Big Bad Bass

Caught this bad boy in Hogg's Bay along the Big Rideau. As you can see it would be near impossible to catch a bigger fish and still manage to take your own photo showing both you and the fish from tip to tail.



We were camping at Murphy's Point Provincial Park for a few days with our camping buddies the McMullan's. We had a great time and the weather couldn't have been better. I even managed to squeeze in some time to teach Jerry from Kingston how to windsurf. After about a 12 year hiatus from the board I still managed to tack across the bay 4 times (with no splash downs) before returning the sail to Jerry who waited wide eyed along the shoreline shouting "You da man!!" in his Polish accent.

Face in the flames

Does anybody else out there see the face in the flames or was this just the whiskey talkin'?


Still no?  Get a little closer...

Freaky eh?  Now imagine the screams.

Zebra mussels, the nonindigenous species

Zebra mussels.  I hate these frickin' things.  They are choking up my favourite freshwater lakes and rivers.

Zebra mussels originated in the Balkans, Poland, and the former Soviet Union. Biologists believe the zebra mussels were picked up in a freshwater European port in the ballast water of a ship and were later discharged into the Canadian side of Lake St. Clair (blame the Canadians again, eh). A female zebra mussel begins to reproduce at 2 years of age, and produces between 30,000 and 1 million eggs per year.

I took these pictures when we were swimming on the Upper Rideau Lake last weekend.  They stick like snot to a steel pole in -30 degree C.  Did I mention that I hate these damn things?



Wear water shoes when swimming folks, these little bastards are like razors if you step on them just the wrong way.



More details:
1. Check out this July 6, 1990 broadcast from the CBC archives.
2. Here is an animated map of the US showing the invasion from 1988-2002.

Dragonfly

Snapped this shot while swimming at the Foley Mountain Conservation area beach.  I believe it is a widow dragonfly.  Now, if I could only harness a few of these guys to my hat to help fend off the bugs.

Balloon man makes it on the outside

Check out this whack-job of the week.  We met up with him in Perth at the Stewart Park Music Festival.  He was twisting balloons for the kids.  His funky-ass hat was covered in weird scary stuff.  I even walked around to get a peek at the back expecting a shrunken head or at least a crack pipe.



All the kids loved him.  He could make anything - chickens, dogs, cats, bicycles, labrador retrievers, and foot long syringes.  Probably learned that shit in prison only it wasn't balloons he was twisting there, baby.



Took this pic just to show him I wasn't afraid of him and his freakin' hat.

bvt hits Bluesfest

Things have been busy for the bvt-blogger.  On Wednesday night some friends and I hit the Ottawa Bluesfest to see Umphrey's McGee, Keller Williams, and The String Cheese Incident.  Umphrey's was incredible, Keller was wildly entertaining, and SCI was just starting to get in their groove when they called it quits due to an approaching thunderstorm.  

The storm hit only minutes after SCI left the stage and then it proceeded to blast, rock, and pour all over Ottawa. It was incredible.  People were screaming at the thunder and lightning and then cheering at the naked hippies dancing in the downpour. Worth the price of admission alone.  


(Picture posted in the Ottawa Sun)

Then last night a friend and I decided to take advantage of our "free pass" (due to yesterday's rain cancellation) to see an amazing guitar player by the name of Elmer Ferrer. G-Damn this guy can play!! I can see why he's compared to the likes of Jimi and SRV.  He plays again on tonight opening before Kid Rock and then again on Sunday if anybody is interested in checking him out.

NOTE:
For those of you interested in checking out a great jamband, here's a link to a free UM bootleg show back in 2002. Why this show? No reason, it just happens to be the one that I'm listening to right now in my Dell DJ.

Umphrey's McGee
July 4th, 2002
Venue: Funk'n'Jam House, High Sierra Music Festival (LATE show)
Location: Quincy, CA

And if you like that one, you'll want to download the EARLY show too.

Note that this download is in a "lossless" format which your winamp should be able to handle but you can convert to mp3 if you wish (using this free software).

Legs

Just a sample of some of the creatures we caught on camera during our camping trip to Charleston Lake.



Daddy long-legs in "action".  Hey, do you know that a daddy long-legs spider is actually not a spider?  Apparently they are neither spiders nor insects. They are arthropods.  (click on the link for all the gory details)

Fireworks 2005

After a crazy afternoon of water sports, super slides, tattoos and crafts at Kanata's Canada Day festivities we headed over to our friend's place for burgers and beers.  Terry kept firing silver bullets at me while the little ones all splished and splashed in the inflatable pool.  Strangely enough, Terry managed to get pretty damned soaked cooking up the burgers and dogs as the bbq was strategically placed about a foot and a half from the pool.

By about 8:30pm we thought we had worn out our welcome and best be off to search for the ultimate parking spot from which to view the Kanata fireworks.  Yeah, I said Kanata.  We decided it was just too much work to head downtown with the entire family.  After about an hour of rockin' on to Glass Tiger and a half hour delay, the fireworks finally started around 10:30pm.  They stole the show... but considering that they were up against Glass Tiger, that wasn't too difficult.




.

Canada Day 2005!

Woke up this morning (July 1st, that is) to sunshine and a long list of chores.  After a cup or two of java I gathered up the family and tackled chore no.1, strawberry picking.



I was a little upset when I realized that today, being Canada Day, meant that the grocery stores were closed (yeah, even the one that claims to be "24 hrs").  You know what that meant, yeah, no French vanilla ice cream to go with these delicious red devils.  Oh well, as I always like to say, "Eat'em raw, that's the spirit, raw raw raw!!"