Recently, I had the privilege to be at a two day meeting held at Kykuit, a National Trust site that was built about 100 years ago as the residence of Nelson D. Rockefeller just north of NYC. The estate is on 120 acres overlooking the Hudson River. In the spectacular gardens are 120 sculptures, many modern masterpieces from the likes of Calder, Giacometti, Moore, Picasso, Brancusi and others. These shots were taken with my cell phone on morning walks before breakfast... Interesting to see how the spoils of one of the original Robber Barons of modern capitalism were spent... The Rockefeller Brothers Fund (who have been doing good penance with their philanthropy) now has a conference center on site to host meetings.

estate is on 120 acres overlooking the Hudson River. In the spectacular gardens are 120 sculptures, many modern masterpieces from the likes of Calder, Giacometti, Moore, Picasso, Brancusi and others. These shots were taken with my cell phone on morning walks before breakfast... Interesting to see how the spoils of one of the original Robber Barons of modern capitalism were spent... The Rockefeller Brothers Fund (who have been doing good penance with their philanthropy) now has a conference center on site to host meetings.

Atlin BC again - a gorgeous little town in NW BC (complete with Grizzly bears and some grizzly residents...)

A week near Honey Harbour with Dorry, and our friend Susan Gibson, with visits from old friends, Audrey, Helen, Dan and Lisa

A few bike trips and short canoe... cycling up Ottawa Valley to Pinhey Point with Andrew, paddling to Alymer Island with Laura, and cycling to Kingston with Amir (later to be joined by Laura and Ana)

A collection of parties (including a wine tasting with Billy Munnelly) and garden shots in June around Ottawa.

A spring week in Paris... what more can you say? By my reckoning, there is more beauty and pleasure per square meter here than anywhere else on the planet. May Day celebrations, spring flowers, omnipresent crazily varied art and the eternal glories of french food... ahhh

omnipresent crazily varied art and the eternal glories of french food... ahhh

A beautiful February day in Ottawa. -5 and very sunny and the ice on the Ottawa River near our house was perfect for skating.

a collection of local colour shots around Ottawa including a plane trip with Larry, and a trip to beautiful Atlin BC for a land use plan meeting.

some more photos I just found of our last days in Portugal - mostly a day trip to Lisbon

General feasting with friends and family - life is good

Two weeks in Portugal with Shelley and Rob. Tough assignment in which we were ably abetted and indulged by Laura's family. From vineyard to beach, castle to cafe it is a truly intoxicating country

a few shots for Laura who is far away in East Timor during harvest

some summer snapshots... Preince Edward County property for sale... more garden produce... Sunday biking to the Byward and kitchen upgrades

Visiting Ian and Alison at their place near Picton. Little Napa North... vineyards of real quality, cheesemakers, great food and enchanted rolling countryside, big water and beach...

So far so good... with some gaps and groans along the way as always. Crazily rainy and hot summer has made for some abundant growth (not to mention HEALTHY earwig and slug populations). There'll be enought food to go around I think...

enought food to go around I think...

Three diverse little trips - Atlin BC (amazing village on Yukon/BC border), Bonn Germany for business and a short ride by the Rhine and finally - a local picnic at Luskville falls in Gatineau Park

Laura travelled to Guyana to talk at a WWF conference and then went up the river to meet with small scale mining communities about environmental issues

Boreal Leadership Council had its 9th (?) meeting in Goose Bay Labrador. We travelled to an Innu camp at Muskrat Lake about 45 miles (as the Otter flies) into the bush to conduct the better part of the meeting. A grand time was had by all... Now This is the way to do business.

the meeting. A grand time was had by all... Now This is the way to do business.

Laura travelled to Mongolia for a couple of weeks on a contract to work on social and environmental issues related to small scale mining (mostly gold). Many yurts later... For all you Mongoliaphiles, stay tuned, she goes back in August for more.

stay tuned, she goes back in August for more.

A couple of blissful weeks on the Pacific Coast of Mexico... Mostly in and around Santa Cruz de Miramar and San Blas - about two hours north of Puerto Vallarta

We got two snow dumps (20cm followed by 50 cm) in early March. O Canada...

