Festival of Northern Lights

Last week one of my physio appointments was late in the afternoon, so after the torture was over, we decided to stay and go see Owen Sound's Christmas lights display.  We headed for the newer display, in Harrison Park, but discovering that the lights weren't on yet, we went into the Harrison Park Inn for dinner (which was excellent).

The Festival of Northern Lights has been described as one of the most "extensive and outstandinng winter light shows in Canada".  It's certainly fun to visit.

This is the view out from the restaurant.  You can see a skater or two on the outdoor, but artificial rink.  They solve the conflicts on the ice by allowing free skating and pick-up hockey every other night.  A simple schedule, but effective.

Here there's a short road loop you can drive around, entering through these walls of light (which started out as a tunnel, but the flimsy roof collapsed).

Of course there have to be hockey players - they're blurred because they're skating so fast.

These flying geese were one of my favourites.  In fact here I like the blurry version better!

A Bit About Snowy Owls

Snowy Owls are fascinating birds in several ways.  First, they are the biggest owls in Ontario, making them one of the biggest owls in the world.  The males are nearly all white, which is unusual and striking for a bird, though very suitable for their arctic habitat.

We were very lucky to see one right at the roadside, and watch it sit still for several minutes.  Snowy Owls will sit still atop a fencepost or telephone post for hours, scanning the fields for prey - usually mice.

They can swivel their head 270° thanks to extra vertebrae inn their neck, but their eyes don't actually move, unlike ours.  small rodents and mammals are their prey.  It's no wonder that they visit the area bounded by Chesley, Paisley and Tara, as it's quite open farmland, like their Arctic home.

The Snowy Owls we see in southern Ontario (and the northeast U.S.) are the result of an 'iruption' of owls sending birds  south in search of better feeding.  If their are too many Lemmings in the Arctic, there's an overpopulation of owls, driving some owls to seek their fortunes elsewhere.  If their are too few Lemmings, the owls need to search elsewhere instead.

Hunting for Snowy Owls

It was a beautiful sunny day and not too cold.  Even on our way to church this morning we had decided to go for a drive this afternoon.  Having heard that Snowy Owls had been reported to the west of us, it wasn't hard to decide where we were going.

Here's the one owl we saw, sitting on top of a telephone pole in a flat open landscape of farms.  This is a concession or three just northwest of Chesley.

This owl sat still, just swivelling it's head around nearly 360°.  Given the amount of dark barring on the wings, this is probably an immature owl or a female.  Males are more completely white.

Surprisingly to me, these photos were taken both with an iphone7 and my big Nikon with a 200mm.

Winter Solstice is Coming

As I look out each day at this dull dark weather, I'm reminded that the days will be getting longer in one short week, and in two weeks we'll be able to notice the difference.  The Winter Solstice is one of the most encouraging changes in the season for me.  The new year really starts then as we work our way to the long warm days of spring and summer.

In the meantime, I lifted myself from hibernating to help get our Christmas tree up.  It's artificial I'll admit, and Mrs. F.G. had to do most of the work, but we got it done.

Phase one is that part of the tree that I could reach from my wheelchair.  Reaching up or down is a challenge!

But just to prove I was really helping....

And the finished tree.  Once you turn on the lights it looks great regardless.

We've had no more snow, and a few days when the temperature rose above freezing.  By today our snow was almost gone.  A mild December day.

Hibernating

With no recent pictures and not much to write about, I'm going to hibernate a bit.  Take care in the meantime.

Alert Ready

I was in a store in Owen Sound last week, checking out a present for grandchildren, when suddenly there was a very loud alarm which seemed to be coming right from my wheelchair!  I looked around, but nothing seemed to be happening, and no-one was hurrying to rescue me.  The sound only lasted about 30 seconds and it was over.

There I was, wondering what in the world is going on, but nothing seemed to be amiss.  Then I recalled that I always carry my cellphone in a side pocket.  Pulling it out I found a text message that said something about a test of the national alerting system.  The alarm had come from my cellphone, not my wheelchair.

Later on I was able to look this up, and I found that Canada has been developing a national alerting system known as 'Alert Ready' for several years.  Spearheaded originally by the Weather Network (thinking about tornadoes), the ideas has attracted a significant number of government agencies who have co-operated to launch the system.  It will cover every emergency you can think of, from tornadoes to Amber Alerts for missing children.

There are a host of technical issues to be solved to make this work on a national scale, but you may already be seeing such alerts occasionally on your TV.  The alarm I heard was the national test for mobile devices like cellphones.

So if you suddenly hear a loud alarm coming from your pocket or purse, pay attention!

A Blue Sky Day

We had one of those rare beautiful sunny blue sky days yesterday.  What a treat after so many grey days.  It wasn't long before I noticed the straight dark shadows of the trees out back.  And they marched across the snow all day long.