The Selfie Project – September to November

There are limits to how big a web page can be before it becomes slow and cumbersome. We began our project in mid-July and two months means about 60 photos. That is enough for a page. So we have begun this page for pictures taken in the next two months. 

 

Hats

I have gotten into the habit of wearing hats. Being bald, if it is cold I am cold, unless, I have a hat on. Not only that, if I hit my bald head on something it hurts. Hairs protects your head. Not mine! So I have come to like hats. Hats of all kinds. And my hats bring out different parts of my personality. Take a look.

7 September 2020 – As I said, my hats bring out different parts of my personality. This is my “Greek God” look!

14 September 2020 – The first racking of my Blackberry Wine. Working around the house in my work clothes I have several old peaked caps I have acquired from places I have forgotten. All very beat up but they shield my eyes and protect my head.

12 September 2020 – My Crofter’s Cap I got in Alaska when we went on a cruise with Kate and Colin. The wool sweater I love. I got this in Charlottetown last year on our trip down East to visit with Sam and Nico.

13 September 2020 – Nico gave me my Pixie Hat. It was made by an old highschool girlfriend but it was a little too radical for his taste. The young  do need to conform!

15 September 2020 – Today you get six pictures of me and the bird. Christina gave us the bird and it lives on the lawn in our back yard. 

17 September 2020 – I spend a lot of time here at my very messy desk. I think I have Attention Defficet Disorder because I have so many projects. The truth is, it drives me nuts to have so many things on the go at once.

19 September 2020 – I drove Susan to the dentist this morning. While she was in the chair I went and got a coffee and sat in the car listening to “Saturday at the Opera” on CBC.

18 September 2020 – The weather is changing. It is colder now when I sit with my morning coffee. It won’t be long before I’ll be having my coffee in the house.

20 September 2020 – Grinding peppers this morning to make my famous Hot Pepper Jelly. Made twenty four jars today.

21 September – Picking Basil for Pesto. This was the second harvest from the Basil plants. They really grow well here along the side of the house.

23 September – It rained this morning for my quiet coffee time.

24 September – my morning coffee starts here. Simple process with good ingeddients.

16 September – I worked about 15 years for Ansan before I retired. Miss it a little bit. I still have my hat and jacket.

27 September – The apples in the garden are ready and Susan asked me to peel some for a pie. Well, how could I say “No”?

25 September – walking in the park weo found freshly fallen chestnuts. They are so pretty. It is a shame that we can’t eat them or use them for something.

26 September – I photograph my cameras for my writing about them on my website. A simple setup with two strobes but it works.

22 September – Today I got out my Italian “Calcio” hat which I picked up years ago during Italian Days on Commercial Drive.

28 Septmber – Susan and I went for a walk on Burnaby Mountain. We walked up to the Simon Fraser campus and through to Univercity. The day was beautiful. In the far distance you can see downtown Vancouver and the harbour.

01 October 2020 – Caesar and Nico built a new deck for the little house in the garden and I decided to build a lattice to hide the stuff Susan stored under it. First I had to cut the lathe strips from 2×4’s.

03 October 2020 – Once the lathe was done assembly was easy. The bottom however was uneven which bothered me so I found some nice cedar boards to finish the bottom edge.

05 October 2020 – And here is my project finished. The front lattice lifts off easily for access to the storage area underneath the deck but looking from the front there is no way to tell. Now Susan can cram all she wants under here.

02 October 2020 – With all the work I do on my websites it is sometimes hard to remember that my hobby is photography! But I do get out to take pictures now and then. On this day I took my infrared camera for a walk along our usual walking trail and took this picture of myelf. When you photograph in infrared blues come out black and greens are white. I won’t bore you with an explaination of why this is so but you get truly interesting results.

04 October 2020 – It’s October and Susan’s baskets are still beautiful. It has been a good year for the garden and hanging baskets.

29 September 2020 – Taking a break in the Italian Gardens in Hastings Park.

06 October 2020 – Like I said, the baskets are still beautiful. The back patio is still looking beautiful.

30 September 2020 – Down at New Brighton Park by the Second Narrows Bridge.

07 October 2020 – Going to be Grape Jam!

08 October 2020 Look how much Susan can coax out of her little piece of land!

09 October 2020 – Shelling the Beans.

12October 2020 – I am cutting several cabbages for Susan’s Sauerkraut. Her fresh kraut is delicious – nothing like you buy in the store! You can eat it fresh out of the brine and it tastes just like fresh cabbage.

10 October 2020 – Bringing home lumber from Home Depot for another project for Susan. These  little tasks never seem to end!

11 October 2020 – Coffee break – one of several each day!

15 October 2020 – Always painting and repairs to be done. This time on the downstairs bathroom.

13 October 2020 – Susan gets all the credit for her garden but the grass is mine. Look at that green! It is not all grass. It is a thousand different things from moss to quality grass and clover. But it is a good ground cover, soft and thick. It actually takes very little care and it repairs damage to it all by itself. And no pesticides!

