AmplifiedLIFE

Catchy name for a hook-up? Atlanta Repo company btw.

Ease and flow. Let go of the oars. Del Mar beach, Del Mar, California. February 9, 2020

I was walking around downtown Philadelphia when this rambunctious gang pedalled by! "The Big Red Pedacycle is a 15 guest bike. This open air tour bus has 12 seats lining both sides for paddlers and a back bench for three riders to sit on. Riders work together to casually pedal the Big Red Pedacycle around Philly and stop at historic sites during the day and popular pubs at night. It is the perfect vehicle for historic tours, team-building events, school trips, pub crawls, bachelor/bachelorette parties, company outings, birthday parties, charity events and more!" I think this particular gang might be part of what they are calling the Bars Galore Tour. "We stop at three different locations with over 20 of Philadelphia’s most amazing bars and pubs. Grab your drinks at any bar you like and roam the streets to check out the City of Brotherly Love. Or feel free to bring your drinks back to the bike for your own private party. Then onto the next stop to try something new. From Mojitos to frozen drinks and everything in between, our bars galore tour has something for everyone."

Psychedelia is all around us. Wavy reflections of a straight-gridded concrete building in a gently-rippling puddle of water. Solid and liquid on the dance floor.

This shot was taken on Lac St Pierre, in Val des Monts, Quebec, Canada on a beautiful fall afternoon on September 9, 2021

Russell the Norwich Terrier meets a brand new friend!

Another dive. Another angle. His form needs work but his enthusiasm is high. This is September 9th, right after a little rain. The sun has come out so it’s time to jump in the lake. Lac St. Pierre in Val des Monts, Quebec - to be specific.

This shot was taken on Lac St Pierre, in Val des Monts, Quebec, Canada on a beautiful fall afternoon on September 9, 2021.

His form needs work but his enthusiasm is high. This is September 9th, right after a little rain. The sun has come out so it’s time to jump in the lake. Lac St. Pierre in Val des Monts, Quebec - to be specific about the lake :)

Drifting along with the breeze in Old Ottawa South, Canada.

Folks out skating on the canal during a blizzard. That’s Canada! The city is very quiet when a blanket of snow covers the land. Even the cars drive by quieter. On weekdays you can often see skaters carrying briefcases or big backpacks as they glide their way to work on their daily commute. Or perhaps it’s called skatemute? Billed as “the world's largest skating rink”, the frozen canal winds its way through downtown Ottawa. Each winter, from roughly January to late February or early March, this boating, canoeing and kayaking waterway transforms into an epic urban skating rink. When open (weather permitting), the Rideau Canal Skateway is free and accessible 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. Anyone can explore any section of the 7.8 kilometres (4.8 miles) thanks to its universally accessible ramps and facilities. Non-skaters can walk or shuffle along the edges of the Skateway (away from skaters), or on the pathways above the canal. Further into the video, you’ll notice some red snow removal signs. There are two types. Yellow ones indicate that they will be clearing your street the very next day whereas the red ones indicate that they will be doing your street overnight. In both instances you want to make sure you don’t leave your car on the street. Along with all the snow plows and dump trucks, a small fleet of tow truck drivers travel ahead to scoop up any parked cars before the “snow train” gets to those streets. The entire thing works like clockwork. I’ve also included a shot of Immaculata high school, a Tartarian-ish building overlooking the Rideau canal.

A single, continuous shot, gliding through my backyard through the middle of autumn’s fiery pinnacle.

