It was bitterly cold recently. Last night -10°C with a strong penetrating wind. Vicki was holding my hand while I tried to see the zodiacal light.

Bass Lake:

Left Line 15 for a darker road at the end of Line 13, Not sure if this is what I wanted or light pollution.

                                    ^                           ^                                              ^

                                    Aldebaran           Mars - Pleiades                        Zodiacal  --->?

There is light pollution in the South-west:

Can you see the 3 red objects? Betelgeuse, Aldebaran, both stars, and Mars at the top edge. Almost in a straight line.

Fire and Ice

By Robert Frost

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I’ve tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

 

So I went out again today to see more ice and wind chill caught in the act:

 

 It is an ill wind/windchill that blows no good - so eh, here is enjoyment:

It was cloudy tonight, some snow drifting onto the balcony - so no expeditions tonight.

Sleep well,

WOB

Wind Chill

Volker - Bilder statt Wörter!

Alles klar?
German for beginners - WOB

Who has seen the wind?

Gusting over 100kmh. How does one capture the moment? The motion in a still silent image?

The debris above/left of the flag are leaves. There were also heavier objects blown about too.

white-caps were decapitated:

The top pair show 6km to Horseshoe Island while the bottom shot does not make 2km to Couchiching Point.

The merry dancers?

And the buffeted shores of Tudhope:

The unflappable -

W O B

meaning of weather alert

"Issued at 04:44 Tuesday 26 December 2017

The intense snow squalls have reached Midland to Lake Couchiching and will continue to drift to the south today. Snow squalls will persist today with additional significant amounts possible. Some areas may receive 15 to 25 cm. Snowfall rates of several centimetres per hour are likely under the most intense bands.

Snow squall conditions near Georgian Bay are expected to persist for much of the week due to the presence of a very cold Arctic air mass.

###

Visibility will be suddenly reduced to near zero at times in heavy snow and blowing snow.

Snow squall warnings are issued when bands of snow form that produce intense accumulating snow or near zero visibilities."

It seems colder when the flag is horizontal:

Val was concerned about Santa landing in a wind turbine, If that was what bothered him last year, imagine the flight conditions this year:

These are for one of my many friends called David - the one in southern England!

W O B  - does not fly in this

A couple of redwing blackbirds - stealth bombers?

It is currently -15C,  sunny, but oh so windy

So let me dream a lttle about the past when the world was young and dynamic:

Is there not a sensible tension in the dynamic? I would love to be able to "sail" away

But all good things must end -

(14 as in 14 feet => 4.2m )

On the shores of Lake Mariposa, sigh,

W O B

Go fly a kite, Part II with gusts up to 80kmh!

Well, we still have a long way to go to open water. However, there has been some interest in kite flying, so I thought I would fly back to Oct 15, 2010, I think a Friday?  when I observed these daring young people on their flying trapezes. First a "total view northward toward Washago:

The island just left of the flagpole is Horseshoe and is 6km away. There is a green channel marker near the leftmost kiter that is 1km away - it is sometimes seen in an image well infront of the left end of Horseshoe although parallax - my shifting position on the balcony - can cause its position to shift slightly. So now lets see how one gets "up":

Upper body strength is required - as in a chin-up.
The kite is fortunately already "up":

Now let me show you a sequence of 7 shots as another kite flys by:

Confusing? Here are 2 jumpers - several meters through the air and several meters above the ends of their wakes:

And they are not alone, either on Oct 15:

Crazy.

W O B

Carthew Bay Nature Reserve

Went for a walk on a snowy morning.

For those of you who have never gone there before, follow the ribbons:

The snow was deep, not crisp -

not even!

However, beautiful:

One is neither alone nor lonely when one is with Mother Nature.

W O B