14 October 2020 – A walk around Deer Lake with Susan, Vi and John. It is a pretty park that feels a long way from the city.

17 October 2020 – The secret to good wine making is rigorous testing. I rigorously tested this wine for an hour! Wow, it is coming just fine!

16 October 2020 – A rainy day and a chance to catch up on some reading. I am allowed to sit on this chesterfield because it is my mother’s.

18 October 2020 – On the left is today’s picture taken in my Scotish “Tam o’ Shanter”. I bought this hat in Edinburgh while cycling in the British Isles in 1958. A few days later, deep in the Scottish Highlands I took this picture of me with my new hat in the heather. The hat still looks great and I still look …. hmmmmm …. well, older.

19 October 2020 – This is where the goodness happens. My desk is behind my 44″ printer. I have just cleaned my room because Susan could not stand it any longer! In truth, it normally does not look like this. But hey, a guy has to work you know!

20 October 2020 -Back to my hats. This is one of my favorites! This was on my table as I sat down for Mary Blair’s wedding at Disneyland in California. My name is embroidered on the other side and it was the seating card. Brilliant!

22 October 2020 – This will go down as the year of the Trump-Biden election. I have been addicted to CNN all year. Tonite is the last Trump-Biden. debate.

21 October 2020 – Walking around Deer Lake with my Infrared 20D camera. IR photography is interesting because of the way things register in infrared. The image has to be printed in black and white because of the extreme color shifts. There is actually very little “color” in the final image file.

23 October 2020 – Beautiful fall weather and I am out in the park taking pictures!

24 October 2020 – The apples this year have been fantastic. The apple tree in Susan’s garden is small but it is a wonderful producer and the apples are crisp and running with juice.

25 October 2020 – The house is 40 years old and there is lots of refinishing required. This week I am having a go at refinishing the woowindow sills that have give up their finsh.

26 October 2020  Halloween is upon us and we got our pumkin. What a beauty! Now to carve it.

27 October 2020 –  This is the Yukkkk part!

29 October 2020  Well now, who’s your artist?

31 October 2020  Our pumkin sat on the porch tonight – but we got no gobblins!

28 October 2020 – This year the apples are incredible! And we have so many of them.  I guess this year we will do apple sauce in jars.

30 October 2020 – Is that a Nikon in my hand? Tell me it isn’t so!!! Well, actually, it is. But the truth is I like all cameras. But there is neither room nor time for them all. But I weakened and bought this Nikon F “Apollo” just to try it out.

1 November 2020  Susan wanted extra leaves to cover her garden beds so they don’t freeze this winter so we went to the local park and raked for an hour to bring this lot home in garbage bags.

2 November 2020  We needed a new roof on the garden shed so our grandson Nico found a cedar log in Squamish and split shakes for us.

3 November 2020  It is November and the last of the apples have to be picked.

4 November 2020   Election day in the United States. The TV was on all day!

6 November 2020   Walking on our path through the woods.

5 November 2020  Tonight it is meatloaf. As usual, I cook with wine. The glass is never far from my hand! I even put some in the meat.  But not much. Most of it went in the cook.

7 November 2020   Out for a walk under the fall foliage. Such a beautiful day to be out.

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9 November 2020  I am waiting on Hastings Street for Susan while she is shopping. The quality of photos from my cell phone amazes me. No wonder the camera industry was so impacted by smart phones!

10 November 2020   A chilly fall day: the air is fresh in from the ocean and the sun is in a clear sky. I love the changing seasons and days like this are a joy for the soul.

8 November 2020  I do love blackberries, especially squeezed and fermented.

11 November 2020  Remembrance day and I am thinking about my father who was a veteran. I am writing about him and his war service at billmarr.ca.

12 November 2020   The camera research never stops. So many people have already done a lot of the work and I try to read all of it.

13 November 2020   Come and join me! I mean it. Drop by and we’ll have a glass of wine and catch up on the gossip.

14 November 2020   I think i’ll have another cup of coffee! But you know what they say: a watched coffee pot never boils.

And there we are! That is September to November in pictures. This Selfie Project is proving to be more of a chalenge than I thought. One thing it is doing is getting me to think in terms of making my pictures more interesting. Because I am taking picture after picture of the same thing, me, they tend to get boring if I don’t try to think of unusual features in the images. As I use up my ideas I think things may get weirder as we go along. When all is said and done, it is a challenge!

The Selfie Project has been broken into Posts covering only two months of the year. Because I began the Project in the middle of July the posts are from the middle of the month to the middle of the month. This post is for 15 September thru 14th of November. You can jump to a different two months using the buttons below.