Trout Lily - View Pointing Skyward

Beckoning scent draws
Thriving life to drink nector
In shady haven

Dance of Delicate Trout Lily

Although I hear rumours that some of you are shovelling out of 30 cm of snow - spring has arrived at Mount Nemo (barring westward travelling snowstorms - eek!!) So I thought I'd quickly put up a few of my pictures today and hopefully if I can get a lot done today, I might be able to go hiking again later this week, by which time I expect to see the trilliums in bloom. At least some of them.

Inverhuron Interlude

Hello neglected readers - I finally have some new pictures to post and I anticipate with the warming weather and soon to exist garden that there are tonnes more in the next few weeks, even if the text is limited by frantic and intense thesising.

This is the view from McIntyre park in the town of Inverhuron - after a quick visit to Philospher's Wool between a trip to St. Jacob's Market and McGregor Provincial Park with Gabe and his mom. :D

So.. lots to look forward to :D.

Happy Birthday Grandpa

To celebrate my grandad's birthday we all went out for a special supper. It was a lovely evening and everyone left feeling well fed - in fact well all shared a single piece of cake and called it done. I didn't get any really great pictures of my Grandad because he was a bit out of flash range - but here is my supper including a big old chunk of red meat and it was as good as it looks - sigh - I say this as I'm considering becoming more vegetarian - i.e. becoming an opportunistic carnivore where I don't buy or prepare meat, but will eat it when its put in front of me and enjoy it. Well, it won't happen for a while - but I've really cut back on red meat, so I figure that is a good start.

It might be spring if....

Well, its starting to actually feel like winter might be over and gardening season is on its way. I think the first call of order is some tidy-up, then some bed building and planning for the woodland garden in the far corner. I'm definately looking forward to the season.

Jennith

Winter Road and Adventures in Detours

On a field mission to drop of equipment at Cataract and see if all the spring weather and rain had resulted in an interesting flow at Monora, I set out on my usual route north up Mississauga Rd. - which I had hoped would be open through Belfountain as its had been months since I'd been up there. Of course, there was still a detour for whatever grave emergency road work they have going - so I consulted my map and the lines seemed to join between Old Base Line and McLaren via Creditview and Grange - and the map didn't lie, but it omitted some facts like the large section of the Grange Sideroad that isn't plowed through the winter and is still looking wintery, even though the snow everywhere else is melted. This resulted in a somewhat wild drive down a hill that I wasn't sure I could get back up if I ever found a spot wide enough to turn around on if the road got any worse or was actually closed at some point. In fact, the hill was the worst part of it and there was a little parking lot midway down - where I stopped, took this picture and then scouted the next bit of road on foot to see if I should try to go back up hill or continue. So, after a pleasant hike, I confirmed that the worst was over and the road was open all the way to McLaren - went back for the car and continued cautiously down the stretch shown above. Since, most of this detour involved wet, dirt roads - my car was a lovely shade of clay brown by the time I pulled into the Cataract parking lot. Next time... no short cuts.

Truthfully, I've definately driven on sketchier - just usually not in my car. The worst of the roads I've driven, we had a wonderful F150 with 4WD (and a chain saw for cutting trees that had fallen across the road). The road to Martin's Head was also a brutal water covered affair, but I wasn't driving and again - we had a truck. Then of course there was the road to Nasadawahank (spelling not garenteed) in Baxter State - its pretty washed out in places - but we just went slow - particularly because there were moose everywhere!!

So, in the end, the road really wasn't that bad, but my heart was certainly pounding on the way down the hill as I was mentally trying to decide how likely it was that I had cell coverage here and whether a tow truck could make it down to haul me out... Ah adventures...

I guess it was good that the drive was exciting, since the stream was only slightly higher than normal.

Oi!

Jennith

Leaf's Bench

Okay - I thought this was an illustrative picture - there are at least the logos of 6 corperate sponsers in this picture and a bench full of desparately worried players...

My second think - what a great job the coperate sponsers did of providing interesting entertainment in the form of of advertisments. The ring of TV that circled the entire rink was really cool (and I actually mean that) and it was used well. The comercials during intermission and pregame on the TV were quality adds, but felt a bit like they were taking advantage of a captive audience who'd payed a fair bit to be there already - a touch tacky - but corporately saavy.

And in final thoughts - I hope the Leaf's make it next year - I like the Senator's, but really its not the same.

