July update - Hiking to Treasure Mountain (4,103 m)

Last Saturday (July 11th), everyone in my lab took a half-day off to hike Treasure Mountain.  To get to the trailhead, we drove from Gothic to Paradise Divide and then hike to Yule Creek Trail.

Paradise Divide.

June update - Assorted

After all that snow and rain in May, June pretty much provided the best conditions one can ask for in terms of doing fieldwork - sunny, dry, and warm.  I did fieldwork almost every single day in June, except for last Sunday and a couple of rainy days, which explains the lack of posts until now.  Now that many of my plants are done flowering and starting to set seeds, I can slow down for a tiny bit.  I have divided my all of my photos from June into six different topics.  This one is just an assortment of different photos.

Full moon on June 2nd.

2015 Winter Celebration at Rideau Hall

The one-day Winter Celebration at Rideau Hall is to celebrate winter traditions, sports, and foods from various Nordic countries and Inuit groups.  I heard about this event last year and have yet visited Rideau Hall since I moved to Ottawa, so I thought today is a great opportunity to do both things.

Entrance sign.

Wrapping up 2014

After the school semester ended in mid-December, I continue to stay in Ottawa to work on my research, as well as taking care of Mertensia seeds and bumble bees for myself and others in the lab, and helping another graduate student with her project on spiny lizards.  I did the same things even in Christmas and felt I needed to get out of Ottawa and take a break.  Thankfully, a friend from Trent kindly invited me back to Peterborough for a few days and I had a great time there (I just returned from there this afternoon).

I bought a tripod this Boxing Day and will use it to stabilize my moon and macro photos in the future.

Long weekend at Windy Pine

This past long weekend, I returned to Peterborough and went back to Windy Pine to visit friends and tried mothing once again (just like last year).

Since I returned back to Ontario last week, I found this summer to be cooler and smoggier than I remembered.

Canadian Tulip Festival - Blast of colours (Part 2)

I biked to Commissioners Park this afternoon to check out the tulip festival once again.  Along the way, I saw many (crabapple?) blossoms in the Arboretum.

Beautiful.

2014 Winterlude in Ottawa

Winterlude is a pretty well-known festival in Canada that celebrates winter.  The 36th annual event began this year on January 31 and will end on February 17.  I have been too busy to check it out extensively, but I took some time on Tuesday to check out some of the displays and ice sculptures, as well as this afternoon just to feel the atmosphere with so many people around.

The weather was really nice on Tuesday.

Another new beginning

Well, I hope everyone is having a great 2014 so far.  I have been working hard these last few days trying to work on my manuscript and data analyses (from my Masters work), and also writing up a research application (for my PhD work) that is due at the end of this month.  Thus, I haven't really gone anywhere yet this new year, plus the weather has been too cold lately here in Ottawa for me to go out and take photos.  I only went out twice so far this year to get some groceries, and here are the only photos I had taken this year inside where I live.

This is a tiny spider crawling on my bedroom wall last night while I was working.

This is Pearl, a dog that sometimes visits my landlord and her dog.

Pearl stretching

Pearl playing with a tennis ball that is probably too large for her.

Classes officially start tomorrow, and so is my PhD program at uOttawa.  Another new chapter begins in my life.  Hope it's a great one!

[Photo series] Black dog in a white landscape

As mentioned before, I took care of my friend's pets during my time in Peterborough.  Since I took the dog (Bronte) out walking everyday and couldn't see anything (exciting) to photograph, I ended up taking a lot of photos of Bronte playing and just being a dog in the snow.  There were a lot of photos, so I compiled them all into this one post.

Sticks.  Bronte just love sticks.

Happy holidays & Update from Peterborough

Happy holidays to everyone!  I returned to Peterborough last Wednesday to stay at a friend's house to take care of her pets while she's away for Christmas break.  The wifi access is limited at her place, so I walked to school almost everyday (with the dog) to use internet.  I am still taking photos everyday, but uploading them won't happen immediately, hence there are a lot of photos in this (and upcoming) posts spanning several days.

A festive photo from Ottawa two Sundays ago.

Hasta la vista, Peterborough

This weekend will be my last official weekend here in Peterborough.  This time next week, I will be trying to get settled in Ottawa.  This past two and half years in Peterborough have definitely brought me memorable experiences - mostly good but also some sad memories.  I have traveled enough and met enough people since my undergraduate years to know that partings are eventual and inevitable, whether they are family, friends, or just acquaintances; therefore, the best thing to do is to look forward to the future and treasure the past (as I have tried to do with this blog).

