For those of you who don’t live in Canada and/or don’t recognize the iconic building in this photo, it’s the back of the Centre Block on Parliament Hill. I’m on the choppy waters of the Ottawa River, riding the wakes of power boats and cooling off with frequent swims amid an early summer heat wave. There hasn’t been much activity on this blog of late, mostly because I’ve been focused on paddleboarding on local lakes, rivers and canals instead of writing about it. I’ve also been planning a couple of trips over the next few months, to Newfoundland and British Columbia, which will lead to SUP stories for a fairly long list of fine magazines, including enRoute, Western Living, Paddling and Mountain Life. To use the surfer’s parlance, I’m stoked about my upcoming travels. But that’s enough looking ahead for now. It’s time to pay more attention to the places where I am, not the places where I will be. Time to enjoy our northern nation’s short warm weather season. Time to get back onto the water and (with thanks to my good friend and paddling partner Jan Silverthorne, who took these pics and vid) do more of this: