Almost mid April and we still have winter

The picture says it all

March 2nd

After that snowfall  we had a warm up period for a few weeks, and I dared to sit out on the porch in the sun, it was 14C out there, with a glass of wine, and all of a sudden, a bird landed on the other side of the porch, and took a chair to look at me. It was the smallest owl that i have ever seen. Tim was reading inside, and he saw the bird as well, and told me later that it was a saw-whet owl. Of course, I didn't bring my phone with me. So here is a picture of the owl that I grabbed from a bird site.

Saw-whet owl

Of course this warm weather melted the snow, so I put the snowshoes in the shed! Little did I know that by commiting this hideous act I jinxed the weather.

This picture was taken on March 21. Good start to spring!

However on March 26 we got this, followed by this:

If only we had skates...

The next day it still came down; it was a 2-day event for us, for people in Eastern Ontario it was more of a 4-day event. This all was followed by winds, and because the branches were heavy, a lot of them snapped off, or even worse, whole trees came down. All of this led to major power outages.  For some areas it lasted for more than a week! 

After that the sun came out, and Tim went out to take some really good shots.

Followed by a major winter storm that closed several highways on the island and on the north shore. No pictures, because we're sick and tired of this forever winter.

The coming week we expect sun and warm temperatures,  and all that white stuff will melt, and we can start the general cleanup.

In like a lion ...

We had winter weather in February with really cold temperatures of -23°C during the night. With all that came more snow and wind. Fierce winds!

February 15 is national flag day in Canada to celebrate the first day that the Canadian flag, the Maple Leaf, was raised in 1965. Until that time Canada had raised the Canadian Red Ensign. Because of our not so friendly relations with the U.S., a letter had been published, signed by 5 previous Prime Ministers, encouraging  Canadians to raise the Maple Leaf. Never have we seen that many flags flying proudly, and they're still flying.

And then we got more snow.  So much so, that Stella couldn't walk through it anymore, and since she loves our trails, Tim  took the snowblower out, and blew the main trail out. 

Every leaf has to be sniffed, of course. And the cold  temperatures stayed, no melting of snow, and the whole North Channel is now solidly frozen.

It was  also time for show shovelling on the roof before the next snow storm.

March came in like a lion with cold temperatures, and a trade war looming. Hopefully it will leave like a lamb, but I'm not optimistic.

Canada is not for sale! 

 

January musings.

Remind me to never complain about the lack of winter weather. A few days later we got a forecast for some truly winter weather. Aside from a few days of above 0C, the weather has been cold. Every day 1-2 cm of snow, which isn't a whole lot, but if you have this for 10 days, then it's starting to add up. The snowshoes came out of hiding, and into the woods we went. Afterwards I made Bami Goreng, an Indonesian pasta dish. To us that's comfort food

Stella is enjoying the wood stove after all the hiking she had to do.

And then a weather system came in with fine snow and some fierce winds from a westerly direction. Officially we were only supposed to get 5 centimetres, however we ended up getting 15cm. which led to these pretty pictures on our Cooks Dock Rd. 

Someone got stuck in the drifts, but our friend, Doug, came to the rescue by clearing the road from the worst of the drifts all the way to our driveway, and then the pickup truck was able to drive on, turn in our driveway, and went back home.

After all that the sun came out, the roads were plowed, and I went for a walk with Stella,  while Tim was snowblowing our driveway.

Launching a boat, anybody?

Woke up this morning, and the temperature was -20C. Today our high is supposed to be -13 and sunny. We prefer -13 and sunshine over grey skies with rain and plus 3 in the winter.  We have a good snow pack now of about 30 cm.

In the meantime we go to curling twice a week, which we enjoy, and better yet, we're getting better at it. Since you play against a different team each time, you talk to different people during and  after each game, which is very enjoyable.

RIDDLE:

What do you get when you combine two mighty, powerful people? MUMPS. That's a very nasty sickness! Not nice at all! Very mean!

Next up: 

TARIFF WARS

It's about time ...

 Here some pictures taken through the year of the winter that was not going to persevere.

 

And then we went from cold to warm; rain on top of the snow, which then would freeze, which enabled us to walk on top of the snow. As you can see the main trail is bare.

 

We saw our first Sandhill cranes in late February while walking to Cooks Dock! North channel was frozen over, but not with thick ice, and Lake Huron was definitely not frozen. Not very often that you see a mini-iceberg that looks like a dog. 

At the start of March there was no snow left in our forest, 

 

but of course it's only March

 

 

 

 

 

Hot and dry April, the flowers were blooming, and the ice was gone from the North Channel, and our local waterfall on Cooks Dock Road was running, as it should be in April, when things are melting.

Wet and chilly May, but the turtles didn't care. They hatched nevertheless. Tim helped several of them, only 4 cm in length, across the road to a local pond.

June was for memorial services in Nova Scotia. Not too many pictures were taken, but here is one of Tim and Andrew enjoying a beer in Chester, some calamari, and scallops.

July. Summer is here with rain once a week, and lots of sunshine, and a painted turtle in my garden. 

The biggest news of this summer is that Tim retired from the local Fire Department. It took up too much of his time (1/2 day every day). That frees up time to finish the work on the loft which is now in the finishing stages. And he finished the second set of stairs in the woods, which had been in the planning for a long time.

This past week has been hotter than hot with lots of swimming. No pictures.

Then it was fall and we moved into the loft! Still not quite finished yet, but good enough for now. 

Fall came and went with temperatures above normal which caused some really cool looking mist, and some wildlife. 

Curling started in November, and we both are enjoying it. Imagine, standing on the ice with an ambient temperature of 3C, while it's plus 10C outside and raining. 

However, we did get some snow at the beginning of December which put me in the mood to put the tree up

we got some snowshoeing in, but sadly the snow was followed by rain, to melt all that white stuff again, followed by enough snow to make for a white Christmas in the end, even with temperatures of above 0C Those mild temperatures and rain melted all our snow again.

Here a picture we took on December 31, 2024 on our 2 K walk to the dock. Our local waterfall (that will only show in April) hard at work in December!

 And now it's January 1, 2025. Wishing everybody a happy new year!