Yesterday, I hanged out with friends for one last field outing and (potluck) dinner together.

Haven't photographed sunset in a while.

Wolf Lake, Kawartha Highlands Provincial Park

A couple of friends and I went for a nice canoe paddle at Wolf Lake in Kawartha Highlands Provincial Park today.  Our original destination was to portage to the adjacent Crab Lake, but we couldn't find the route so we ended up just paddling around the lake.

We launched our canoe at this spot.

Arctic/alpine pollination workshop in Kluane National Park, Yukon - Part 1

Hello all, my lengthy summer travels concluded on Friday when we drove about 2,000 km from New Orleans to Peterborough, Ontario in 36 hours.  I am slowly sorting through all of my photos from my trips, starting with the workshop titled "Pollination, Climate Change and Invasive Species in Arctic and Alpine Ecosystems" in Kluane Research Station in Yukon.  There will be at least one official document reporting on the outcomes of the workshop, so I will not comment on the specifics. The general conclusion is that researchers (from both Canada and US), the Yukon government, local First Nations groups, and independent scientists all agree about the importance of climate change and pollination and the limited information currently present about Arctic and alpine regions.  Therefore, we will try to incorporate scientific communities and citizens in northern communities to start documenting zoological and botanical changes in various spatiotemporal scales.

Below are photos from the first two days of my Yukon trip (21st to 22nd).

Arriving in Whitehorse on July 21st.  The weather was miserable and rainy.

Windy Pines Conference Centre

Windy Pine Conference Centre on the shore of Lake Kushog consists of 6 cabins owned by the Canadian Studies Department of Trent University.  For more information, please visit the official site.

On Saturday, I had the opportunity to help out with season-opening of the centre, as well as exploring this area for the first time.

Back of the main cabin.  The cabin has a very homely feel to it, with a functional kitchen, bathroom, fireplace, bedroom, and more.

2012 Peterborough Folk Festival

I had been pretty busy the past few days.  I arrived on Tuesday, checked out and agreed on a new place on Wednesday, packed on Thursday, and moved into new place on Friday.  Phew.

I took a break today and biked from my new place to where the Peterborough Folk Festival is held this year.  This is last year's post.

The weather was beautiful and many people showed up to participate.

Bald Eagle watching & first experience with OM lens

Today I headed to Finn Slough first thing in the afternoon to meet up with a fellow birder, who is kindly giving me his lens adapter for adapting old Olympus film OM lens to 4/3 digital bodies, as well as lending me his Zuiko OM 50mm f1.4 lens to try it out.

Before I got to Finn Slough, I spotted this Red-tailed Hawk on top of the telephone pole just above me. From experience, I know they tend to be very shy and almost always fly away before I can take out my camera. So I biked past it and took photos from about 100-m away. Not the best photo but good enough to finally show that there are Red-tailed Hawks around in the area.

Officially Into Spring

One day into the actual Spring, and it was chilly and cloudy (compared to yesterday). It is never good to get your hopes up.

I went looking for pollinators in London Heritage Farm today. But given the weather and the flowering conditions (almost zero), most of the honey bees I saw were sunning (when the sun was out briefly).

There is a sharing farm in the back with several private gardens. One of them was guarded by this toy Stegosaurus.

Basset Hound, Building, Ice, Ramen and Lights in Vancouver

Here are some photos taken during my lunch break and after work.

Junior waiting for its master to come out of the coffee shop and howling every few seconds or so.

New lens (70-300) & testing it out at Yaletown and UBC

Today, I completed a deal with a seller on craiglist and got a birding-lens for my Olympus E-620, the Zuiko Digital ED 70-300 f4.0-5.6. It's a dream come true, because it can reach 600mm so I can take much closer photos now. It's a much bigger, heavier, and beautiful than I thought but it's definitely going to make my photos better.

The seller is at Yaletown so I met him there this morning. Before he arrived, I took some photos of the people and dogs walking by.

This was the cutest dog.

Another of its own.

After the deal, I couldn't wait to put it on and try it out by walking along the Granville Seawalk! Even though it is not a macro lens, it takes pretty good close-up photos of flowers too.

Update post, inc. trip to Dyer's Bay

Hi all. I am back at the cafe using wireless internet. This might be the only post for the upcoming weeks/month as the birds are arriving next week, and after that everyone will be very busy and has less time for non-work related things.

While driving to the cafe this morning, my colleague and I saw an Eastern Meadowlark and 3 Wild Turkeys - both of which are lifers for me. I will share them next time.

Now, the usual views and creatures from the Fox Den (where we are currently housed). Once again, please click on the photos for more descriptions about each image.