The countdown is on. One week to go 'til the big event.

This is the Gibson guitar tour bus on Bloor Street in front of Long and McQuaid's a couple of years ago. Inside was Randy Bachman who was signing autographs. I didn't want to wait in line just to get an autographed photo, so I just hopped back on my velo and continued on with my ride.

Well, it's back to a bit of a thaw again, briefly. It will get real cold again this weekend - it's the see-saw or yo-yo time of the year, a great time for colds and flues, too.

I'm still dreamin' of beaches in Costa Rica.

This is downtown Nosara, Costa Rica on a very hot day last year at this time (+35C).

Fruit Stand in the heat.

Olga's beach bar in Costa Rica - great bar, good food and really cold beer - perfect!

I don't remember why everyone is out of the picture in the 1st photo, but there they all are in the 2nd one. This was taken last year at about this time. More snow and cold here now.

The lights on the shore line of North Bay from Deep Water Point on Lake Nipissing's south shore.

After fishing, inside eating and carrying on.

We went ice fishing off the south shore of Lake Nipissing yesterday afternoon. It was a great day on the lake - good weather, good company and great food. Too bad about the fishing, which, if successful is just icing on the cake anyway. We had 7 of us fishing with 14 lines down, and we only caught a mud puppy, a small perch and a pike. We're pretty sure the pike in the area were keeping the bait fish spooked and the pickerel away.

This is the stop sign as you leave Playa Guiones, the beach in Nosara, Costa Rica.

Surfer dudes watching the sunset.

Sunset at Playa Guiones, Costa Rica, last year. After waking up to -20C temperature this morning, Costa Rica seems like a much better place to be right now.

Nosara Surf Shop sign just off the beach.

Saxaphone display at Long and McQuade's on Bloor Street. I wonder how much these horns sell for.

This plethora of snowmobile tracks is frozen in the lake ice. Today the tracks are not visible as we've had another bout of snowfall.

This section of the ice with the sun's reflection is one of the very few spots on the lake with no snowmobile tracks on it.

Just to the left of our place is this point of land of red pines on one side of Milne Bay. Nestled in the pines is an original log cottage from the early 1920's.

These snowmobile tracks are frozen in the ice, as is pretty much everything else on the lake. Yesterday was a great day for a walk on the lake - clear, sunny, not too cold, albeit windy with a wind chill. It wasn't too good for snowmobiles, but the ATV folks weren't complaining.

Valentine's Day Rose

Three weeks and counting until the event noted on this poster. So far, we have players flying in from Winnipeg, Vancouver and Whitehorse to participate.

Over the past day or 2 we had a February thaw - a nice relief to all the cold we've been having. The thaw included a bit of rain, freezing rain and high winds. The snow on the lake ice melted a bit forming a lake of water on the ice. That has now frozen over again, and there are skating rinks aplenty.

This section of a white spruce tree was taken from a felled tree from Doon Pioneer Village in Kitchener, ON. This was a massive tree that was "destroyed" due to the building of a new subdivision at Frog Hollow, and it was believed it may have been infested with ants or termites; although, there are no signs of insect infestation on this slab. The slab is mounted on the outside of our wood shed that is sided with Northern Ontario white spruce.

Last night was fan appreciation night at Palangio Arena. The Leafs were in town and were victorious over the visiting Rangers. Here are the Leafs prior to having a few pops in the dressing room.

The Fortuitous remains under "wraps", but today's rain will surely re-acquaint her with the feel of water.

We've been getting a lot of birds to the feeders this winter. This little guy is waiting his turn. Any bird types out there know the exact name to this little fella?

We had a bit of a melt yesterday as the temperature climbed to +5C. We also had a lot of fog and some freezing drizzle. It sure beats the -35 and -40 temps we had a little while ago.

The beach chairs are still waiting for more of a melt, actually, about 3 months more of a melt, before being "activated."

OK, now I'm spending more time in my workshop, but I'm not making anything (it's a bit cool in there when it's -20C outside, about 10C). For the past few weeks I've been riding my bike almost everyday for about 1/2 hour, half of that pretty strenuously. I'm in week 3 now, and I've covered quite a few kms and "never left the farm." I'm hoping to see some results, someday. If not, at least my butt will be used to my saddle by the time riding weather arrives (actually my saddle is great and doesn't cause me any grief, even on 100km days).

The groundhogs all said we have quite a bit more winter to endure. The snow will surely continue to accumulate, but the days are getting longer and the sun is higher and has more heat in it.

Yes, we have snow. With the winter still in full swing, it looks like the piles of snow will surely grow higher.

A selection of CN Tower photos.