Lorne Beach

VIDEO: “Mystery” by Dio / Ruko Over Lorne Beach

The flight started well enough, but I lost control of the drone during the return, right around the guitar solo (Vivian Campbell). It started veering to the left and losing altitude. I managed to bring it back to the beach and land it in the sand, but I thought for sure it was going to hit the water or trees. Why? It’s a “Mystery”!

To its credit, the Ruko U11MINI 4K gets incredible images with its always-level camera.

The water levels are heading back to their low point. It is a 20 year cycle. It does create beautiful imagery. Enjoy the flight.

Mystery (Dio/Bain)
From The Last In Line (1984)

Can you hear me
can you see
there’s a storm on the edge of the sky
does it matter
it does to me, i can tell you why
When there’s thunder, there should be rain
but it don’t always follow the rule
and is the wise man always right?
no he can play the fool
It’s always a mystery, not what it seems to be
it’s always a mystery, just like you and me
We are lightning
we are flame
and we burn at the touch of a spark
if there’s fire, but no one sees
the there’s only the dark
Just imagine, will you try
i can see that you’ve opened your mind
silver linings can disappear, but they always shine
It’s always a mystery, not what it seems to be
it’s always a mystery, just like you and me

#1204: By The Light of the Silvery Moon

O, By the light of the silvery moon
I want to spoon, to my honey I’ll croon love’s tune
Honeymoon keep a-shining in June
Your silv’ry beams will bring love dreams
We’ll be cuddling soon
By the silvery moon
(Edwards/Madden 1909)

Oh, the moon! That might explain things. You see, the moon affects the brain.
(Amman – Clash of the Titans 1982)

RECORD STORE TALES #1204:  By The Light of the Silvery Moon

I’m not a nocturnal person, though I used to pull a few allnighters with Jen when we were first dating.  I do have insomnia, so I often wake in the middle of the night.  At home, this usually means checking my email and having a drink before heading back to the sheets.  At the cottage, I enjoy stepping out into the cool summer air and having a look around.

I don’t bring a flashlight.  I let my eyes adjust to the darkness and wander.

You see things at night.  When visible, the moon lends a silvery sheen over the entire landscape.  Not quite enough to read by, but certainly enough to see the ripples of waves on the water.  Under the cover of trees, silver slits of light pierce the darkness, creating spotlights on the earth.  If there is a breeze, the movement of the trees can really make you feel as if you’re not alone.

You hear things at night.  Once or twice I heard a coyote, crying like a human child and echoing through the valley.  Another deep dark night, I heard a growling that I could not see.  We do get bears here.  Sometimes the swaying trees can create a growling sound as they move in the night, but this growl scared me and I made a quick retreat back to the house.

I enjoy the total solitude at 3 AM.  I feel more connected to nature by the silence (other than wind, waves and nocturnal beasts).  I don’t wear shoes on these walks.  I can feel the grass or cool sand beneath my feet.  Sometimes I stub my toe on a tree root, but that’s a small annoyance in the grand calculus of the pitch black night.

I try not to make a sound.  Just observe with my senses. Feel the cool air on my back.  It’s mental health maintenance.  While I love living in Kitchener (for many great reasons), I feel truly free and alive in the wilderness.

A special moonlight treat is when the silvery satellite turns blood orange.  A moonset is a very special sight that not many get to know, or even know about.  I’ve seen a few of them.  When a crescent moon hits the horizon, people describe as the image of a blazing sailing ship on the edge of the lake.  This year, wildfire smoke has prevented us from seeing the moon kiss the horizon, but its orange glory remains as a fiery ember in the sky.  When the moon is full, you can imagine it is a burning Balrog, climbing out of a gaping maw in the dark mines of Moria.

Truly the world looks alien at night in the light of the moon.  Perhaps that is why I love it so much.  I have always yearned to see other worlds, but the beauty of the Earth is enough to last many lifetimes, if you go out at night under the light of the silvery moon.

