Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to everyone!  We hope you have a happy and healthy holiday wherever you may be and whoever you may be with!

We've had a busy few days (for us).  A drive down the valley picking up sandwiches for lunch as well as physio on Saturday past.  Lake Eugenia was totally frozen over.  Our son and his wife came for Christmas lunch on Sunday and we started a new tradition.  Ever since we moved here they've been asking to go to the Perogie Palace.  Well, it's not accessible so we ordered in instead, and it was delicious.  Good food and no cooking, what more could you want?

Monday was more physio and the accompanying increase in pain.  (Have you ever tried meditation to help you enjoy the pain?  I think it actually works!)  Last night we went to the Christmas Eve candlelight service at our church, a wonderful event that captures the real meaning of the season for me.  To judge by the crowds of people I didn't recognize, it's popular with the local community too.  After our daughter and family visited two weeks ago, and our son and his wife 3 days ago, our day here will be quiet and easy-going.  I hope to read the day away!

Merry Christmas!

Celebrating the Solstice

After the Winter Solstice which we passed through on the weekend, the days are getting longer - a huge reason to celebrate, and something I watch for every year.  Every Winter Solstice I think of the Stone Age people who built the great stone monuments on Orkney, off northern Scotland, monuments which we had the chance to visit in 2011.  They too were aware of the significance of this celestial event and celebrated.

Maeshowe, an enormous burial mound near the Ness of Brodgar, makes the most explicit reference to the Winter Solstice.

Here you enter the mound crouched down through a tunnel just over 3 feet high and once inside find yourself in an open room surrounded by towering walls of sandstone blocks.  They say these blocks are fitted together so tightly that you can't even slip a knife between them - this in an era 5000 years ago, long before metal was in use.  Just think about that for a moment.  That's earlier than Stonehenge and earlier than the Egyptian pyramids!

Not only did they know how to build monumental structures out of stone, they had incredible astronomical knowledge, for this burial mound is built such that on the Winter Solstice the setting sun's rays shine straight through the entrance tunnel onto the back wall.  How did they figure that out?  It makes me wonder what other sort of knowledge they had, and if perhaps we've lost some of it along the way!  In any case I find it always humbles me.  Enjoy our longer days.

Sunny Day!

We get enough of those dull grey days at this time of year, it's great to look out and see bright sunshine splashed across the snow.  Yesterday was busy, with our morning caregiver never arriving, the nurse here to do her monthly check-up, and then downtown for coffee with my friends in the afternoon.  But this is the view this morning, a glorious, if cold, winter day.

After Wednesday's storm and accumulated snowfall, yesterday we just had a very gentle snowfall most of the morning, adding another 4 inches of the white fluffy stuff.  It rested gently on everything around the yard.

And the night before we had another of those gentle sunsets in the east.  In late afternoon this big bank of clouds lit up brightly in the setting sun.   Have you been keeping track?  Yes. tomorrow night is the winter solstice; tomorrow is the shortest day of the year here.  On Sunday the days start to get longer.  Great reason to celebrate, eh?

The light fluffy snow was piled on every branch of the spruce, on our neighbour's cedars, and on Mrs. F.G.'s winter planter.

I tried to get artistic with our garden heron and dried grasses, but I'm not sure it worked.

Snow Day!

It's a good old-fashioned snow day here today, about 8 or 10 inches last night with blowing winds making driving hazardous.  Our caregiver didn't even get here last night (he drives from Owen Sound), and we ended up having a peaceful evening to ourselves.  I even got to stay up late.  Amazing how you get used to your new life with two different daily caregivers, early bedtimes and late mornings  and slide into thinking it's normal.  I think we're both pleased that we've reached the point where it's not a disaster when one doesn't arrive and we have to take care of things ourselves.

The world does look completely white outside this morning, and the street out front was busy as the men of the neighbourhood got out with their snowblowers.

You can see along the edge of the deck that the snow here is about 6" deep; out front in places it's more like 12".  The wind blowing across the golf course and down the street makes a big difference in sniowfall accumulation.

Looking through to the far side of the golf course - you're looking across three small valleys and their accompanying streams toward the woodlot in the farthest distance.  Someplace in the distance they're building new retirement bungalows on what used to be the practice fairway.  When I see the lights of the first few complete ones it's as if we have new neighbours.

Looking northwest this pine tree stands out in splendid isolation along one of the fairways.

And looking northeast I can see some tall Scots Pines laden with snow beyond the tangled branches of the Norway Maple, which did finally lose its leaves in early December.