This mural is right beside an Ottawa landmark - Yardley’s Antiques. For 35 years Yardley’s has been buying and selling a wide range of quality antiques in the Ottawa area. They’ve got an incredible selection of antique and modern lighting, fine furniture, antiques, collectibles, garden décor and decorative novelties. The mural itself however, is on the main brick wall of the Trinity Anglican Church that faces busy Bank Street. The length of the wall is punctuated only by a few benches and a bus stop. For those with an imagination and a can of spray paint, this wall stands out as an impressive canvas. Faced with the cost of graffiti removal multiple times a year, and often impaired by bitterly cold Ottawa winters, the community at Trinity pondered the purpose and meaning of their wall. But instead of a barrier between church and community, and a target for vandalism, the wall became something beautiful and transformative. With enthusiastic momentum behind the mural vision, the parish turned to community partnerships to bring their vision to life. These included a grant from Ottawa Crime Prevention, and partnerships with Ottawa Inner-city Ministries. Through these community connections, Trinity worked with a team of marginalized youth with artistic gifts to conceive and commission their new wall. The artists were particularly taken by the style of the congregation’s stained glass. The flowing layers of colour and play with Christian symbols found in the windows are echoed in the wall design. The outdoor piece is also rooted in scenes from the community and inspires hope in its bright motifs and images of growth and renewal. By August 2014, the small mural community was ready to set spray paint to wall. Twice weekly through the late summer the group convened and layer-upon-spray-paint-layer watched a metamorphosis happen. Gradually the same wall that was once a barrier to community became an invitation into it.

A little zen-like moment as we watch some autumn leaves peacefully floating down the Rideau Canal in downtown Ottawa, Canada.

Since 1895, Biltmore has combined the natural beauty of the mountains and the majestic house and gardens to beguile, inspire, and allow guests to escape from the everyday. Today, some Abraham-Hicks seminar participants are taking a break and enjoying a delicious cocktail, the warmth of sun, and a magnificent view of Asheville, North Carolina’s stretch of the Blue Mountains.

A United Express jet pulls into Gate F10 at O'Hare's International Terminal. United lounge goings on reflected in the glass. O'Hare has non-stop flights to 228 destinations in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania. - Nicknamed the "busiest square mile in the world" - Began as a military airfield during World War II - Named after Edward "Butch" O'Hare, the U.S. Navy's first Medal of Honor recipient during that war. - Became famous during the jet age, holding the distinction as the world's busiest airport from 1963 to 1998; today, it is the world's sixth-busiest airport, serving 83 million passengers in 2018.

Here we are at magic hour on the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina. George Vanderbilt was quite the environmentalist, and to continue his legacy, the Biltmore is producing biodiesel fuel from canola grown on their 8,000 acres. The name ‘canola’ is a combination of the words ‘Canadian’ and ‘ola’ (which translates to oil). Ola is also understood as an acronym for oil low acid. Canola is a cultivar of rapeseed and part of the same plant family as mustard, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower. At full bloom, a canola plant stands three to five feet tall with vivid yellow flowers and small seed pods. The blackish-brown seeds within are tiny—about the size of poppy seeds—but are made up of 45% oil. The high oil content of canola seeds and the crop’s ability to thrive throughout southeast winters make it ideal.

O'Hare has non-stop flights to 228 destinations in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania. - Nicknamed the "busiest square mile in the world" - Began as a military airfield during World War II - Named after Edward "Butch" O'Hare, the U.S. Navy's first Medal of Honor recipient during that war. - Became famous during the jet age, holding the distinction as the world's busiest airport from 1963 to 1998; today, it is the world's sixth-busiest airport, serving 83 million passengers in 2018.

An unedited, one-continuous-shot stroll through Chicago’s O’Hare airport at magic hour. We begin right after we get through Security and end at the United lounge. O'Hare has non-stop flights to 228 destinations in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania. - Nicknamed the "busiest square mile in the world" - Began as a military airfield during World War II - Named after Edward "Butch" O'Hare, the U.S. Navy's first Medal of Honor recipient during that war. - Became famous during the jet age, holding the distinction as the world's busiest airport from 1963 to 1998; today, it is the world's sixth-busiest airport, serving 83 million passengers in 2018.

