Happy Christmas!

Here's your online greeting for the holiday season from the Canadian Outdoorsy guy...

MERRY CHRISTMAS to All of You out there on the web to-day...



All the best!

LarryB

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL......

The eve of Christmas Eve...

I may not be in here tomorrow, so I just want to wish All of You a Very Merry Christmas right here, right now! :-) I hope You get to spend lots of quality time with Your loved ones in the next little while...

and a Very Merry Christmas... from the woods.

LarryB

Buzzers...

A Whack of Buzzbaits...

Killer Surface Action

Here are some of my favorite Buzz-Baits. A few of them, as you can see, have been customized but most are plain deadly right out of the package. You can see the many different configurations of wire, blade and head designs here, although they all are very similar. When the water's cooler or the fish are a little shyer then those triple bladed jobs can be reeled in at a much slower speed and still raise a pretty good albeit more subdued ruckus, so, I use them the most.

Some Sweet Buzzers

Buzz me...

Now this is the bait right here that started all this Buzzin' stuff for this ol' boy. I've swapped out a black triple wing blade for the stock aluminum model. Also I've bent the arms somewhat, to open the gap between the blade wire and the hook point. This little tweak makes that razor sharp hook, ride a bit deeper in the water and has thus resulted in a higher percentage of more positive hook-ups for this ol' basser! This particular lure has landed over fifty fish, if you count the pike that smashed it senseless while I was out Bassin' too! :-)

Totally Twistered...

If You have not tried Buzz-baits for Bass, for Whatever reason, You my friend are totally missing out on some of the most explosive strikes you will ever get in freshwater. Oh ya, If Your lake is full of Northern Pike, toss a Buzzer at them too. Some of the strikes from enraged, charging surface Pike, will totally startle you, to say the least... :-)

Get Buzzin'...

lb

First snow of 2008...

The bush, and me...

There's a lot of history between me and the bush. Over four decades of traipsing around in the boonies has really rounded me out as an Outdoorsman,if you don't mind me saying so myself. :-) The Outdoors keeps me young at heart. The wild places makes my blood flow faster and my heart pump louder and harder...

I walked through a section of woods close to where I live this morning. My head needed a little refreshing, from a busy work week. :-)

Seeing the fresh snow everywhere again, clicked another page in my Outdoorsy experiences, memory banks. How many places and how many times have I been there for that first snow fall over the years? Memories swarmed all around me, as I stood there alone in the cool, still air, of a mixed patch of Boreal Forest, almost in my own backyard...

I set the E30 on a little Dollarama tripod and extended it's neat little aluminum legs and set it gently on the snow covered ground, after entering the simple data to "shoot myself", through the touch pad and then I walked into the picture.

Your's truly, LarryB

Ten seconds after tripping the shutter, Voila! Ce Moi! Live and @ Your Service.

All aspects of being outdoors have held my interest over the years and I REALLY want to share that wide-open mindset with others on the web and in my town, who wish to really know the Outdoors better. There is just SO much pleasure to be derived from hangin' out in the bush, and living life and enjoying each day as our fore fathers did and our Native people, the REAL and original owners and Caretakers of the land...

a wee plug...

Do You have a desire to envelope Nature and the Great Outdoors into Your life friend? Getting into the Outdoors can give a person a whole new lease on life. It can renew Your zest for being alive and put more spunk into You than reading newspapers, watching TV or playing video games, ever will. Do you love to fish but just don't seem to be able to catch enough fish? Do you tourny fish but never win?

If You ever want to get really personal with the Outdoor world and need a fine guide, I am Now available for bookings. So, don't be shy, drop me a line anytime...

Here's my Email addy...LarryB

later,

lb

Variety time...

Variety day for moi...

Just Memo...

I hooked up with these swell guys recently. Somewhat amazingly to me, the Great Google has already been able to find the URL's to My particular Just Memo stuff!

Just Memo

Now That ROCKS!

So, I thought I'd share that with You my readers, if You have something on the web You'd like to boost. Free power advertising for Your very own, whatever! I know it's worked real well for this ol' self taught webmaster and it's real easy for anyone to get a leg-up on Google with the help of this search engine friendly website.

Check them out to-day...


JustMemo - Free Web Directory Listing


Late looks at the bush...

Pearly Everlasting

Hey, what's that sound?

Purple Coneflower

Meandering Creek

Jerusalem Artichokes


Some elusive Indian Pipes

Just me...


And that's how she rolled...

A Canadian webmaster...

...truckin' cont'd...


A Canadian webmaster's blog...