 


Of all the versions of “By the Light of the Silvery Moon”, Little Richard’s is one of the highest charting, going to #17 in the UK, 50 years after the song was written. Other renditions were performed by Gene Vincent, Doris Day, Fats Waller, Etta Jams, Burl Ives, Ray Charles, Julie Andrews, and even Bugs Bunny (Mel Blanc) among countless versions.

#1203: Wildfire Haze (with drone videos)

RECORD STORE TALES #1203: Wildfire Haze

 

Wildfires are more and more common as the world warms, but this year has been something else.

The sunsets have been alien and unimpressive.  The sun appears as a red dot, but disappears before reaching the horizon.  You can’t smell or taste the smoke, like you could in 2023, but the visuals are more obvious in 2025.  The windmills that dot Bruce County disappear into the distance.  The horizon isn’t a clear line, but a blur.  The sky is a hazy blue-grey.  The water is a shimmery silver.  It is like we live on an alien world, or a place from a science fiction dystopian novel.

This is the first chapter I have written since we lost Grandma on July 30, 2025. If she were here, I would show her the photos and videos and ask if she had ever seen the lake like this, in her 60 or so years at Lorne Beach. While I can never ask her now, I feel like the answer would be no. I don’t think she’d ever seen a sky like this on Lake Huron.

Grandma’s funeral will be August 22.  I have been asked to speak.  I would have wanted to speak even if I was not asked, but now that the task is ahead of me, I am strangely without words.  I have things I want to say, but these thoughts are disorganized and jumbled.  When I speak at her funeral, I want it to be the best speech I’ve ever given.  I have spoken at weddings, funerals, and my Grade 2 English project, but this feels like the most important speech I have had to do yet.  What to say?

I wish I could show you the wildfire haze, Grandma.  Actually I wish you were there on the weekends like you used to be.  I used to drive her to the lake.  I would pick the music.  She liked my picks.  She didn’t even mind Sloan’s 4 Nights at the Palais Royale, which was the exact length that it took to go from her driveway in Waterloo to her cottage.  A few weeks ago, we decided to drive to the cottage listening to music she’d like, so we picked the Swingers soundtrack.  She loved Dean Martin.  She loved Tony Bennett.  A lot of our family’s musical inclination came from her side of the family.  Though my dad played saxophone, Grandma’s family were the musicians.

I miss talking to her.  I used to say she was the only one in my family who understood me when I spoke.

I’m going to have to come up with a heck of a speech for her.

 

 

VIDEO: Grab A Stack of Rock – Emergency Preparedness Kit – Just in case the nuclear reactor melts down!

Things you didn’t know about Grab A Stack of Rock summer HQ!

It’s not just about the music and showing off our collections in paradise.  It’s also about emergency preparedness!  Check out this helpful video in the event you’re ever up in cottage country during a nuclear meltdown.

These kits are distributed to residents within 10 km of the Bruce Nuclear power plant.  I thought it would be at least interesting to have a good look inside one!

 

#1190: Return of the Sooners

SOONER [Noun]: “Sooners” is how my dad refers to the people who show up to go to the beach for the day.  I wondered what “Sooners” meant so I looked it up.  He must have got it from one of his cowboy movies.  Sooner:  “a person settling on land in the early West before its official opening to settlement in order to gain the prior claim allowed by law to the first settler after official opening.”

RECORD STORE TALES #1190:  Return of the Sooners

I like to do something new every time I go to the lake, if possible.  This time, I didn’t have anything planned.  I had two shows to do, but otherwise I wanted to enjoy my time and the surroundings without too much goal-setting.

This time, however, plans took a turn of their own.  Allow me to explain.

John Snow invited me to co-host an interview with a big, big name.  That interview was scheduled for Thursday afternoon, the 22nd of May.  I had planned to go to the cottage on Friday afternoon.  However, the big interview got re-scheduled at the last minute, to Monday the 26th.  Frustrated, I decided to cheer myself up by going to the lake on Thursday night instead, and working from there on Friday morning.  Something unthinkable just five years ago.

The wifi is better at the lake and I have more space.  We left town Thursday night and I dutifully worked a cold, rainy Friday morning from the cottage.  I wanted to work from the porch, but the cold and rain made this impossible.  It is rarely so cold in May, but here we are.  We have not had one nice weekend at the lake yet this season!

