Bogged down in Winter

I just realized that I have not written to you, or 2U or UU, for a very long time, The  snow has been deep but the rains have reduced the impact. Also the winds have blown much away. Still, when the winds drop, it has been an interesting time.

The weight of Winter weighs heavily on all signs, not just of life. I have squeezed a little colour from the landscape around midday on Wednesday,

Red granite and some red dogwood for contrast to the glacial blue.

So now you have some idea of Winter?

And, oh yes, it is very cold  -

Wise old Bird

You should put these on your blog for K and J. These are really good photos. V

The ice has been thinning with rain and +1C today. So when I am told to do something, the wise old bird did as he was told!

Today we were north of Carden in a forest growing on alvar-like terrain. I did not want to get in the way of 2 busy and efficient scientists so I took some photos through the looking glass. At times, it was snowing, the white streaks.

Please enjoy responsibly.

These were the most common. However, for about 5 minutes out of 5 hours, this little fellow appeared:

The following is not a bird, does not even fly, although its relatives do - maybe a theme for the summer?

There is now, I see, a distinct reddish theme to make up for my lost red curls of youth:

And the people who made it possible: the Trillium inspectors!

Thank you  -  Wise ol' Bird

Relatives

I was told that I ought to post the following encounter of the 3rd kind.

It isn't too clear so here is another edit_

Even a wise old bird needs to be lucky!

All literally as in Leacock, next door.

Wise ol' Bird

Water skiing in January?

Well, its like this - it snows when it is cold and rains when it is warm. This repeats every 5 to 15 days with a temperature change of 15 degrees in 24 hours. So that means that from time to time one can water ski in winter.

So today I started out like this:

My skis,

However, this is what I saw yesterday -

This is white-water skiing!

The judging - yes, of course this is competitive - have their "stand" -

Looks like  it "otter" if I may speculate.

Some contestants flew in for the event:

Raise the draw bridge, please.

Why? Because we ski behind really big boats - after the snow has been removed -

Here is how I appeared after the competition was over:

Just a little shaken - shivering to get warm?

Wise old Bird, maybe?

Winter sunset

After watching the Trumpeters yesterday, I went down to Kitchener Park where I kind of felt the mood from The Kinks:

This song bottles up a fleeting moment of heavenly detachment from reality and suffering. Ray Davies, after jumping off a 12 ft wall at age 6 "trying to fly" was seriously injured and spent quite a long time in a Waterloo hospital where he purportedly had a near-death experience following a botched tracheotomy. His sister bought him a guitar at age 13, then she dies of a heart defect. Young Davies in his hospital room, likely spent many many hours gazing out of his window, which overlooked Waterloo and the river, a rather beautiful spot with many people ("swarming like flies"). When he wrote the song at age 23, I'm sure he drew from those moments when he felt relief from his suffering upon viewing a sunset, and from the times he felt isolated and disconnected from the world buzzing by his window.

Waterloo Sunset

I hope you are watching the following with the audio track.

May 1967 and I am not sure when I heard it.


Wob

Minding Ks, Ps, Rs and Ts

Our old friend, R08, was there to greet us this afternoon:

Vicki does not spot trains, rather ---

There may have been others that did not turn their IDs toward me. So that is it for R08, K75, K96, R89, T12 and P36.

wob