I wrote this particular blurb a while back but for those of you who didn't see it back then, this note to-day is now a kind of an update on my day job, which I am still enjoying presently... :-)

So friend, to bring you up to speed on what's happenin' in my life, Trucker Larry is indeed still out there in November 2008, cruising the city streets and the rural byways of our beautiful Ottawa valley, providing a very fine service as he goes... ;-)

Breaker 10-4, say who? :-)

yer bloggin' bud, from the great white north,

LarryB

Fall pond hunting...

November is here...

so I headed out to hunt for a pond, and before too long, I found one...

Serene scene...

surrounded by tall Pines...

a long point...

On the edge of the pond, living there for a long time, were these old friends of mine...

Wild Wintergreen

Still, yet beautiful...

Reflections

Here's a few more wild edibles, the semi-common Rose-hips...

Rose-hips

Then, what to my wondering eyes should appear? Check out this delicate beauty...

Morning Dove

So, Welcome to November, already!

larryb

Villages and Hamlets...

Old Villages turn me on...

This sweet little Hamlet of Ashton, is just up-the-line a bit, from Ottawa and well worth the drive, on a Sunday afternoon, or Anytime, for that matter. :-) The little General store here is run by nice friendly folk that are Happy to be able to help you with whatever. Yes sir, that Friendly, old fashioned attitude, still pervades in these tucked away spots, just off our main highways and byways friend. If You can appreciate older, kooler stuff and friendy folks, then by all means take a tour out to the countryside soon and scope out these Hamlets and old Villages while they are still here for us to enjoy...

Entering Ashton Ontario

The Main Drag...

Christ Church - Ashton

I'm drawn to these time capsules like a deer is drawn to a cold, sweet and pure spring in his forest. Every single building (no exceptions) in this quaint corner of the planet, has Many, many stories to tell. For a place of this size, I'm just floored with how many churches they have there. Was it the only town in Ontario, I ponder, to have everyone in it, a Christian of some flavor? Hey, God Is Good so that would have been pretty Cool back then. At least ya didn't have to fight all the heathens and Philistines, eh? :-)

An old landmark...



Have a great day friends,

lb

Go Grass-hopper Go...

GrassHopper joins Cool Group @ Flickr...

Presenting...The Astered Grass-hopper...

Hey, Grass-Hopper!



Have You ever gotten this close to a Wild Grass-Hopper before? With a camera? Well, again, I some how seemingly "lucked out" and snagged this pic of little Hopper buddy here, posed momentarily for my sweet little E30 the other day. My fellow photography friend Austin, over @ Flickr suggested I send this Grasshopper picture to his Macro-natureonly, photo Group @ Flickr. So, I did. :-)

Go have a look at buddy's Cool Macro-Nature Group for Your Close-up LOOK, at some real nice stuff, to-day...

Austin's Cool Macro Group

The Wild Asters themselves were actually plenty subject matter enough for me, until I spied this nicely colored Hopper, that is. He patiently waited for me to try and get a good focus on him while holding this little Pentax, in my hands, of course. That's always a little tricky. Also there always seems be be a bit of an errant breeze around, just when you don't need it, for insect and flower shots. :-(

Well, then again that's alright though, that's the kind of stuff that really adds to the Sport of, Small Game Shooting, for this ol' trapper anyway. Makes one appreciate a Quality shot, when one sees one. :-)

later,

Lar

Outdoorsy Caps...

Caps R Cool...

What's your take on Baseball style Caps as headgear? Here's a little bit of what I've got to say about them...

For starters, this particularly well designed and very comfy tan cap, is a John Deere tribute type unit for me. These folks have been serving the little guys Well, all across the country for a long, long time. Your Grandfather may even have had one of their first tractors back in the day. The design and positioning of the panels on this cap, seems to really fit the shape of my head well but they even have a nice adjustment arrangement at the back for when that's needed. :-) Like up North here when we wear Hoodies to keep our ears and neck warm, this cap fits right over the top if ya wanna wear it that way, or backwards even. :-)

The bill itself is a little longer than yer standard caps bill length, which gives you more glare free coverage for your eyes. Along with my trusty Polaroid shades, this cap gives me the best glare/reflection free combo, for Fishing sunny waters, that I own. ;-)