First NHL Hockey Game

Thanks to a kindly gifter of tickets, I got to see my very first hockey game at the ACC. I had a great time - but I came out of the game with two thinks. First - I'm not sure professional hockey is enough to justify their staggering ticket prices. Granted the Leafs had a brutal and devestating loss to the Bruins (so I wasn't seeing them at their best), but I certainly remember the energy at some of the Varsity Reds games in Fredericton where there was more excitement and energy in the stands. I mean they had to have celebrities prompt the crowd to "Get Loud" and we had to confiscate air horns (dangerous to other members in the crowd) and keep the kids from pounding on the glass. Maybe its just the city or the crowd - the type of people who can afford tickets probably don't have any energy left to cheer.

Still - a great experience which has certainly seen me reading more sports columns the last few days. I guess I'll be cheering the Senator's for the 3rd straight year through the playoffs.

Regenisis

Well, after a long winter scraggling along indoors, one brave geranium plant has burst into flower this week. There were some casulties of winter and under watering, although my dead mint seems to have decided it no longer feels dormant.

I will have to figure out how to convince my crocuses to spring up, in spite of being stored indoors all winter, I think I'll put them in the garage for now and then see what I can do about planting them in the thawing soil.

Waning Winter Woes

In spite of 2 cm of snow this morning, I sense that winter is waning and spring and all the changes it brings is coming quickly. The above photo was an unusually unpainful self portrait I took while skiing. My geraniums are hanging in - one is even threatening to flower although most of them are threatening to die from lack of water - which I hear is easier to cure than root rot from over watering.

I'm in the throes of thesis writing which is about as pleasent as breaking rocks with hammers and less good for calorie burning and cardio.

Yesterday, I paid Gabe back for all his help with my field work by playing assistant while he took so shots for his school project at Philosopher's Wool in Inverhuron. The people who run it are really cool - and while Gabe was snapping some pictures of sheep, Ann managed to teach me to knit 2-handed fair-isle so quickly that I was pleasantly astonished. They have a lot of good thinks - especially regarding sustainable agriculture - and beautiful sweater kits. So, once I've cleared a few nearly finished projects from my needles, I'm going to tackle a Kilim Jacket in the Night Sky Colourway - which I'm going to try and finish for next Christmas and then maybe try knitting some matching socks or something. Stupidly, in spite of bringing a camera - I didn't take any pictures for my blog. So maybe I can con one out of Gabe later.

It was a good change of scenery even if we didn't add to our provincial park count, I suspect I'll be back in that direction at some point this summer to do some hiking.

The Sight of Silence

Albion Hills... somwhere open.

Sunlines

ahhh... sigh... beautiful.

Snowshadows at Albion Hills

My last ski for the season was at Albion Hills. I did somewhere between 6-9 km (probably closer to nine since I only lopped off a tiny loop) through hilly forest with a few views of clearings and farms. I went nice and early so I got some neat sun effects and some good pictures. Overall, it was pretty nice, but a bit icy in places and the tracks were well worn. It was actually probably the coldest day out this year - it was below zero.

Aroo wearing my Irish Hiking Scarf

I borrowed this pattern from hello yarn and then modified for my big, fat, chunky wool. Aroo says its his now, and I'm going have to knit another one if I want it for myself.

ROM - PPM reunited

Well, the gruesome threesome of the LU EFRT were actually in the same place at the same time for the first time since A. went overseas I think. So - after much discussion we decided to go to the ROM - since only I had been there in recent years at all - and I hadn't seen the new crystal. I'm sad to say that I was a bit disappointed. The displays looked nice, but they seemed totally lacking in the usual explainations that you find in museums. Even the dinosaurs had little in the way of interpretive signs. What there was in abundance were small label cards identifying the artifact and giving some numbers - like date found and location, possibly the period where appropriate - but I didn't learn anything and I found it difficult to read the cards without focusing my energy toward it - perhaps they just haven't finished that part of the new exhibits. It seems a lot less geared towards kids than I remembered. Crazyness!

chickedee on branch

Chickedee Enjoys a Snack

Yum!! Seeds!

I spent about 10 minutes trying to get a good shot of the birds, but this was about the best one. Better luck next time for something unique and cool.

Looking Up River

Here is the scene just above the falls. :D

Frozen Falls

Here I am looking over Hilton Falls (safely behind the fense and still on my skis). I was amazed how frozen they were.

Holy Tree Batman!

Some wood pecker (Piliated is my first guess given the size) has been at work on this tree at Hilton Falls Conservation Area. Now that the snow is back I might get to do the Beaver Meadow Trail.