I just like the three largest trees out back, as well as the view encompassing our neighbour's shed.  Can you tell the difference in the bark of the Sugar Maple in front and the two White Ash behind?  Our neighbour still plants the tiniest veggie garden I've seen in that raised bed in the foreground.

There are three levels of snow blowing or plowing that happen on our street on a snow day like this.  First the guy who blows out a few driveways comes along and shovels our front sidewalk; later he arrives and blows out our driveway with a big tractor-mounted snowblower.  At some point in there the town plow plows out the street, leaving a big ridge of snow across the front of all our driveways.  Finally there are three neighbours who are particularly helpful to the rest of us.  They get out their snowblowers, do their own driveways, and then blow out out any of us neighbours who need that snowbank across the front of our driveway taken care of.  By 9.30 or 10 the whole street looks clean and life goes on.

Meanwhile I think it's the first day when school buses aren't running here, even though most schools are open if kids can get to them.  But in rural areas a lot of kids won't get there (no more walking a mile uphill in both directions in a blizzard today!).  Indeed, even in Owen Sound, thanks to the consolidation of former public schools into one large vacant high school, most children are bussed to school.  Days like this are either a play-filled adventure for the kids or a troublesome headache for working parents.  We're all waiting to see what the rest of winter will bring!

My "Squirrel-proof" Feeder is No More!

I'm sorry to report that the squirrels have learned to extract the sunflower seed from my "squirrel-proof" feeders.  For ten years these feeders had proven invincible to the squirrels, but now I get to watch squirrels at the feeder instead of birds.

The first stop when the squirrels invade the yard is often the ash stump leftover from last fall's tree trimming.  This tree got totally trimmed!  They seem to like to stand up and look around briefly, casing the joint so to speak.

Then it's off to the hanging feeder where they gorge themselves on sunflower seeds.  I don't actually know  if they get full or they get tired hanging on, but then they're off with a quick jump to the ground.

Lots of squirrel games of 'ambush your neighbour' go on.  One might be peacefully eating below the feeder and another comes around the corner of the shed and makes for it.  In a flurry of 8 little feet they're both off for the trees.

Unless the attacking squirrel is a dominant one and climbs back up on the feeder to eat!  I know we have 4 visiting bushy tails, because I regularly see two greys and two blacks.  But I can't tell them apart like they can!

Oten the visit ends with one denizen of the airy highways sitting on a branch while engaging in a patch of vigorous tail twitching.  Then they go home and rest up for next time.

Missing the Birds

It's been a full five weeks since we've had any interesting birds visiting our feeders.  I thought we were doing well to get the feeders up with the first snowfall in early November with these birds quickly showing up, but alas they've stayed away ever since.  I'm hoping they'll come back soon 'cause they're fun to watch!

The Blue Jays came first, digging the peanuts out of the feeder and flying away to hammer them open and eat the peanuts inside.

Then we were really excited to see a Red-bellied Woodpecker, one we've rarely seen before.  I was really hoping it would come back all winter.

The Downy Woodpecker did show up a few times.  The small red spot on the back of the head shows that this is a male.  In the past we've had big flocks of Goldfinch, and regular visiting Juncos as well as the Chickadees and Nuthatches.  Where are you!

Shoreline Chorus Concert

Yesterday we went to enjoy the Shoreline Chorus performance at the local United Church.  It was a Christmas concert, half devoted to singing traditional Christmas carols, the ones I remember from my youth.  For the other half the choir sang songs telling the Christmas story.  It was wonderful.

Sorry, but my new simple editing process allows me to crop pictures, but not straighten them.  The church has obviously had some modern decor added.

The accessible entrance is at the back, and you enter into the church hall, with a ring of rooms opening off the half-octagon, mirrored upstairs with a balcony and more rooms, and decoration.  This reminded me of the church I attended as a boy, where these small rooms were used for Sunday School classes.

We got there early to get parking close to the accessible entrance, so I was able to take advantage of a few minutes to look around.  It's unusual architecturally in that the church portion is a large square, but the seating is all arranged diagonally, with the front of the church in one of the four corners.

The only wheelchair seating is at the back, with a low overhanging balcony, so I boldly rode down to the front to take a look at the rest of the church.  There was a nice and rather surprising octagonal ceiling decoration above my head.

And this was the choir getting organized just before the concert started and I put my phone away.  Wonderful music and a chance to sing some of those old familiar carols that I enjoy so much!