Lake Nipissing, taken last November…we have some of the most beautiful sunsets!
My view left and right while in Marco Island this winter…I have to admit while the house was awesome I missed the ocean view and will be doing my best to stay ocean side in the future.
Remember when…I used to enjoy making sand castles as a child. Found this abandoned one on the beach!
I spotted these lovely purple crocuses at the waterfront last week…same day I photographed the ice moving.
Thought I’d post a few photos of the ice up close, gives you and idea of the force behind the ice when you see how small the pieces are…
new condo…
This photo shows a new condo construction in its early stages…photo isn’t great but the process intrigued me.
Again, a photo taken while driving home…there is an area in southern Ontario where there are hundreds of windmills along the side of the road in farmers’ fields. While in theory these are a good source of energy, apparently the vibration causes medical issues for those who live close by?
skinny buildings…
Every year when I go through Cincinnati I wonder about the ‘skinny buildings’…I’ve done some research trying to find out why the tall thin buildings? What I found was reference to their historical aspect but nothing with detailed information about this particular architecture preference. I’m going to assume when these buildings were built the roads were narrow, with possibly a large influx of settlers, with space being limited? If anyone knows the reason please leave a message…fyi…photo taken while driving, not me of course!
You can’t tell from the photo but this little fellow was looking for lunch in the city, with this property butting up to a four lane highway.
Reminiscing…
I looked through my photo files and the 2015 photos are almost non existent unless you want to see farm fresh veggies and Market photos…so for now I’m going to go through some of my older photos and showcase them. I’m actually surprised the number of b & w photos I have. This photo was taken while on the highway from the vehicle…NO, I wasn’t driving!
Strange cloud formation…
This photo was taken before the one below, as I was walking up to the beach area I noticed a strange cloud formation that caught my eye!
these photos where taken off the beach at Fort Zachery Taylor Historical Park…boat traffic was somewhat heavy that day! It is an awesome view…
http://www.fortzacharytaylor.com/home.html
laying down…
this particular Bougainvillea tree is on the property of the condo we rented in Key West this year. It has grown terribly out of shape, completely bending over, and yet it continues to thrive. As you can see it is lifting the interlocking brick as it grows. 
to thrive.
tranquility…
I was looking through the hundreds of photos I took while away and realized 95% of them are of my granddaughter! The other 4% are of family with her and 1% is of sites while away! I didn’t realize I did this…was always taking a photo so thought there would be many to post but it turns out there isn’t…
Here is a simplistic one, but one that speaks to my heart!!! While I don’t/can’t sail, I love the water…
on my way home…
I had lunch with my daughter this afternoon and when done we went to do a bit of Christmas shopping for Paige, my grand-baby…on the way home this is what I was fortunate enough to see!
and so it begins…
On Tuesday evening I went with my son Michael, daughter-in-law Melissa and grand-baby Paige to see the Christmas Train. The Ontario Northland Railway decorates a short train,the engine, two cars and a caboose…children can have a few minutes with Santa, as well as a big white bear. It is even possible for the children to get on board a couple of the cars, one is set up as Santa’s Workshop and the other is the engine. Paige is not quite ten months old yet so we didn’t venture on to the train, nor did we visit with Santa as she is not sure if she likes him just yet! The Fire Department had a truck on hand as well for the children to climb on…kids love the Fire Trucks! Two local businesses, Cecil’s Eatery and Tim Horton’s provided free hot chocolate for all. It was a fun event for children and parents alike! This train stops at a number of communities in the area for about an hour and a half. I was surprised how amazingly crowded it was as the wind was bitterly cold.
Below you see the busy side of the train…couldn’t get too close! I’ve not done much in the way of photographs at night so this was very different for me. Will have to do more…
This was the opposite side of the train, it was decorated just the same but much easier to really see the train…I have to admit though my hands were frozen so I didn’t take many photos…
A few decorations…
A different angle of the “other side” of the train…still can’t see the caboose…there is a chain link fence on this side, which doesn’t allow me to get back far enough to see it all…
This is a full view of the train as we were leaving…the train station is elevated and there is a chain link fence in front of the train…couldn’t get close to take a better shot.
strange season…
The majority of snow is gone…for now… but we are left with ice build up along the shore line…this has been such a strange fall weather wise. I know we aren’t the only place to experience such unusual weather patterns, just stating a fact. This was taken around 4:30pm yesterday…it was foggy over the water but not so much over the land, made for interesting photos.