Still John Deere

I got into wearing baseball style caps, back in the days when I was working behind the Fishing counter at Laurentian Trading Post on Bank @ Walkley in Ottawa, many years ago. The McDonald Brothers, that owned and ran the Post, were Very hep Outdoorsy people themselves and carried the coolest, most up to date Outdoor gear back then. It was an honor for me to work there with those boys doing what I Loved best and the people around me who understood where I was coming from.
As it turns out, there was even a lot of recognition there by happy returning customers. After a few months, near my birthday, the Lindy Tackle Company sent me one of their limited edition, Proficiency Award, Baseball style Caps, in a nice yellow flavor as a perk. Well Sir, I immediately and madly, fell deep in LOVE with it right then and there. Yup! Large Fishing Cap obsession bugun right there behind that awesome old Fishing counter. That semi-famous cap stayed with me for over twenty years and it was a sad day when we finally parted. :-(

However the neat thing is, that great Cap got me hooked on these baseball style caps as very efficient fishing headgear. Up until discovering caps, I either went bare headed as a teen or later on, I wore one of those, side pinned up, camo flavored, Ausie style, Doug Hannon, bush type hats, for my outdoorsy pursuits. :-) I've never worn anything But these Fishing (formerly called baseball) caps since, on the waters and in the woods.

Caps are Cool in general but I wanted y'all to see this one in particular to-day, that I just acquired recently and I had to give it a 9.9 on one of my Cool scales, already. :-) I'm calling it the Crusher Nike or Nike Crusher, haven't quite decided yet, because I can fold it all up small-like, to go into small places and then I unroll or unfold it, and suddenly it looks and acts like a regular, yet Very Cool Fishin' cap once more! :-) I Love it!

Nike Crusher Crushed...

Caps Can and Do, make all sorts of folks look Cooler! That's an undisputed factoid friends. If you're not yet into this Cool fashion statement for Your head, what in tar-nation are y'all waitin' for, Christmas? :-)

If you are or have been perhaps say, a one cap man (or woman) up until now, maybe this little blurb here can Sway You towards a little, shall I say, attire expansion, for Your head. After all, your face and head are what most people look at when they are talking to you, eh? Why not let 'em see some cool stuff sittin' up there on top of yer ol' melon, every once in awhile? Then they won't have to ask why You are wearing such a nice smile. You can upgrade by taking into consideration, mostly form, fashion AND function, :-) Another neat Cap or two can only make ya look and feel Cooler. Go for it!

Nike Crusher Rockin'

Peace out, brothers and sisters!

lb

Worm Harnesses Work!

On... Getting to know You, my readers, I just have to ask these few simple questions first. :-) Are You an Angler? Are You an Angler that likes fishing for Walleyes? Do you prefer to cast or troll or drift-fish/still-fish for them? Just artificial lures or do you use Live bait too? Do you chase Walleyes in lakes or rivers?

Well my friends, I'd say that there are probably more known ways to catch those ol' Marble-Eyes, than You can shake a stick @...

Take for instance, This deadly little unit here,

in it's thousands of variations, has been laying "Eyes on Ice" for over a century now. These modern day Worm Harnesses are as deadly to-day as they were in Gramps' day. :-) As a matter of fact, I'll bet Anyone 20 smackers, that this BAD little puppy, will blow the doors off of what was originally invented back then and now which has now been totally improved upon! Twenty Bucks! Any Takers out there...? :-)

Oh ya, and by the way, I'm Not always in favor of the "new and improved models" of stuff in our lives either, just to clarify your thinking on that point there. :-) Another thing I Love about Worm Harnesses is, it's really pretty hard to fish these lures wrong. It's like, put a nice juicy, squirmy, ol' dew worm on those razor sharp hooks, then toss it out in the water someplace and then simply reel or troll it, fairly slowly. Bing bang pow! Fish will Slam it! :-)

A recent talk with my friend Jack, the Walleye Guy, revealed that he has been beating up the Walleyes pretty good in His home stretch of the Ottawa River, for the last two week-ends on these baby's too. So there, this IS current and accurate data, for those of you who need even more proof than what I've told you in here so far already, about Worm Harnesses. Like, They Rock! :-)

Anyway, if you Don't own a couple or three of these Wallis, slaying lures, then I'm tellin' ya right here, to go and Get Yourself a few To-day! Well, if ya wanna eat a few tasty ol' Wallys, that is! Oh ya, and another good thing about these lures is that they won't cost you an arm & a leg either, so Anyone can afford a few new additions to their Wally producing tackle box. Some of us even rig up our own from the short list of simple components too. :-)

...for Next time?

Now, right after saying All of the above, I get to wondering on another note, if you Do already fish with these awesome Pickerel (Canadian handle for these toothsome critters) producers, then I ask, did You ever try trolling one of those old fashioned, Rebel Spoon Bill, deep diving minnows, in your favorite areas? They Spank Big Walleyes, plain & simple!

