Wonderful Winter Weather!

We've been having about the best weather winter can bring this week, even though I know this is a contradiction in terms for some of you.  A foot and a half of powdery snow on the ground, and caught on all the branches, moderately cold temperatures, from -15 to -5°C (5 to 24°F), and little wind.  A perfect combination for getting out, so I've been on three different snowshoe walks this week.

These photos are from a walk earlier in the week in a nice woodlot I can see from the house, but had never been in til this now.   A beautiful forest!

With no wind, the powdery snow just accumulates on the branches, and you have to be careful not to duck under these at the risk of getting a neck full of cold snow crystals.

Snow accumulates on everything, even on nearly vertical leaning tree trunks, a good 8 or 10" of it.

I love the big white wiggly worms that I sometimes see up on higher branches.  Snow is such an amazing substance to have the strength to hang together like that rather than just fall to the ground!

Sometimes you don't even realize you're walking over a big log on the ground, totally covered in snow.

Just the pleasure of getting the mukluks and snowshoes on for a walk is great.  Only a short time each winter when this is really enjoyable.

I could have stayed for hours tramping slowly around.

Even the thin twigged shrubs on the edge of the woods catch and hold huge mounds of snow.  Wonderful winter weather!

The Goldfinch Mystery

I don't know where the Goldfinch disappeared to 3 weeks ago.  We had quite a flock feeding regularly at our feeders, but then they disappeared - completely, for nearly 3 weeks.  I keep wondering where they went.  The other day they were suddenly back, though whether they'll stay at all, who knows.

I counted 51 in this picture, but there were more scattered around the back of the yard.

The feeders were so crowded they were squabbling for space.

Most days we only have one or two, but they are beginning to show those yellow colours of spring.

It was actually hard to get pictures without some birds in the air.  Blurry images, but fun.

We do occasionally see other birds, but very few of them.  Just a Chickadee or two and a Downy Woodpecker now and then.  They kept visiting while the Goldfinch were away.

And of course we still have the squirrels. 

One of whom made a valiant attempt to get seed from the feeder today, but to no avail.

A Walk in the Woods

I finally did manage a walk in the woods here, a small patch of woodland far across the back of the golf course that I could see on the map.  It turned out to be small but really interesting, a bit of mature Beech-Hemlock forest here at the edge of town.

I actually found this woodlot back in the fall, when first exploring the back part of the golf course.  I followed other walker's tracks just through a corner of the woods, thinking this would be a good place to explore later.  This Yellow Birch marked where the trail went in.

But when I finally walked through it during our mid-January thaw, it was dark, with an overstory mostly of Hemlock.  That's unusual in southern Ontario, a bit of really old woods dominated by Hemlock.

And American Beech, like this huge old one.  Some literature suggests that Beech-Hemlock forest was the original forest of southern Ontario, but it's much more common to find woodlots dominated by Sugar Maple.

Some bigger old Yellow Birch in the woods too.  And notice all the Hemlock in the background.

Those Hemlock needles are easily recognizable against the snow.

Found a few other interesting bits too, like this big old rotting log decorated with bracket fungi.

And a very bright green bit of moss on a stump.

There's also quite a substantial stream flowing through the far side, and I found this spring feeding a small tributary draining down into the creek.

 A big old Sugar Maple on the edge of the bush.  A short but interesting walk, and a woodlot that turned out to be much more interesting than I expected.

Meaford Cemetery

In search of good places to walk, I have discovered that Lakeview Cemetery here in Meaford is one of the best in town, at least during the winter.  It has driveways back and forth, as well as two long lanes into the main cemetery, which gives lots of room for an hour's walk.  And they seem to keep the drives snowblown quite well over the winter, which gives really good footing for a brisk safe walk, which is what I need right now.

I've now gone walking here quite a few times, in varying weather.  These pictures were a few days ago; we have quite a bit more snow now, maybe 16" on the level here at home. 

