Not that I can really tell. I’m often surprised by the comments, which indicate that somebody — maybe several people — really like a picture that I didn’t think that much of at all. It’s just the way it goes. (And of course, sometimes one that I think is a real barnburner sinks like a rock. That happens all the time!)

Anyway when I don’t think I have a really good picture, I often compensate by posting two or three less-good ones. Who knows, maybe you’ll like one of them.

Here’s a raccoon down at the Cats of Parliament Hill. She’s hugely pregnant. It used to be that squirrels got a lot of the cat food, but nowadays I just see Mama Coon socking it back.

This was the first day for Parliament to be back in session. Stéphane Dion was watching the raccoon too. Living in Ottawa I consider politicians to be celebrities, but I couldn’t think of anything to say to him, so i didn’t say anything.

I haven’t actually seen very many politicians just hanging around at the places where I go. Not that I recognized, anyway. Once I saw Stephen Harper and one of his minions lining up at Chapters to buy a book. And I saw Herb Gray eating a burger at the Centretown Royal Oak. He looked like a wizened little dwarf. Oh, and I saw Jack Layton picking up some milk at Hartman’s. That’s about it for me and celebrities.

Here are some of those statues called the Valiants. They are statues of famous Canadian soldiers, most of whom you haven’t heard of. I don’t know who any of these guys are.

One odd thing about the Valiants is that they are actual size. Therefore they look really small. This is partly because people in recent centuries keep getting bigger, and partly just because you always expect statues to be larger than life. Then if they aren’t, they seem even smaller.

Here’s a dramatic shot taken out back of the Supreme Court, one of my favourite places to go looking for a picture.

I almost posted this one yesterday, when I was also feeling wind-shocked, but I like the closeup of the little gosling that I used instead. Go look at it, you’ll like it.

This one seems like it has something to say about the plight of children, forever dumped off their bikes by vicious Supreme Court judges and killed or sold into slavery or worse, but it doesn’t. They don’t do that. It’s just a random picture with a bike in it. The kid and his mom were sitting on the dry fountain looking at the view.

Do pictures have to mean anything? Is a picture worth a thousand words if the words are gibberish? Discuss!

I’ll try and do better tomorrow, I promise.

Experimental farm

June 2, 2010

Two years ago:
Pic 476
Wooden fence

June 2, 2009