I'll Pentax a few of my own, slightly customized models, of those particular older Rebel plugs, in a future entry, just so that You can maybe Jump on That particularly sweet little Walleye Gravy Train, on Your home waters in the future too.

Especially, if you've only been used to drownin' worms behind beads & blades and maybe doing a little Jiggin' all these times and You don't have a lot of faith in cranks for Walleyes. :-)

Catch ya on the flip flop,

lar

More experiments in photography...

HeyYa,

I'm trying something here that I have been wondering about for a while now. Can your older slides be shot now with a Digital camera? If so, how's the quality when you want to put them on the web, after a shoot? Here's a low-light situation shot first, to give You a hint of what this little Camera is capable of. More light would NO DOUBT, make for a better, all around picture of this slide and back-lighting could even be tried too.

Home-made Set-up...

This next one shows the slide being held in my left hand while holding and shooting the camera with my right. Can you then imagine how the quality of the picture could have been improved by using a tripod or uni-pod even and perhaps a holder of some sort, for the slide?


Hand-held shot

A little closer...


So, lessons here to-day...

First, More light is good. Better than not enough light, for sure. Second, use a solid base for your slide. Even if you have to build one yourself. How hard could that be? Third, always use a solid base for the camera itself as well. That will insure basically no movement when the shutter is fired. There are lots of slick little teeny pods these days that fit in your pocket and will boost the quality of any digital camera's output.

Now, if I follow those little tips for my next shoot, then I know the slides will come out well enough indeed to spread around out there on the web. Most of my slides are like, 10 to 30 or so years old. Some of them, I know are nice enough to share with y'all after sitting dormant for all those years on a shelf. Especially now that my little photography experiment here, seems to have worked out pretty well, as far as I'm concerned anyway. :-)

I'll pick through a batch of 35mm slides in the next week or so and put some results of that work in here mayhaps, God willing. ;-)


Later,

LarryB

Another Blog by Bourgeois...

Fishing moments...

There is just something VERY Special about Fishing to this ol' Outdoorsman from the rolling hills of Sudbury, turned Blogger. There is WAY more to Fishing than simply holding a fresh fish in your hand. There is certainly MORE to Fishing, than just eating some fish too. Just being THERE, like in the shot above, is where it's at, a lot of the times!

I just recently re-discovered this little blog I had started up over at Tripod, my favorite free servers, in January of this year. It still needs some work to get the photos to line up properly though. So anyway, I've decided to add it to my list of web-work, to try and keep up with, now that I've created it and found it again. :-)

So here's the link to take a peek at a very basic, bare bones, so far, blog. You could bookmark it too so that you can see the changes since you visited last. :-)

Bloggers Blog

Have a good one...

lb

Scenic fishin' spot in Ottawa...

Aside from the terrific Sight Seeing opportunities in Ottawa, here's a few interesting spots to fish, if you live in the Ottawa area, or are just visiting, for that matter. If shoreline fishing is YOUR only option, like mine too, then here ya go. Check them out! These places can all be reached by bike or bus or even walked to, depending on where you are in town of course. :-)

Parliament Hill

The shoreline I was standing on to take this shot of the back-side of Parliament Hill, is pretty steep in places and you've got to watch your footing when stepping on the big rock chunks found along there. There is even an old sort of a rock stairs, kind of place, where I can't even imagine how many others have sat there before me. Picked up a nice little fossil sample down there too. Some kind of Kool, really Old centipede-y type critter. Bonus! :-)


The Chateau Laurier, Ottawa, Ontario

This picture of Ottawa's own Chateau Laurier, also depicts the first set of locks that takes boaters up to Dow's Lake, and beyond on the Rideau Canal system, to Kingston and the St. Lawrence Seaway and beyond.

The low-key part here folks, is that the ol' Wiley Walleyes, have been known to hang around those big doors fairly consistentlyover the last number of decades. I personally believe it has something to do with all of those minnows that get disoriented and confused when that Big rush of Fast water comes out of there and all...

Fishing the point...

A nice long rocky point, about anywhere You find one, like this one at Britannia, can at times, produce some good fishing, when the fishin' gods are willin' 'n stuff... :-)

Down by the river...

Next time You're down by a river, why not try actually getting even closer, so as to hear the Great Rivers song, like this. It talks to those who'll listen...

Sometimes, well o.k. then, lots of times, there's a lot more to fishing than just fishing, for me. Yup, sometimes it's also more like the sights and sounds, the Call of the Wild, if you will, that I'm after, out there, on the waterfront. Like this little photo perspective in here to-day, for instance. :-)

Here's a pretty little plant that was growing right on the edge, in and out of the water, down there, behind that very famous hill. Oh ya, I'm still checkin' to make sure but I think this sweety is a Smartweed of some sort.