Even so, working from the lake was awesome:  making my bacon mere inches away from my laptop, or being able to step outside and enjoy the (cold) fresh air!  But best of all, when the day was over we didn’t have to drive anywhere.  We were already there!  The bonus time spent at the lake was a game changer.

Friday afternoon was booked off.  We went into town to buy some treats, and came back to a Friday afternoon all our own.  There was nobody around.  Not one cottage on our stretch was occupied that weekend.  The peace and quiet was unusual!  The last time up, I was worried that the guy across the road was going to blow leaves all through my Friday show.  This time there was nobody across the street.

Mid-afternoon, sitting in my armchair, I saw a car across the road.  I saw him stop, look out the door, and pull into the neighbour’s driveway.

“Ah crap,” I murmured to myself.  “Looks like we won’t be alone after all this weekend.”

A few moments later, I noticed five people standing and sitting around our bench at the beach.

“That wouldn’t be the neighbours,” I said to myself.  “They have their own property on the beach.  They have never used ours.  Who are these people?”

I allowed them a few minutes to take pictures or do whatever they were doing, but they didn’t move on.

Sooners.  Goddamn sooners!  They were back after a long absence.  I hadn’t seen any sooners in two years.  I decided to make sure they knew they were on private property, and using my bench!

I put on my hoodie and walked down to the beach.  I saw them turn and watch me approach.  Five guys.  They looked like students to me.

I nodded as I approached my bench.  I was curt with them.

“Hey, just going to use my bench.  This is my property.”  I paused.  “See ya.”

They began moving on, but back through the neighbour’s property.

“You can’t go that way,” I alerted them.  “That’s private property.  You have to use the public walkway.”  I pointed to it, a few feet to their left.

“Do you know where there is parking around here?” one of them asked.

“There isn’t any.  This is a private road.  You have to go park up the side road.”

I watched them leave.  After a while, I walked up to the side road to see where they parked.  They were nowhere to be found.  They had left the subdivision completely.  I guess I scared them off.

In the Battle of the Sooners in 2025, the score is now 1-0 for me!

Because of the cold and rain, we didn’t get a lot of outdoors stuff done to report on.  However, the weekend was not over, and we did get some drone time and some photos taken, so there will be more to come.

 

 

 

 

 

Droning On – Recent Videos with Music!

Lots of new videos up on the channel, with great music to go with them!

The First Flight of Dr. K – Marillion “Fugazi”

I actually let Dr. K fly my drone. This is the unedited footage. You can see the panic on my face, with my hands on my head in anxiety!

Following a Canada Goose and some beach dogs – Jeff Bridges & Colin Farrell “Fallin’ & Flyin'”

Really special footage here of a lone Canada goose in the morning. I hovered nearby, afraid to get too close.

Dawn flight in the fall to lone rock – Brant Bjork “Sun Brother”

This flight took me further than I’ve gone before, all the way to a lone rock on the other side of the river that my sister and I used to sit on.

Drone Videos, Deep Purple and the wonders of the beach [VIDEOS]

This could be the last weekend for good drone flying weather at the lake. Here’s what I made, and some great tunes for you to enjoy.  First up we have a Thursday night flight to the tune of “The Roller” by Liam Gallagher’s Beady Eye.  Then we have two Deep Purple instrumentals on an unedited Friday morning flight:  “Son of Aleric” and “Contact Lost”.

Notably, the water levels are noticeable lower than two weeks ago, and the river entrance has dried up.  I took the drone a little further to the river than on past flights.  Got up to max altitude each time.  Lots to see here, and some cool flying techniques that really leave you feeling like you’re gliding along with me.

The third flight on Saturday morning might be the most beautiful. The water was so clear, and the reflections from the sun made for beautiful flying. I soared in close to some boulders, and took a look across the river for the first time. There I found an big boulder we used to sit on as kids. The music for this video is “Blue Ocean” by Flying Colors.

VIDEO: July 25-28 at the Lake – loads of drone beauty shots

Six cameras.  3 hours and 20 minutes of footage.  Edited down to 14 minutes of highlights, all to the music of Richie Kotzen.