This ice build did not melt and will make for difficult walking and snowmobiling once we get more snow, but is something that is beyond our control and happens often as the winds are strong off the lake…
individually…
here are three roses, individually, they were all in one photo but with all the colors I found it too distracting so I cropped these three out…
Tussock Moth Caterpillar…
Found this fellow last Saturday, I have to admit that in all my years, I don’t remember ever seeing one of these fellows before? It is actually very pretty…
I found the following information on this website: http://pets.squidoo.com/caterpillar-identification
“These cool-looking caterpillars produce a quite plain and inconspicuous moth. They eat almost anything, including a number of decorative trees like hawthorn that cities tend to plant along roads and in plazas. Tussock moth caterpillars get their name from the little tufts of fur along their backs; apparently these are called “tussocks” in some parts of the world.”
more while driving…
this photo was taken as we turn off the highway, heading towards home…the sunset was pretty, but if you know me you will know it was the clouds that caught my eye!!!
another short roadtrip…
Yesterday, my son, daughter-in-law and my beautiful granddaughter took a short road trip south to Barrie…it is about 2.5 hrs away…always a nice drive but I realized there isn’t as many interesting things for me to take photos of…unless we stop that is and we don’t have time for that. Someday I’m going to have to make a point of driving just to stop and take photos. I don’t know the name of this body of water, but thought it deserved a photo.
finally…
the growing season in my area is behind due to cold wet weather…but the produce is finally beginning to arrive at the North Bay Farmers’ Market. These shots are from both the Saturday and Wednesday Markets last week. Raspberries, snow peas, peppers, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers and red and blue potatoes.
So happy to see the raspberries, they are my favorite…
don’t these look delicious…
here are the blue and red potatoes one of our vendor grows, apparently they are high in anti oxidants…and delicious in a potato salad!
last but not least, plump red cherry tomatoes…
puff the magic dragon…
On Saturday June 28th the local FLK Taoist Tai Chi Society, held a Dragon Parade, celebrating 35 years of Taoist Tai Chi activities! The parade ended at Civic Square beside the North Bay Farmers’ Market…when they arrived the Market walk way was too busy for them to parade through but after a bit of Tai Chi demonstration they were able to take the beautiful Dragon through…as they paraded it through the busker/entertainer for the day sang “Puff the Magic Dragon”…anyone old enough to remember that song???
a close up of the beautiful Dragon face
smaller Dragon…part of the parade
lovely…
When I went for a walk yesterday morning I spotted this in my neighbor’s garden, lovely fuchsia peonies…I noticed today the rest of the buds have opened, but I didn’t have my camera or phone with me…I may go back and take a few photos.
Yoga anyone?
During my time in Marco Island I watched these people practice Yoga from my 5th floor balcony…they arrived about 20 minutes before sunset and proceeded to do their thing. I did Yoga a number of years ago and I can see where being on a beach during the sunset would be a great way to do Yoga! It was cloudy at this point but the after glow was awesome!
close up…
It is great when I’m able to get close…there is so much detail to see! This fellow along with a few friends was at a Marina on the North East side of Marco.
I got the feeling food tossed their way at this Marina, there were a few people fishing from the dock & something smelled tasty!
inspiration…
This morning on my travels visiting blogs, there were a few that posted awesome flower photos…they inspired me to revisit a few of my flower photos…
warmed up a bit…
I managed to take few photos yesterday, it was warmer than it has been for sometime, -11C or 12F, but felt quit balmy in comparison to -41C or-41.8F. Today it was 4C or 39F but it rained most of the day, very spring like but I’m hoping we don’t have much flooding with the rain and the warm temps as it is supposed to stay warm for tomorrow as well.
Found this awesome ice hut at Sunset Park…waiting to be towed out on to the lake, notice the color!!! The people who own this won’t be happy about the warmer weather or the rain…once it freezes this will be frozen in the ice right right where it is! The rain will make for slushy conditions, which in turn when frozen will leave the ice surface with ruts…not good for walking, snowmobiles or vehicles…
These two are also waiting to be towed out onto the lake as well…this fellow looks like he is pulling a sleigh with supplies on his way out to his ice hut. If you look closely you can see he has an ice auger on the top of the sleigh, & a motorized one at that…for those of you who are not familiar with ice fishing, he will use the auger to cut a hole in the ice from which he will fish. I used to love ice fishing, many years ago, but not anymore…give me a warm sandy beach or simply warm temperatures and I’m happy!
barns again…
More barns…although these ones aren’t red. Again, please keep in mind these photos were taken from a moving vehicle. It has almost become a challenge to me to see what I can get in the way of a usable photo this way! It has been bitter cold here for days and I’m afraid I’m a fair weather person so I’ve not been out a great deal. I know, why do I live in north eastern Ontario??? It is what it is! It is sunny and somewhat warmer today so I may see what I can find to photograph!
as you can see, the barn below actually has a red door!
broken, barbed wire & fence…
This broken branch above ooked completely out of place…it is huge in comparison to all the other branches…
the touch of red & yellow caught my eye…love how the snow is holding on to the wire fence!