Wild & Beautiful Plant on the Rocks...

Nature is all around us and all we have to do is Look, listen and learn... :-)

later, lb

Digital limits?

This is more of an experiment than anything else. It's a photo of a photo. Well, actually a photo of a few photos. Shots that were taken over the years with different cameras, now shot together with a Digital camera.

Hmmm. I'm going to have to do some more of that sort of experimental thing. I used to try all kinds of stuff when I was shootin' 35mm format a few years back. I wonder how it would work with some of my older slides? I'll have to get back to you on that...

Spannin' the years...

As you can easily see here from this little display, Outdoorsy stuff was my main thing, even way back then...

lb

New friends...

Well, by the looks of this picture, the fishing wasn't that hot down on my home lake recently. :-) Thank GOD I still keep those deadly micro-jigs in my bag for just such tough fishing times. I hate being skunked you see, so I keep down-sizing my lures until I start getting strikes again. Finally got a dozen of these little 'Gills to smack this 1/64 oz leadhead with a sliver of powerbait for a body. :-)

Killer Jig strikes again...

Ya know, another neat thing about urban fishing, is that you get to meet a few people, even if it's just for a few minutes at a time. Two teens I met on the water the other day, impressed me. They weren't stand-offish and talked openly to me about their favorite sport as they cast into, onto, around and over the slop-mat that forms nearly the whole west bay over there. I could see and feel the love for fishing in these boys, almost like a view of myself so many years ago. We had a few laughs together and exchanged a few comments and tips about catchin' the big one etc. When they left, I suggested they look me up on Google and maybe build their own fishing website or lens. I don't know if they remembered or whatever, but I felt good about spreading the faith and sharing all that with them. After all, I have been a fishing ambassador for over 40 years, and it feels good to know that I've still got it! ;-)

An hour later I met two guys fishing off the rocky point. Turns out it was a father and son unit. Awesome! We chatted for about a good half hour, covering many fishing related topics and sat in the grass, discussing the different terminal tackle in their boxes. The young lad was just beaming, as he told the story of the hog pike on the Strike King Spinner-bait as I held it there in my hand. I knew he was going to be a good fisherman right then as he recalled the details of that past fishing adventure with his dad! :-) I've always said, a family that fishes together, stays together...

Again, it was VERY rewarding sharing each others lives there on the lake shore as if we had known each other for years. Fishing will do that to you. It's a sport that bridges the gap between being strangers and gives us a great common denominator to begin a friendship with...

later,

lb

Broken Blogger

It looks like my Blogger thingy is NOT working, according to my last three (3) posts anyway. So, I guess I better get to work and see what's up with that...

Please disregard the next few posts until I figure out how, if I can, to delete them. :-(

Blogger broken?

Broken Blogger?

Do You like to write?

How many of you out there like to write? Go ahead, put your hand up if you do. :-) Well O.K. then, do some of You want some of that Writing of Yours to be Published? On the World Wide Web, no less? Hands up! Cool!

Well then, You'll want to scoot right on over to one of the Neatest places on the whole Internet, for doing exactly that. Yup, You can publish whatever it is that You Love to write about. Won't cost you a penny either. I LOVE these guys! :-)

Alrighty then, R U ready? Just click this little hyper-link to Squidoo and get going to-day, to Your own version of Stardom...

Good Luck!

For my regular viewers, I'm adding this recent shot I took in here, to remind myself that I will be adding a bunch of Health related stuff to all my blogs and Lenses soon. Being as I am now officially a Baby Boomer, the state of my health has been shifting over to a higher priority level in the last while and I'd like to share some of that with y'all. We're all in this together ya know. :-)

Staying Healthy

LarryB

What to read?

For those of You out there who like to read...

Here are a few of my all time favorite books. I've read them all many times and learn something new from them each time I re-read them. :-) Have you read any of them yet? They are all very different but each one has lots and lots of cool stuff to teach us. So, if You are into learning mode, Dig up any one of these little Treasures and you'll be in for a treat...

Stay Alive In The Woods - Angier

Illusions, By Bach

Owl Hooters - Von Meuller

The Last Canadian - Hauntingly Realistic...

Reading good stuff is good for us. Gives us a chance to slow down a little and explore the other worlds around us. Many times we can learn a lot from a real good book. I've learned plenty from this little foursome. Perhaps You will too?

more later...

lb

Ottawa outdoors...

Some shots of my latest tour...

The Parkway

Morning Dove

Ottawa River Parkway

Wild Wood Walk

There's more but I'm outta here for now...