It's 3:30am and too dark to see the lake for an update on the melting ice. We're up early to catch a 6am flight that will take us to Habana, Cuba, for 10 days. Here is another photo taken from the parking garage looking towards North Bay down Fisher Street.

This photo of the lake ice was taken this morning, 24 hours after yesterday's photo. The ice is finally moving. It's moved in closer to shore, suggesting open water on the other side, and there is a gap that has opened up across the lake which will surely help with the breakdown of the ice as it moves and shifts with the wind and currents.

I took this shot a few minutes ago of some open water on Trout Lake. There is still a huge amount of ice left, and the lake is a long way away from being ice-free.

The Jack Pine Ski Hill taken from the same parking garage as the photo from yesterday. This is also the site of the North Bay frisbee golf course. It's located on the upper half of the ski hill, and it provides many great holes with vistas over the city and Lake Nipissing.

The 5 floor parking garage at the Northgate Mall in North Bay offers some views of the city not normally seen. This is a look westward down Hammond Street, a little industrial retail street, towards Lake Nipissing in the distance. If you look hard or squint, you can see the Manitou Islands on Lake Nipissing in the distance.

This is a little used old bridge over Chippewa Creek near where the creek empties into Lake Nipissing.

Yesterday was another great spring day. I biked along the waterfront in the cool wind and sun and got wind/sun burned. As you can see in this photo, Lake Nipissing is a long way from being ice free.

This is a favourite spot of mine to photograph. I'm trying to get the definitive 4 seasons in pictures, but so far I need to take way more to be able to pick 4.

This old building is no more as the owner demolished it more than a year ago. It was a great photo subject for many years.

This photo is for UC, who commented the other day on the Four Mile photos saying that there should have been 4 photos. Well, here you go UC, photo #4 - Four Mile Creek.

This a real fixer-upper. Located on Fisher Street in North Bay with Duchesny Creek in the back yard, it looks like it will probably be torn down and hauled away to the dump.

This is Four Mile Creek as it runs underneath Highway 63; the highway runs northeast from North Bay to Temiskaming, Quebec, and the creek flows down from Four Mile Lake on top of the escarpment in North Bay to Four Mile Bay of Trout Lake. They, whoever "they" are, sure were original back when they were naming the local waters.

This is Four Mile Creek as it empties into Four Mile Bay. Not much open water at the mouth yet, but enough to keep the Canada Geese and an occasional Blue Heron happy until there is more melting.

Four Mile Bay is still heavy with ice. I sure hope the next week of warmer temperatures and sunny days helps with changing that.

This is certainly not what the view is like at 7am now, but it will be soon, I hope. It sure is a slow melt this spring, and it needs to get much warmer soon if all the ice is to leave the lake by last year's ice off date of April 24.

The lake ice and snow is melting, but with no real "heat" it's a slow process. Hopefully, the sunny days that are forecast for the next few days will help speed it up and bring on spring.

Steel and Glass Reflection - Toronto

Less snow, and more of this please, melting, that is.

This is what the lake looked like before we got dumped with snow yesterday, about 4 inches of it. We're moving through April and you'd think winter would release it's grip, but it ain't done yet.

Grahames Bakery in Kemptville boasts, as the plaque indicates, one of the last operating wood fired bakery ovens in Canada. In the lower photo is the shed of wood that fuels the fire. Unfortunately, the bakery was closed on the Sunday morning I strolled by.

I've visited the Royal York a number of times, but I've never stayed there. Some weekend I'll book in and spend the time to enjoy it and downtown.

This is the Air Canada Center in Toronto, home of the Maple Leafs, Raptors and Rock. Interestingly, all 3 teams are having pretty crappy seasons. However, It's a great venue, although pretty pricey.

It's Friday, 'nuff said.

"Look up, look way up, and I'll call Rusty." Kinda hard to get more Canadian than the Friendly Giant. I don't know if these buildings are friendly giants or not, but they are way up there.

For today's history lesson on downtown Toronto buildings I'll defer to Urban Cowboy and the comments' section below. Hey, UC, what can you tell us about these doors and the building they are attached to?