If you take a trip down to City Hall, you will find a photography display in the Rotundra that features three of my photographs. They are three of the five photos I entered in the "Picture the City" photography contest, and my work "Lower Mulcaster" received honourable mention in the "Heritage and Architecture" category.

Oddly, the whole contest turned out to not be about what I thought it was supposed to be about, which was "picture the city." I took that quite literally, but half of the 16 winning photographs could have been shot almost anywhere and one of them is clearly not even in Barrie. There are some nice photographs, though.

I had entered three photographs in the "Arts & Culture" category and while none of them won, two were selected for the Rotunda display, both of them black & white entries. I believe they are the only two black & white prints on display. Speaking of prints, the people running the contest did a good job having nice prints made.

So, go down and have a look. The display is up until February 26.

On Saturday, Jennifer and I went for a nice kayak trip in the bay. After returning, we were carrying the first boat to the car when tragedy struck. The darn handle slipped out of my hand, and I dropped my end of the boat.

Unfortunately, the keel landed a direct hit on the nail of the big toe on my left foot, and I never saw my toe nail again.

Jen and Kristin arrived back safe and sound this evening! You can check out the photo album by clicking here.

Jennifer and Kristin are off to Italy for a 16 day tour! They will be spending 3 days at the Grand Metropole in Venice, followed by a couple days in Gianni Franzi, Vernazza (Cinque Terre) and a day in Volterra.

After that, they'll meet up with sister/aunt Jocelyn and Mark for a week at a villa in Tuscany. The final three days will be spent in Rome.

Hopefully we can persuade both to write some stories of their adventures once they return.

Jakob is finished with elementary school, and ready to move on to high school! That's both our babies in high school, proving the saying that time flies when you're having fun.

Jakob graduated with honours from Codrington Public School, which he has attended since grade four. He will be attending Central Collegiate in downtown Barrie this September (the same school as his big sister, who'll be in grade 11).

Greetings! Dan here to let you know I have finished building a new website to showcase some of my personal photography. I really wanted to get www.danielclements.com, but it was already taken by an artist named Daniel Clements. The next choice, www.daniel-clements.com was also taken -- by a professional photographer. So, that left me with www.jdanielclements.com. You can click here to visit the site.

Kristin went BIG at the Barrie Fair this year, entering items into eleven different categories. She came away with four first place ribbons, plus a second, a third, two fifths, and three merit awards.

She scored first place ribbons in the 'Banana Muffins', 'Flying Critter Made From a Clothespin', 'Photography - Nature Closeup' (shown at right), and 'Christmas Decoration Using a Snowman' categories. And the last one -- the snowman -- is the best story, but more on that later.

Jakob's short essay on The Dangers of Drive-Thrus took second place in the Simcoe Country District School Board's Eco Health Initiatives 2008 Eco Journalism Award.

On Wednesday June 4, he attended an awards ceremony at the school board office where he received his award from Mr. Lancaster (Bear Creek Secondary School) and Kayla Secord from the board office. Besides the plaque, Jakob received a $200 cash prize which he was quite pleased with. 

...'cause baby, look at you now!

It seems like just nine short years ago Kristin was off to her first day of kindergarten. And now here she is, graduating from grade 8 (with straight As) and getting ready to walk onto the springboard of life called high school.

Click 'Read More' to see the photos!

Duran is Jack "Grandpa" Clements' new Seeing Eye Dog. He arrived around May 15, with a trainer, who spent 10 days training both of them. Now the 10 days is up and they're on their own. Duran is very well behaved and is working on getting used to all the new things in his life.

Click the image on the right to see the full photo.