A Bloy and his Blog

For the album Trinity Revisited, the Cowboy Junkies celebrated the 20th anniversary of their classic release, The Trinity Session by revisiting Toronto’s Church of the Holy Trinity to see “what twenty years of experience would bring to those same set of songs.”

Not simply a rerecording, the songs are re-imagined and improved, featuring performances by guest musicians Natalie Merchant, Ryan Adams, Vic Chesnutt and Jeff Bird. The track that really grabbed me on the first listen is the bluesy shuffle, “I Don’t Get It” (which is available as a free download from the Trinity Revisited website).

read the rest of: Cowboy Junkies: Trinity Revisited

Rolling Stone was the first adult magazine I subscribed to. I’ve been getting it delivered to my home for over twenty years now. But I let my subscription expire this month, and I’m a little nostalgic about it.

Its musical focus was what first got me reading Rolling Stone — especially the music reviews. Over the years though, they’ve added more features on pop-culture things like fashion, television, and video games. Lately a good deal of their random notes section looks like it came from a sleazy tabloid. Often the music news in the bi-weekly magazine was not news to me. I had already heard about it online. I became less and less interested, and issues would pile up, unread. Over the past few years I wondered why I was paying for a subscription, but I couldn’t quite bring myself to stop.

read the rest of: No longer a Rolling Stone

No pictures on this post, just a story about an encounter with a bald eagle and the photo that didn’t get taken.

While on vacation last week, I was biking the trail along Trout Lake, hoping to get some photos of loons. That portion of the trail runs along the lake shore, with a buffer of trees of about 10 feet. The trees make for a decent blind, so the birds don’t get scared away. I had seen loons (fairly close by) along that section of trail in the past and I was hoping for a good shot. I had my camera setup with its telephoto zoom lens, ready to go in my bike’s saddle bag. At one point I did see some loons off in the distance a bit. I took a few photos, but they were a little too far away. Back on the bike I went, continuing to scan the nearby shore. Suddenly, a shadow overhead caused me to look up. There was a bald eagle swooping by, about 20 feet above me.

read the rest of: The one that got away

If I had to pick a favorite scenic spot in Wisconsin, it would be this one. The Black Lagoon on the Star Lake Nature Trail.

I’ve mentioned that trail before — it’s my favorite hiking trail in the state. While hiking there, you’ll walk through a thick boreal forest, a bog, a plantation of century-old pine trees, and along the lake shore. You’ll see (and hear) loons and other birds, and if you’re lucky you might get a glimpse of a bald eagle. Beautiful views can be seen all along the trail, but there is none better than the Black Lagoon.

The Star Lake Nature trail is located off of Hwy K, about a mile west of the intersection with Hwy N in Vilas County. Map

I just returned from a vacation at my favorite place for camping, the Northern Highland-American Legion State Forest. In addition to doing a lot of biking and hiking, I was treated to unique sunsets on five nights of my stay on Trout Lake. Here are the best photos from each of those sunsets.

read the rest of: Sunsets on Trout Lake

I came upon these gorgeous tiger lilies while biking Madison’s southwest bike trail yesterday.

read the rest of: Tiger lilies

The main reason Dad and I decided to go to Tennessee a few weeks ago was to attend the 80th birthday party of his cousin Jim (Happy Birthday Jim!). While we were at the party we also visited with Dad’s cousins Ruth and Janette, and their families.

Pictured here are four Bloy cousins. From left to right: James Bloy, Wilmer Bloy, Janette McCormick (née Bloy) and Ruth Zeppelin (née Bloy).