrow who has stopped for a few days on its way south. He (or she, very difficult to tell with this species) defends the feeder very aggressively and chases away all comers, except for bluejays.

In a conservation area, a short walk from where I live in Ottawa... on October 29, the day before the deluge arrived. In the foreground, there lurks a wood duck, and seconds after I took this pic, I got photo-bombed by a chickadee.

Today is Sun Day, and the sun is shining shining brightly here in Ottawa and, it appears, in most parts of southern and eastern Ontario. So let's check the grid... we're getting 1.9% of our electricity from solar, and a whopping 29% from gas. The Ford government is mortgaging our future!

I spotted an interesting visitor in the backyard garden today: a White Admiral butterfly, resting on a cherry tomato plant. Butterflies have not been abundant around here this summer, except for Cabbage White butterflies, which attack brassica crops and are major pests.

Measured this in my front yard in Britannia this morning at about 11am. Retreated indoors where we have air purifiers running and the PM2.5 / AQI was 4.6 / 19. Aside from the smoke and heat, the mosquitoes were after me!

The AQHI has jumped up to 7, so it's getting into the hazardous zone. We were just out picking up some groceries, and the haze and smell of smoke was quite noticeable. An N95 or equivalent respirator-type mask works wonders if you need to be outdoors!

Here's the picture in Ontario at noon today. There's plenty of sun, but solar is providing only a paltry 1.5% of the total. Our wretched provincial government immediately killed development of renewable energy when they were first elected in 2018, and the travesty continues.

We had a memorable visit to this impressive structure on a rainy day in October 2014.