Winter Comes, Winter Goes, Then it Comes Again!

We're in the middle of a continuing roller coaster of winter.  On Christmas Day it was still snowy, but then the big thaw began, taking us almost all the way to green grass.  Today it is snowing like mad again and winter is back.

Christmas Day

Just four days later.

Dec. 30 - it looks like spring!

A light snowfall that was gone within hours.

Jan. 2 - a nice gentle snowfall, about 4" deep.

Note our snowstick in the lower left.

Yesterday morning - about a foot now, and lots of blowing snow today!

Happy New Year!

The new year has arrived, I can't believe it!  Time moves so fast as you get older.  Just yesterday it was summer and I was riding downtown to the library or for coffee.  Now it's winter, though a mixed up -  warm then cold then repeat, snow then melt then snow again.

So with our fixation on the weather and on holidays, you might not have noticed, but yesterday I published my 3000th blog post!  I can't believe how much it's helped concentrate my mind over 15 years!  And that's not all, because I've also received just over 40,000 comments and over 1,7 million visits!  That's the real reason I celebrate.

Your dedicated commitment to reading and making comments means a great deal to me, particularly over the past five years while I've been paralyzed.   So thank you from the bottom of my heart.

And why do I blog?  First because I enjoy reading blogs, so I figure it's a fair trade.  But second because I find it engages the mind like little else.  Having to take pictures, think of a theme to post those pictures around, and actually writing the blog, gives my brain a small routine challenge every day if nothing else.  

So thank you, and best wishes for a great new year!

2024 Review Part II

I was surprised to find these 'Tidbits' signs around downtown back in the summer.  The brainchild of a  professor from George Brown College in Toronto, the tidbits of history they posted certainly helped me understand the industrial legacy of the harbour area.  There are still mysterious gaps right by the waterfront where long gone industrial buildings once stood.  

This is the old hotel that stood where the library is now.  It was mid-summer when these started showing up.  You might note that this is when I had to enter the modern age and finally learn how to use QR codes!  Gotta keep up with the next generation!

In August along came one of the best bird pictures I've ever caught, a Rudy-throated Hummingbird visiting our Mexican Sunflower.

Pretty soon it was harvest time and Mrs. F.G. worked hard at growing several kinds of hot peppers this year right here in our own garden.

We're in the middle of a significant apple-growing area, so it's always notable when apple season arrives in early fall.  These apples were at Goldsmiths Farm Market.

Meaford has several festivals over the year, but none is so obvious as the Scarecrow Festival, held in late September..

Then it's fall and the leaves start turning colour, one of my favourite times of year.

I also got this great shot of a Monarch, just outside our front door, very late in the season.

On one of my last trips downtown in early November I saw these two Mute Swans in the harbour.  Although we often see one or two in Thornbury's harbour, I don't recall ever seeing them in Meaford before.

We went on our annual drive to look for Sandhill Cranes, and we were very successful, though these were photographed at an extremely long distance.

And then I arrived at physio one day to find this charming fellow greeting me as I went in.  A cheerful end to the year if nothing else!

Happy New Year!