Sunny Winter Day - Briefly!

The day dawned in bright sun and a deep blue sky, perfect for some photography.  So I planned to head out after walking the dog.  But by the time I was ready a huge cloud bank was rolling in from the west fast, closing off that beautiful blue sky in a quick five minutes.  It was just like a blind being pulled down on a window.  Says something for getting out there quick when the light conditions are right!

I headed out anyway, and drove around looking for good viewpoints with safe parking. And I did find a few nice places to get pictures.  The barns are disappearing fast around here - three were removed down the road in one week, so some of my pictures were of favourite views with barns in them.  Both of these have the clilffs of Old Baldy looming above Kimberly in them, though they're different barns.

And this scene was further north, down one of the dozens of sideroads.  Nice winter day for a drive, even without the blue sky.  And maybe I'll get out the snowshoes this afternoon.

Snow!

The winter storm arrived Thursday, with the warmer air of a low pressure system, the temperature rose, and we were supposed to get rain.  But we never did, just brief periods of freezing rain, as the temperature stayed lower than expected - fine with me!   Then a slow accumulation of an inch or two on Friday morning, til things looked really white.  And the temperature has plunged to well below freezing, and is forecast to stay there.  I hope it doesn't rise til March!

But then the wind picked up, while the snow continued.  Last night it was howling wildly, and by the time I ventured outside with the dog after dark a serious drift had accumulated across the front of the garage, while further out, the driveway was blown bare, right down to the gravel.  Our walk was pretty short in the blizzard!  Quite a bit later I spotted flashing lights out back, and went out to discover a pick-up in the ditch.  Tow truck was soon there, and off they went.

By this morning the snow had stopped, and the sun started to come out.  We have 6" of fresh powder snow everywhere - except where the howling wind blew things bare.  Snowblower came out for the first time, and I blew away the drift in front of the garage, and the ridge left by the snowplow at the top of the driveway.  Meanwhile, the branches of the pines are laden with white.  It's actually deep enough to get the snowshoes out - 3 cheers for real winter, though there's still a bitterly cold north wind.

Snow Dusting

Beautiful dusting of snow the other day left everything outlined in white for awhile - until the temperature rose a little.

Then it all melted and vanished in the sunshine of the afternoon.  Today it was back. But now it's serious freezing rain.  Hope the temperature goes up a little instead of down. 

 But what I'd really like is some serious cold winter temperatures and SNOW! Please!

December Walks

I love December walks when it's cold, with a wind blowing light snow across the landscape and through the fencerows.  It's invigorating, and now that the ground is getting frozen and snow-covered rather than muddy, we've started our walks through the farm next door.  There's not a lot that makes a great picture on dark December days, but beech leaves in the woods have always been one of our favourites.  They tend to stay on the young saplings all the way until the next spring, rustling when there's a breeze blowing.

We walk part of our usual walk around the loop, but then we cut off through the woods down an old tractor trail, now partly overgrown with raspberries and young saplings.  There's no clear trail out to the old fields of the farm, but you can pick your way through the trees and over the fallen branches to get there.  They've recently stopped haying the small fields on this farm, but the owners mow trails down the old lane and around the edge, which make for great walking at this time of year.  Soon it will be on snowshoes.

In the meantime, I can let the dog run here, and try training her to return when called!  So far it's working.  And I'm sure her walks are more interesting than usual, as she runs here and there following the freshest smells.  A fair distance from any houses, I'm sure these fields and fencerows see lots of deer and coyotes.

A Fungus Tree

Doing my annual stewardship inspection of the Harshman property on the Bruce Trail, and I came across this huge old sugar maple stump.  I'd seen it before numerous times, but not with a light snowfall - a bit of snow made the big bracket fungi on the tree really stand out.

Hidden Trees

Big old trees are often hidden by a lot of young saplings today.  The big old ones may have grown in an open field, or at least at the edge of a field, and then when the farmland stops being used, a new generation of young trees grows up around them.  Miles and miles of the landscape near the valley, all poor former farmland, is now growing up in such young trees, but still dotted by giant old 'wolf' trees of an earlier generation.  The result is huge old trees surrounded by young saplings.  You can tell by the wide open branches and crown of the tree that it grew in the open.  And when the leaves fall, those big old trees really stand out in the woods.

Here are three interesting big old trees, the first a very gnarled beech, the others large sugar maples.

Hidden Things Appear in November

November is a fascinating month to look at the landscape around us.  In that time between the leaves falling and the snow arriving, things that are screened by leaves in the summer suddenly become visible.  You can see through the forest to things you hardly realized were there, and other things become clearer.

This huge paper wasps' nest is hanging 8 feet off the ground, just 5 feet into the trees, not far from our place.  But I didn't realize it was there all summer until the leaves fell and suddenly it was so obvious.  Paper wasps are generally beneficial in a garden, and not very aggressive except in defending their nests (unlike hornets and yellowjackets).  I think I've removed at least half a dozen very small nests around the house this summer, but this one will be able to flourish on its own without bothering anyone.