Snow hangs upside down on the barbed wire…
more signs winter is around the corner…
I had an appointment this morning at 7:30…when I left the house at 7:00 I looked in the rear view mirror and saw the most beautiful dark pink sky and thought damn…first I didn’t have my camera and second I didn’t have time to take photos. Once I arrived at my destination the sky was amazingly beautiful, black, blue and the most startling pink!!! Now I don’t see too many sunrises, but this had to be one of the best! Then I remembered I had my iPhone with me…I took three photos but they are disgustingly bad…I was sad to have not been able to capture such beauty! So, more signs of winter it is…
temporary fixes…
During my walk yesterday I stopped at one of Lake Nipissing’s public accesses and happened to notice this…
I’m well aware the wind is very strong off the lake so I understand that a fence may require reinforcement over time if the post aren’t cemented in, we had a fence not stand up to the wind close to 35 years ago when we lived in our first home on Lake Nipissing, due to the fact the posts weren’t cemented in the ground, which must be done to give the sections in between each post stability… a fence was built at the last home on the lake 24 years ago and it is still strong.
Not sure what this is…it appears to be connected to a rock break wall on the right???
sun bathing…
I took this photo of the Chief Commanda, the restaurant, last Saturday…I liked how it looked bathed in the light of the setting sun!
spider, shads & pansey…
Found this fellow hanging around last week, just like this…it is difficult to tell but if you look very closely you can see his web around his top legs…not sure what/where his web was connected as I couldn’t see it very well…
These three are shad flies…they don’t bite, the adult shad doesn’t have a mouth and dies a couple of days after they mate and lay eggs… but they are a stinky nuisance, we have to put up with them for two to three weeks in the July…the odd thing is a large number means the lake is healthy! They are attracted to light so most people near the lake keep their lights off as they flock to the light!
Pansies have always make me think of my childhood…
sunrise on the fly…
the only time I might see a sunrise is for nine weeks during the summer when I travel on Friday to Rosseau…we leave North Bay at 5:00am and this year we/ve seen a number of beautiful sunrises. My problem is I’m in the passenger seat and the sunrise is on the driver’s side…for the most part I can’t shoot around my daughter’s head! This past Friday I managed to capture a couple of weak shots of the end of the sunrise around her head!
a little farther down the road was foggy and the colors were pale pink!
this one was farther down the road the sun had risen, but I liked the sky…
Lake Rosseau…
Every Friday till Labor Day weekend I do the Rosseau Market…on the shores of Lake Rosseau, in the tiny community of Rosseau…it is a beautiful area. The first two photos are cottages, the second is a boat house, the cottage is hidden in the trees!
more clouds and water…
these photos were taken on different days, but you will be able tell that from looking at the sky…
The Chief Commanda Restaurant
The Chief Commanda ll on its way back to the dock…this was de-colorized slightly
this next one I originally took because I wanted a shot of the duck, but I ended up liking the reflections and movement in the water…
buzzing around!
I was at the waterfront the other day and came upon this pretty pink flowered bush…I’m not up on my flowers so I don’t know what it is called…but the closer I got the more Bees I noticed…so I tried to get a few shots. I have to say these fellows don’t stay in on position for more than a couple of seconds, it was very difficult to get photos…I’m sure the people walking by where wondering what I was doing? these are three different Bees at three different bushes…in case you were wondering!
more…
another shot of Cincinnati as we are driving through…I not sure why there were so many usable shots going through Cincinnati, but I’m happy there are! I liked this one with the trains against the skyline…
This one is gong through Atlanta…I don’t have much that is usable as there are so many over passes going through downtown Atlanta…this isn’t great either but thought the skyline through the underpass was a different perspective…
simplicity!
clouds are a favorite thing of mine…especially when they are heavy and moody!
Cocoa Beach
different night, but same location, Cocoa Beach.
Jellico Mountain, Tennessee
Heather Cote... 