There is something to be said for the majesty of two cruise ships passing each other - especially in close proximity - and even if sped up. :) You are observing the MSC Sinfonia, built at a cost of $245 million in 2002, she is 903 feet long and can handle 2,163 passengers and 721 crew. Behind us is the city of Funchal, Mederia - one of our Canary Island Cruise ports on this overcast September afternoon in 2014. The Sinfonia is part of MSC (Mediterranean Shipping Company), the world's second-biggest container shipping operator. In addition to being the world's largest privately held cruise company, employing about 23,500 people worldwide and with offices in 45 countries, MSC Cruises is the fourth-largest cruise company in the world, with a 7.2% share of all passengers carried in 2017. And awaaay we go!

I was visiting friends in Austin, Texas when my hosts told me it was “breakfast time for the girls”. We went to their garage and opened up a large container of deer food, and the minute we started pouring the food into a bowl - even inside the garage - the subtle noise then brought the sound of quickening hoofs as a gang of deer quickly appeared from the surrounding forest. Gang? Well perhaps that’s not the right word. I looked it up. You can call a group of deer, a “herd”, but you can also refer to them as a bunch, mob, parcel, or rangale.

This little guy came crawling across my path up at our cottage in Val des Monts, Quebec. Because of their colouring and milkweed diet, many people think that these caterpillars are going to turn into Monarch butterflies. Monarch caterpillars actually prefer younger plants for their meals - and earlier in the season - while the milkweed tussock moth caterpillar comes along between July and August (or in my case, early September) and they tend to eat the older plants left behind by the picky monarchs. Yes, they are essentially eating ‘the leftovers’. I too assumed that because these little eating machines were colored like a monarch that they must certainly be about to turn into smaller versions of their cousins when they emerge in their own winged glory. But is not the case. They turn into moths that are quite nondescript but are no less important as pollinators. It is important to note that like the monarch, their only food source is milkweed, so they won't ravage your other food or floral crops, either. Now that I know more about them, I let them be and actually look forward to seeing them.

The Rideau Canal runs between Kingston and Ottawa, going along lakes, rivers and 20 kilometres of canals cut into the soil and rock. It was built between 1812 and 1832 to create a supply route from Ottawa to the Great Lakes, away from the St. Lawrence River, based on the lessons learned from the War of 1812. Since then, it has seen many upgrades and was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2007. The waterway runs for 202 kilometres via 45 locks. In 2019, almost 62,000 boats travelled through the locks: two-thirds from Ontario, one-quarter from Quebec and the rest coming north from the United States. If you want to travel the waterway and don’t have a boat, you can rent a houseboat or a boat. They have eight different styles of luxury houseboat to accommodate your friends or family for meals, sleeping and even showering aboard. You can book them for three to seven nights, with a week costing $1,719 to $36,89, depending on the model you choose. No boating licence or experience is needed to rent their boats. If you are planning a trip, it takes four to six days to make it from one end to the other, depending on how busy each lock is and how long you need to wait. You could cover it in three days, but that pace does not allow you to enjoy the experience at the same level. For a relaxed week-long venture, you can cover the entire canal and still see many of its sights. However, if you want to stop and shop or spend a day or two on walking tours, then build in a buffer to truly embrace the experience. If you are planning to paddle the full route, the trip would take eight days with limited stops. Again, to really enjoy yourself, slow down and take it all in.

Did you know that sunflower pollen has medicinal, protective effects on bees? This particular fellow is covered in that healthy delicious pollen. With bee populations in decline, a new study offers hope for a relatively simple mechanism to promote bee health and well-being: providing bees access to sunflowers. The study showed that two different species of bees fed a diet of sunflower pollen had dramatically lower rates of infection. They also had generally better colony health than bees fed on diets of other flower pollens.

This is the Rideau canal in Ottawa, Canada. It weaves its way through the city, all the way from the outskirts, right on through to the downtown core - and beyond. The paved paths on each side of the canal are always dotted with a combination of walkers, runners and cyclists. The adjacent roads carry commuters along a very scenic route. In the winter, it’s not uncommon to see daily commuters skating to work with their briefcases and backpacks. Today, in early September, a fit couple makes their way downtown via kayak, as the camera pans past the red awnings of the Canal Ritz restaurant and over to the white metal Flora Footbridge.