Beautiful Winter Day - in March!

It 

It was a beautiful winter's day, with fresh powdery snow in the morning clinging to all the branches, against a bright blue sky.  Everything looked like a winter wonderland again, and it was seriously cold, bitterly so when you turned to face the north wind!  And all in mid-March.  Last year the snow was virtually gone on this day, and the temperature was ridiculously high.  Today it stayed below zero all day.  Even so, the power of the sun evaporated a lot of snow, and within a couple of hours the snowy branches of early morning were gone.

I'm starting to learn Lightroom, the software I've finally decided to use for managing my photos - though I think I've enriched the colour of the skies a little too much in these.

 

 

 

Heavy Frost

This heavy frost was a few days ago too, but made for some challenging pictures trying to actually get the frost in focus.  Many other pictures turned out just slightly out-of-focus, but these seem ok.  The pines along the edge of the yard were particularly white, rimmed with the hoarfrost in the morning.

Meanwhile, winter is refusing to give up, and the weather is staying below freezing even in the middle of March.  Though it's great for the skiers to get in another week or two of winter, it's not so good for the maple syrup, which needs temperatures rising about 6 degrees and getting at least a little above freezing.

Winter Walk

Well, it feels like spring rather than late winter, 10 degrees out today, and snow melting fast.  So fast some of it is running into the basement!  But a week ago we had a wonderful snowshoe walk through deep powder snow over near Loree.  Through pine plantations, and along the old fencerow marking the edge of the larger deciduous forest, and it was all draped in snow.

It was sunny with brilliant blue skies, but cold, and perhaps as it turned out this week, about the last day of real winter this year.  The snow is certainly all melting and mushy a week later, even though it's still quite deep, and the snowbanks quite high.  In the meantime, this may be remembered as our last winter snowshoe this year.

The Seasons have Changed - Sap is Running!

A beautiful sunny late winter's day, a perfect start to maple syrup season.  Some friends of ours tap a few sugar maples in a home-scale maple syrup operation, so I went to help a little and document the start of the season.  They had their toboggan loaded with the tools and buckets, and out we went.

First, they drill a hole, with an old family hand auger, carefully placed on the south-west side of the tree.  And low enough that as the snow melts, you'll still be able to reach the buckets!

The spile goes in with a few taps of the hammer, and on at least one tree, the sap was dripping before we got the bucket hung.

Up go the buckets, and on goes the lid.  Then you just need to wait for the sap to run. But we didn't have to wait long; the first few drips were accumulating as we finished.

They only tap a few trees near the house, but when we were finished, the sap run was underway, with buckets on more than a dozen trees waiting for the sugary sap to provide the basis of this year's syrup.

Signs of Spring!

At this time of year there are always days when it feels like spring is coming.  In January you don't really notice the slowly increasing daylight, but by February it becomes obvious, and now it really makes a noticeable difference.  The sun rises earlier, and we no longer get up in the dark; it's still light out til after 6, and I can walk the dog a lot later than before.  

There are days too when it just feels more like spring.  If the sun shines and it's a blue sky day, the temperature rises, and even if it doesn't go above freezing, the heat melts the snow on the road - as in the picture above, though this was two weeks ago.  Now a sunny day makes you think of maple syrup, and folks who make syrup will be out tapping the trees any day, if they haven't already.

Down in the swamps, the red osier dogwood are turning a brighter red, and wherever they're found, the willows are turning yellow.  Even if there's deep snow still around, as there is, the dogwood and willows mark the changing season and bring the promise of warmer weather to come.

And finally the chickadees are calling, not their twittering winter calls, but their spring call to their mate, 'hambuuurrg'.  I've heard it occasionally for two weeks, but today every chickadee out there is imbued with the spirit of spring.

Winter Wonderland on Bayview Escarpment

Enjoyed what turned out to be a spectacular snowshoe walk on the Bayview Escarpment west of Meaford today.  With the temperature hovering near zero, two or three inches of wet sticky snow fell last night, and it stuck to everything, so every tree trunk and twig was partly coated in white, creating a beautiful winter wonderland. We headed across a field or two, then up the steep hill into a beautiful deciduous woods on top of the escarpment.  

Following an old woods road for quite a distance north, we headed through a beautiful sugar maple forest.  I could hardly stop taking pictures.  Then, much to my surprise we came to the southern boundary of the Bayview Escarpment Nature Reserve, and the Bruce Trail.  As we joined the white blazes, the trail angled out toward the edge of the cliff.  Already this was the nicest walk I have had all winter.  And the snowshoeing was easy, in fairly dense packing snow.

Then, to top it off we came out to the edge of the cliff and a series of spectacular views through the trees out toward Georgian Bay.  Just little windows between the cedar trees that lined the cliff edge, these views (below) look east across the towns of Meaford and Thornbury to Blue Mountain, the significant but hazy hill on the right in the far distance. Beyond that you can faintly see the far side of Nottawassaga Bay at Wasaga Beach - nearly 25 miles away. And looking over the edge of the cliff you could see a deep straight drop down the limestone bluff into the forest below.

This had quickly turned into one of the most spectacular winter snowshoe walks I've ever enjoyed.  After a time along the cliff edge we came to a very convenient break in the cliff, down a wide crevice, and then down a slanting trail right beside the vertical face of the limestone, making a very easy descent from the escarpment.  This is definitely a place to go back and explore again!

Winter Views Around the Valley

As I try to capture the landscape around the Beaver Valley with my lens, I've discovered that it's not at all that easy to get a photo that really portrays this countryside well.  The human eye sees small pieces of the whole picture, and can zoom in on a particularly attractive part of the view, but the camera isn't as flexible.  I've also discovered that it makes a big difference to get your pictures on a sunny day in the winter, of which there are few!  Here are 3 favourite views I've captured this winter, which I think do make good pictures.

The first is a view across open fields taken on the 4th Sideroad, with the old cedar rail fence and a maple tree along the edge of the road in the foreground.  I think the depth in this photo as well as the framing and lighting make it good.

This is a barn south of Walter's Falls, like many of the older barns, no longer part of an active farm with a house, and not being used in the winter except perhaps for storing hay.  Again, the lighting, the wide open white field in front, and the barn itself make this a nice view.

The last is a barn in the valley, on the north side of Bowle's Hill, looking north along the cliffs that mark the east side of the escarpment - the further cliff is Old Baldy, rising above the village of Kimberley.  The barn itself adds a lot to the picture, and again I think is not being actively used - though the doors have recently been repainted!