For those left stranded by the malfunctioning Fortuitious, a view of the Ottawa River from Crown Point on Canada Day. My buddy Brian is officially retired today and we got in a little advanced celebration on Tuesday at his place west of Ottawa.

A couple more of the warblers from my back yard.

This cardinal is a frequent visitor to my back yard. With a little practice, I can whistle something close to his call and that brings him running to see who's the strange bird on the deck.

Our white clamatis is down to two flowers but suddenly we've got new buds and a red flower emerging from the vine.

We picked up these beauties in Montreal on the weekend. Now to figure out where to plant them.

It's now the time of the roses in our garden. The only problem photographically is that they all face east, over the fence, toward my neighbour Alicia. I think it's because she talks to them more than I do.

Now my roses are starting to bloom. I must credit the former owners for leaving me a beautiful garden to work with.

One last post of the beautiful climbing clamatis on our back deck. The blossoms are almost gone now, but for the past month, we've had a wall of white.

A new bloom in my garden to greet this morning.

My son Steve graduated today from Algonquin College with his Business Certificate, Small and Medium Enterprise Management. Way to go Steve!

The trees in our back yard are full of birdhouses constructed by the previous owner. Unfortunately, the abundance of black squirrels seems to make them a dangerous nesting place.

My new Chiminea...an elegant form of burn barrel.

Ironwork in my buddy's garden....can't wait to add my own.

More from my bountiful new gardens, this one courtesy of the previous owners.

My first posts with my new camera, from my backyard garden.

This was our house around the end of March.

This is our house today, almost a month later. We're having our first thunderstorm, the air quality advisories have started, surely it's time to put Rob's dock in the water!

A sure sign Spring may be here. This was a six foot snowbank two weeks ago. Can golf season please start so life can get back to exceptional?

That's a 35 centimetre ruler I'm holding. We got more than 50 yesterday. The top picture is the view out our front door.

Willie P. Bennett 1951-2008

Any guesses as to the name of this delicacy?

This fish was still breathing.

Found a few more pictures from Hong Kong, this time a fresh seafood market on the street near the hotel.

We toured the inner harbour in one of these little boats. There is fishing fleet of maybe 50 to 80 small boats, many with people living on board. There were also a few dozen multimillion dollar boats berthed nearby.