Jock River Sunset (oil on canvas 9 x 12 in.) Sold

26 July 2014 finds me sitting on my painting caddy on the low grassy bank of the Jock River at the Trans Canada Pipeline crossing, south of the town of Richmond, Ontario. The setting sun glows through the boughs of an Ash tree across the river from me, and as I paint, the sky which this afternoon has been bright and cloudless but more white than blue, becomes more and more interesting now, with a few lavender clouds rising up from the west and drifting like scarves across the sun. Yesterday in Ottawa I first noticed the heavy haze smelling faintly of woodsmoke which must be from forest fires far to the west and the south.

On our hike in from Dobson Lane we heard a Gray Tree Frog call, and saw two adult Leopard Frogs along the grassy ATV-rutted track. Now at the river as I settle down to paint we hear the voices of three kinds of Ranid frogs calling from where

Madawaska River Crossing (oil on canvas 10 x 10 in.)

3 June 2014 found us just downstream of where the Trans Canada Pipeline crosses the Madawaska River, starting a painting of the steep north shore with its rocky outcrops and White Pines tossing their branches against the sky. The buried pipeline goes steeply down into the river from the far shore just to the left of this scene and then comes up through the meadow-like rightofway beside me.

We'd come in from Stewartville Road along the south shore of the river, and upstream of

Official Project Launch and Fundraiser!

On 20 July 2014 you will find us at The Branch Restaurant in Kemptville, Ontario, enjoying Chef Bruce Enloe's good food and music, in the company of friends and supporters of our Vulnerable Watersheds survey of summer/fall 2014.

The Branch is donating 50% of proceeds from their delicious menu, from 2:00 to 8:00 pm on Sunday, 20 July, at 15 Clothier St, just north of Prescott Street, in Kemptville.

Being Sunday, the special Gumboot Buffet will be on ($14.99, people under 12 pay their age) as well as The Branch's full menu which includes delicious vegetarian and gluten-free entrees.

We will have a few of my recent paintings on hand, and a copy of our "Landscape" book. There will be live music too!

From 3:00 - 6:00 Chef/Musician Bruce Enloe will host the weekly Sunday "open-mike". He's promised to sing a few of our own ecology songs. We'll be singing too - and passing the lyrics around!

Hope to see you there!
Aleta & Fred

Mapping Every Crossing - Steve Courtney

In May, Caryn Colman introduced us to Steve Courtney, who is making inventory of the geographic coordinates of the Energy East pipeline crossings of rivers, streams and lakes. Steve sent us the coordinates he's worked out for where the pipeline crosses rivers, streams, and lake shorelines. He's working up all of these in a Geographic Information System (GIS), along with the wetlands and the watersheds along the route and the terrain it would traverse. His information is based on the most recent data release from NRCAN NTS 1:50,000 maps, and he sent us this map of the crossings he'd catalogued.

Steve is using the pipeline route from New Liskeard to North Bay and Mattawa as his prototype, to define what data need to be used to evaluate