June 2006

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El Bolero

June 30, 2006 in At home by admin | 2 comments

So I’ve been sleeping in a trailer. At night, you can hear the mosquitoes; they hum together, like locusts or lawnmowers. But the screens are good, and the bugs mostly stay outside.

Boler

It’s a Boler, built around 1980. It looks like an egg, and rocks like a boat. You can stand up in it okay, except for beneath the little sunroof — which has a handle that is pointy and made of metal. The lights don’t work; something’s wrong with the wiring. I haven’t tried to stove yet, and being summer and all I haven’t tried the heater either. All this aside, it’s a fine rig. Bolers are lightweight (made out of fibreglass), which means you can pull them with just about anything. They don’t have problems with rot or rust, unlike wood/aluminum trailers. Plus they look neat, and are made in Canada.

Visit Bolerama for information about upcoming Boler events (such as the “Prairie Egg Gathering”), an account of the company’s history, and scans of Boler manuals & brochures (“In the 80’s, all of us are searching for the ideal trailer” — I know that’s how I spent the 80’s…).

Andrewsville, Charleston Lake

June 29, 2006 in Out & About by admin | 1 comment

Today we visited Andrewsville, a good place for swimming, exploring, and the like. It’s not far from Nicholsons Locks, which are part of the Rideau Canal Waterway (between Ottawa and Kingston).

Rideau River

Other more biologically inclined members of the day’s party had scientific pursuits, inspecting the zebra mussel population (and lamenting its effect on native unionids). To their credit, the mussels do help to keep the water relatively clean…

Yesterday was fishing at Charleston Lake, where — between the three of us — we caught about 70 fish. This was apparently a mediocre take, as I’m told that some nights you can get almost 200 in only two hours! Now, they’re sunfish mostly, but a few perch too – and when they’re cleaned, you can get bite or two of perfectly good meat. We caught a number of bass, but threw them back on account of them not being much good for eating.

Rail Trail: Cambridge to Paris

June 9, 2006 in Lost & Found, Out & About by admin | 1 comment

Today seemed like a good day to dig up my old bike from the shed, and hit the road. After filling up the tires and oiling up the chain, this is exactly what I did — and once rolling, I headed down to the trail that runs along the grand river (between Cambridge and Paris). It was quiet out there today; I only saw a few cyclists, and one walker. Oh, and some fungus:

Fungus!

Of course, the main reason for the trip was to get a photo of the old mill which is on the banks of the grand river. Now, there are a few Old Mills in this area, but this one is somewhat isolated… unlike the others, which are in downtown Galt. There’s still a lot of the old structure left intact, including stone walls a couple stories high, windows and archways. No roof or timbers, though.

Old Mill

It’s become something of a camp-out hot spot… there are a number of fire pits, plenty of rusty cans and garbage, as well as some graffiti (courtesy of “THE CULT”).

Spies & Authors

June 8, 2006 in Readings by admin | No comments

George Smiley

Seems to me, while reading through some John LeCarre, that there’s a correlation between the characteristics of a spy and common notions regarding the qualities of an author:

  • LeCarre’s spies tend to be unaware of the big picture as they are involved in one operation or another; they operate on a “need to know” basis. Similarly, the author does not necessarily know where his story will end, but tries to keep up with it as he writes along.
  • Both authors and field agents are sensitive to language and its various subtleties. Language is the means of interrogation and other intelligence gathering, just as it is that of creating stories.
  • LeCarre’s spies tend to be lonely folk, often isolated by their secret lives. Authorship too is a solitary line of work.
  • Foremost in the mind of the field agent is maintaining his cover, and all his actions ought to convey a sense of believability and verisimilitude, which of course enables him to appear to be someone he isn’t. Such is the responsibility of the author as well — to maintain fictions.

Finally, the British secret service is — like most authors — chronically underfunded.

Saplings

June 7, 2006 in At home by admin | No comments

Lilac Sapling

It’s a wonder to see how well the lilac cuttings are taking. Passed along by Fred, they were a sorry-looking bunch of muddy twigs and roots – whose fate it was to be double-bagged, stuffed into a suitcase, and carted home (500km worth) on a Greyhound bus. Now that they’re in the ground, they are taking off and budding nicely (though one had a brush with the lawnmower). They are each planted within shooting distance of well-established lilac bushes… I guess the thought is to give the little guys somebody to look up to.