The annual international ice sculpting competition in downtown Ottawa. You gotts do something with all that frozen stuff... why not art?

Feasts, family, friends, etc. Ahhh Christmas...

Our annual tradition of bringing int he New Year at Shelley and Rob's with a load of good friends and food... This year's theme - Carnaval!

another sober and serious evening with the CBI gang... They are good people but need to learn more about fun, don't you think?

Laura travelled to Mongolia on a conference dealing with Small Scale Mining. And had a fine time doing it. Amazing place and people.

A good first summer for the garden... Abundance is upon us. Speaking of abundance we helped celebrate Jeanie's 98th birthday!

A couple of recent trips to a couple of very different places.. Both were business meetings relating to mining the environment - that's one of the reasons I love my work...

Some pics of our fledgling garden and a revisit of Tom's full-on garden (complete with viewing mount). Also a return to our favourite local park - Bon Echo

A ten day 'fully unplugged' get away to the little fishing village of Chacala (pop.500) about 2 hours north of Puerto Vallarta on Mexico's Pacific coast.
The week before we left it was -40 in Ottawa...
This is truly a paradise - utterly peaceful, lazily beautiful and naturally bountiful (trees full of mangoes, bananas, oranges, papayas - ocean full of diverse and delicious fish), great people and wonderful body surfing waves in the 22 C ocean...

Ottawa...
This is truly a paradise - utterly peaceful, lazily beautiful and naturally bountiful (trees full of mangoes, bananas, oranges, papayas - ocean full of diverse and delicious fish), great people and wonderful body surfing waves in the 22 C ocean...

Many distractions and pleasures that help us survive the winter - indoors and outdoors.

It was a "Turning Japanese" (aka Sake Night in Canada) theme at Shelley and Rob's. There was everyting from a sumo sudoko man and Madame Butterfly, through to a peasant fisherman and his aspiring gesiha daughter and teh obligatory Nikon wielding tourist... fun fun fun and GREAT food too. (OK some editing has been done to protect the not so innocent)

gesiha daughter and teh obligatory Nikon wielding tourist... fun fun fun and GREAT food too. (OK some editing has been done to protect the not so innocent)

A four day trip to Cedar Lake in the northern part of Algonquin Park with Lisa, Dan, Shelley, Rob and their trusty guard dog and mascot Roger...

various forms of summer fun -garden parties, go-karting, waterfall picnicing and of course demolition...

Some of the photos from our trip to visit Laura's family near Lisbon

a work trip to Carmacks to meet with community elders and advisors about a mining project merged with a tour of old friends and fine places - Whitehorse, Atlin, Haines Junction

various scens and folks around our place this summer. Building a shed... always fun in 30+ degrees, a road trip to beautiful Almonte to cool off

A week-long road trip inspired by Dorry's cousin Fred Skyvington celebration of his 60th anniversary with Marg. Along the way we also visited friends on the Bruce Peninsula, Collingwood Mulmur and Midland.

Midland.

Visiting Brett and Ruby at their farm near Victoria

Some updates on Don Street deco and a walk in woods at Tom's

Celebrating Jeanie's 96th Birthday; cottage party with work friends; paddling Big Salmon Lake in Frontenac Park, and exploring Lac La Peche

Up the north shore of the St. Lawrence, across at Rimouski and onto the tip of the Gaspe. Back through Matapedia and Kamouraska

North of Kaladar... 400 foot cliffs, crystal clear water, ancient paintings and poetry scribed into the rock etc...

Paddling (and picnicing) on the mighty Tay River in beautiful Perth, and

On the foggy Paddlequest from Petawawa to Pembroke

Spring paddling near Jones Fall north of Kingston

new painting and trim carpentry

Wedding in our backyard, Honeymoon in Montreal, and finally the party a few weeks later, with guest chef Brett!

Our third annual Brazilian feast

Visiting with Moema, Toddy and Natan, August 2003

Visiting friends in Newfoundland

With Laura's family around Azeitao, just outside Lisbon

With Laura's sister Anna and brother in law Nuno in Portugal

Biking and dining across the generations...

Family and friends and feasts and fun