Its a ill wind that blows no good.

The images on Monday were taken on Sunday. The images below were taken yesterday at various times. Let me start with the blowing wind bending an icicle; the warm air then caused it to melt, at times continuously - redirected rain, actually:

So much for the idea of wind - what about the "no good"?
Well, in the afternoon, Vicki persuaded me to work to work out down stairs. Around 2:30pm. I thought about taking the camera but decided against it.  We were just 10 minutes into our exercises when I saw thes 2 Canada geese flying low over the ice on the still frozen part of Lake Couchiching with a largish bird ahead of them landing on the ice. Maybe 150m away from us, looking like a Snowy Owl. I continued to work out because the Law of Nature and Camera-shy Bears states that this bird will fly away when I try to take a photo. However, as I neared my finish and the bird had not moved, I decided ... to go get the camera.

Not taking any chances I took the first shot from the balcony:

You have seen these branches in other blog entries - sometimes framing a boat, sometimes a kite or wind surfer. (Arni, clever how I arranged the branches to frame the owl - I learned this from you!)

With one Owl in the bag, I went down stairs and outside in my bare feet to see if I could manage a closer image. I might wish now to have a bigger and better "Canon" as well as my "Canon" insulating coffee cup! Or have NF here to take the proxy. My feet were beginning to hurt from the buildup of snow between my soles and my clogs.

I then went inside to capture the initial views we had from the fitness room - the treadmill view:

and then the closeups between the trees:

So nature comes to those who stand and wait.

W O Birrd