Diana plays keyboard with the local band I Scream Headache. (Jodie Primeau - vocals; Les Taylor - drums; Diana McElroy - keyboard; Marc-Andre Jean - bass; Mike Griese - guitar).
On 2017 August 03, they played at the Deep River Summerfest. Here are some photos from that performance:
More photos in downloadable zip files of I Scream Headache and some of the other bands that played at Summerfest may be found here: downloads.
Photos of various stage performances at Deep River's Summerfest - 2018. Which bands are included and which are omitted reflects our attendance at the event and nothing more. We do regret however that the thunderstorm washed out More Right Rudder's appearance. (Evergreen Terrace would have been well past our bedtime.)
More photos in downloadable zip files of some of the bands may be found here: downloads.
Algonquin Park forest fire APK011 was started by lightning on 2018 July 19. According to the fire map it was located on the hills south of Stratton Lake somewhere between McDonald Lake and Tarn Lake. We wanted to get in there to see what the situation was.
On July 30, I (Bob) paddled up McDonald Creek. At that time the fire was in excess of 30ha and had just recently been downgraded to "being held" from "out of control".
In brief, I paddled well up McDonald Creek and saw no signs of the fire -- no visible scars, no smoke -- not even any fire smell. The only clue was the occasional helicopter overflight, but these were at quite high altitude and not focussed on any particular area that I could discern.
I was surprised to encounter another canoe in McDoanald Creek. It was in the wide shallow area -- three guys headed that night for Guthrie Lake. They were quite pleased to see me as they had spent the last hour looking for a way out and were hoping I could show them the way. I got lucky and found the way upstream fairly quickly. While my mental map had helped, the key was realizing that pickerel weed favours flowing water and being solo, I could hear water flowing over a low head beaver dam on the upstream side of the pickerel weed.
I met up with these guys again at the start of the Turcotte Lake portage. We discussed the upcoming difficulty of their trip from there to St. Andrews Lake, especially at these water levels. I am curious as to how they made out.
Algonquin Park Carcajou Creek Carcajou Bay Carcajou Falls Grand Lake McDonald Creek portage to McDonald Creek (Carcajou Creek)
On Saturday July 7, a small forest fire was observed near the mouth of Presqu'isle. (Presqu'isle is a long bay on the Quebec shore of the Ottawa River a little upstream of Point Alexander. The axis of the bay is parallel to the river and is separated from the river by a gravel peninsula.) The fire was presumably started by lightning from a thunder storm the previous Thursday. From Saturday through Wednesday (July 11) the fire was attacked by water bombers for a couple of hours each day. On Wednesday, we got the opportunity to go down to Burkes Beach (the point of Point Alexander) to take some photographs. While the Quebec forest-fire webpage still (July 14) lists the fire as only "under control", it certainly appears to be out. Indeed, it was largely out on Wednesday, even though, officially, it was only "being held".
There are at least two (and probably more) heronries in the Petawawa Research Forest. One of them is quite visible from a road -- a drive-in heronry, if you will. Since late June, I have been driving by regularly to take photos. There are two visible nests, each with three or four chicks. The chicks are getting pretty big and will probably leave the nests very soon. Unfortunately, I am unable to check any more, as the area has been closed due to the high fire danger.
(Nerdy note: While I am pleased to have been able to get photos of the chicks, they are not as sharp as one might like. I have sharpened them -- oversharpened them -- to the extent that noise in the sky is starting to appear. The close-ups were shot with a 150mm lens on a micro 4/3 system, so an effective focal length of 300mm. But after considering the final crop, the true effective focal length is between 1100 and 1200mm. They were shot hand held while I was being attacked by deer flies.)