Day 44 - Logans roll through

Some pics from the 15 minute whirlwind visit with the Logans. I may have to change my pic of the day to one of these.

Day 44 - Smarties

Smarties are a colourful sugar-coated chocolate candy popular in Canada, Europe, South Africa, East Asia and Australia. Smarties are not sold in the US...I have no idea why. Canadians will fondly remember the long lasting Canadian advertising jingle from the 1970s - mid-1990s "when you eat your Smarties, do you eat the red ones last?"

I bought a box today to continue my blue theme this week. Huh, no blue smarties? Apparently artificial coloring was removed from Smarties in the Canadian market in March 2009. The new range of colours includes yellow, brown, orange, red, pink and purple; the blue and green have been removed. I do not like the new flavors.

Day 43 - Skateboarding at the Common

Day 42 - Blue bike

I walk past this bike on the way to work. I like the color and the whitewall wheels. I decided to play with color channels and isolated the blue.

Stupid fact: When I first learned to ride a bike I threw training wheels to the wind and drove a real bike. I think it had a banana seat. Unfortunately, I was only allowed to ride in the ditch. I must have looked really stupid biking around the neighborhood ditches. I was happy though. To this day I still think of the ditch as a bike lane.

Day 41 - Blueberries

I can't believe this is the last week of July. Summer is going waaaay to fast, August is almost here. This is around the time of year I recall as a kid starting one of my summer jobs - blueberry picking. Cumberland county, Oxford specifically, is the wild blueberry capital of Canada. Nova Scotia's wild blueberries are exported to the United States, Japan, Germany, United Kingdom and other countries.

Health fact: Wild blueberries are high in antioxidants which have many health benefits including anti-aging effects, cancer inhibiting properties, and heart health. They are also really tasty in pancakes and on cereal.

Day 40 - Beach day

The beautiful weather finally allowed for a beach day. It seems every other Nova Scotian had the same idea; beaches were insanely busy. Fortunately nobody goes to Lawrencetown, which was its usual rocky, cold and foggy self. A brisk wind meant the kids and surfers were loving the wave action.

Day 39 - Pride parade

Alot of outrageous fun today at Pride. From all the costumes I liked the balloon fairy wings the most. More from pride parade here.

Day 38 - Impromptu photobooth with Andy

I had an enjoyable night on the town Friday night with my good friend Andy, who is moving to Australia in August. I hate when friends leave town but I am happy he will be heading for a good opportunity. To keep in touch he has promised to finally join Facebook.

Day 37 - Another $&%@ purple flower

My name is Brad and I am a purple flower addict. I dig these funky flowers (once again, no idea what kind they are) and the rain made for nice flower photography on my walk to work this morning. So I will justify my purple flower addiction by the fact that the lighting these days has been conducive to this type of photography. Yeah, that's it.

Fun fact: This type of purple is on the red-violet side and is often called artist's purple. It is the pigment on the colour wheel between violet and magenta. In the Munsell color system this would be a chroma of 12. It is also called red-purple.

Day 36 - Common concert aftermath

I had a walk through the Halifax Common for the first time since the Kiss concert that occurred over the weekend. As expected it was a muddy mess. Who knows how long the Common will be out of commission.

There is ongoing debate about usage of the park and direct taxpayer subsidy to run these concerts. As much as I love music I do not personally think this venue, Canada's oldest public urban park, is practical as a long term solution for concert venues. It is just too disruptive to the ongoing, uninterrupted use of the venue through very short summer months. Yes I realize it has economic spinoffs, but I don't think it is worth the mess of ruining a park for weeks on end just to bring aging geezers to the city to rock out for a day.

Just my two cents. Rant over. Now if U2 were to play.....