One of the nicest features for me is the long entrance road past the gates before you get to the open cemetery.  You're really walking through the forest for the first 10 minutes.

And it's quite an interesting forest, with a variety of trees, and a steep bluff to the north, the old Algonquin glacial shoreline.  You can see out to Georgian Bay through the trees.

The big old Sugar Maples in the main part of the cemetery aren't forest, but they certainly give you the feeling of walking among 'trees with character'.

I've started to notice too the varying styles of tombstones in different parts of the cemetery.  Compare the photo above to this one, which has far more taller and older monuments.

And this, which must be the oldest section, with numerous 19th century graves, marked by the simple slabs with rounded tops.

And of course among these are the tragedies, like this child who died at age three months nearly 140 years ago.

So far I've only noticed one monument with an actual sculpture, this beautiful stone angel.  I suspect that most of the graves are Protestant, with only a few Catholic graves.  But there is only one cemetery in Meaford.

There's a long lane out the back of the cemetery which is no longer used as far as I can see, but you can still walk it.  It adds a nice 15 minutes to my walk.

The main walk back to the car has a long row of big old Blue Spruce, with their long fat cones loaded at the tops of the trees.

At the moment, the snowblowing is really helpful for me, marked here by the snow blasted against these big maples.  Makes it really easy to go for a brisk walk and feel safe on my feet.  No need for Yaktrax here.  Virtually no traffic to watch out for either, and I usually only meet 1 or 2 other walkers.   I got in a good 45 minutes this morning.  Mrs. F.G. has come walking with me here too, which is a bonus.  She's faster than me, so I have to push myself to keep up!  I have to keep reminding myself I'm only 8 weeks post surgery, and have only 8 days to be ready for the next one!

The Industrial Corner of the Harbour

I don't think of Meaford's harbour as industrial.  In the summer it seems to be all sailboats and motorboats.  But off in one corner is the Weatherall Dock and Dredge Company with their cranes and barges.  Their location in the harbour is such that when you drive down the big hill on the main east/west street to the main intersection, they are directly in front of you, even though they're on the far side of the harbour, so they're very noticeable.

They have a collection of 3 different cranes, 3 or 4 barges, and a boat, mostly up on shore for the winter.  The cranes get loaded on barges for work along the bay.

The two big cranes are Link Belt cranes, made by the Link Belt Speeder Company, now part of FMC.  The Canadian factory for Link Belt was in Woodstock, Ontario, where I grew up.  The story of the company is interesting, for it grew out of a farm implement dealership in Iowa in 1874, with the invention of a 'chain belt' that was less likely to break on farm equipment, based on a better way to link the chain, thus a 'linked chain belt'.   They have been one of the world leaders in manufacture of large cranes like this ever since.

Standing there I was struck by the mixture of cranes and cables.  Many shoreline owners here try to maintain a dock, with a narrow channel to get a boat in, in spite of the relentless Georgian Bay ice which changes the shoreline every year, so I expect these guys do a lot of work in the summer just maintaining things or putting docks back in the water.

The most tattered flag I can remember, in those relentless Georgian Bay winter winds.  It's the winds that push the ice onto the shore too, damaging the docks and moving boulders every year.  Most docks are pulled up onto land for the winter, just like the boats.

I was interested to see that the local pirate ship which I only saw for the first time this spring, was also up on land here.  It was so bright in the viewfinder I missed getting the flag on this photo.  I'm wondering if it's a new ship for these folks - looks in pretty good shape, not banging up at all yet!

But here is the Jolly Roger, flapping madly in the wind.

I couldn't leave without checking out the two Coast Guard ships that rest on the dock here for the winter, the Cape Providence and Cape Discovery.  I always wonder what manner of electronics are in all those gadgets up above the ships.

In between these and the main harbour walkway the CGCS Westfort is on permanent display, retired from active service a few years ago.  This corner of the harbour does add a lot of interest when I wander down there.