Ducks, geese, seagulls, and one John Clauser cameo.

Enjoy.

#1139: Bonfire at Lake Water Stones [VIDEO]

RECORD STORE TALES #1139: Bonfire at Lake Water Stones

More people, less wildlife.  That’s a rule-of-thumb at Lake Water Stones.

Why “Lake Water Stones“?  That was a childhood nickname that I had for Lorne Beach, on Lake Huron.  Now in my 52nd summer at the lake, I realize more than ever why it had that name.  As before, I took the drone up to the cottage and filmed lots of video.  I also took the drone far lower over the water, and through the crystal clear ripples, you can see countless stones…rocks upon rocks upon rocks…as far as the eye can see.  There are very few sandy patches at Lake Water Stones this year.  It changes from year to year.  The winter always brings in a new landscape, and seascape.

Back to the wildlife.  On our last trip to the lake, we witnessed our friend the fox, four wild turkeys, and a skunk. There was hardly anybody there that weekend, and it was very quiet.  This time, there were many neighbours.  The animals made themselves scarce.  There was no danger of tripping over a skunk this time.  Even our friend the chipmunk was barely to be seen.

On the flipside of this, we had the chance to meet the folks next door, a newlywed couple we’d never run into before.  Having a drone is a good conversation starter!  Neighbour Danny was treated to the best air show I could offer.  I swooped it down closer to the surface, and buzzed him from a safe distance as he swam.  Later on, I pulled the same stunt while Jen was swimming, and I came within an inch of crashing into a rock.  It was a close, close call and I will not be flying that fast, that close to the water again!  It’s all on video.

Danny invited Jen and I to a big bonfire that night with his wife.  I’m not usually the social type, and as of my friends who have not even seen me yet this year can testify to.  In the interest of doing new things and trying to be social, I decided to go.  Of course, I brought my drone to film it from the air.  It was an impressive fire.  And truthfully, it was nice to be social for a change instead of a hermit.

That was the one new thing we did this weekend, in a summer of trying new things.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about the music we played in the car, and on the porch.  On the way to the lake, I wanted to try one of the new albums I bought when Aaron and I went to Toronto.  I chose Don Dokken’s Solitary, which as I surprised, was an acoustic album.  I enjoyed it, but Jen did not like his cover of Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” one bit.  I’m undecided.  I don’t have to decide until I review it.  After that, we needed a palette cleanser so I put on Back for the Attack by Dokken.  Not one bad song.

On the porch, I asked Jen to pick bands, and then I would pick a song.  She started throwing me curveballs by naming bands like Judas Priest.  I would then shake it up by playing an atypical song.  In Priest’s case, it was “Before the Dawn”.  When she picked Guns N’ Roses, I went for “Better”.  This fun game kept us entertained for an hour or so.

Saturday morning was spent listening to the best of Kansas, in preparation for the afternoon interview with Tim Durling.  Jex Russell and I had the time of our lives talking to Tim about all things Kansas, and he should know!  A great show, though Amazon failed to deliver my copy of Point of Know Return as planned.  It just flat-out never showed up and they refunded my money.  All I had to show off for the interview with Tim was my copy on 8-track, that he gifted me last summer!

Another triumphant weekend at Lake Water Stones.  It’s wonderful to be able to keep these memories on video.  I hope you enjoy it.

Lake Huron at 190 feet! Lorne Beach in 4K – Kincardine/Tiverton Ontario – to the tune of “Billy Oxygen” by Helix

I’ve been out of action since Sunday, for reasons that will be shared soon. (The WordPress “community” didn’t even notice that I haven’t posted in four days for the first time since 2018, thanks guys, “community” is dead!)  Disasters and existential crises aside, the morning of Friday June 21 was perfect for flying a drone.  The drone was almost taken out by a seagull (1:20 of the video), all to the space-exploring soundtrack of “Billy Oxygen” by Helix.

While I try to get things back to “normal” here, enjoy the video.  I’ll be working on video editing all weekend.  The cottage video from last weekend will explain what happened.