Too Much of a Good Thing?

Here's Sirrus on a sunny mid-winter's afternoon drinking in the wholesome wonderfulness of being sun drenched while surrounded by a dozen of her favorite toys. Cat nirvana I'm guessing.

Her and her sister Sheba, since they were kittens, have been fans of movable things in general and cat toys in particular. What excites a cat though is often something as simple as a piece of torn cardboard (check out the sliver of stuff just to the left and down a bit from Sirrus's head) or, best of all, rolled up tinfoil.

The store bought variety of toy though, in particular the soft and cat-nip filled ones, have been a top of the hit list with both of my cats. Popular enough that I'm now well trained and when shopping for food, cat litter and cat grass, I'll remember their advice just before leaving. "Bring back some new toyz or don'ts come back at all."

Who's trained who I wonder. :)


A Magical Moment

This was a totally unplanned shot but one that I was quite happy with. No digital manipulation was performed to create it. Photoshop was not involved but a bit of mirror trickery was.

The setup that produced the image was a bit complicated so bear with me.

I've been experimenting with solar power for a year now and while the results are pretty depressing (3 days of summer sun equals two hours of lap top computer power) it's been quite educational. Mounted at the base of my living room window is a an 18 watt solar panel which I use, via a small regulator, to charge a 400 watt hour sealed battery backup unit.

Several weeks ago, as the day neared the end, the clouds parted and the sun at last arrived. It's image was reflected from the solar panel onto the living room window in front of it then up into my eyes. Looking down from my living room window on a normal day I have a great view of the Burrard Street bridge as well as the Sunset Beach dock of the Granville Island Ferry company . Merge a reflected sunset with a ferry in motion and, poof like magic, a surreal moment is born.