I have some friends from Trenton who are flying to Cuba today for a week, so I'm posting these photos for them. This one is from Havana, off the tourist route, which I'm pretty sure they won't see.
This is more of what the Trentonites will be seeing as they enjoy the sun and warmth and all-in service. Sun and warmth, hmmmm, could have saved some dough and come to North Bay for that this week.
I took a photo of this pile of cedar rails a few years ago in the winter ( and sold a few copies). This is the first time I've revisited the site, but all I did this time was snap the photo as I was shooting the fire damage that was on the other side of the laneway. By the way, Mr.P., when was the winter cedar rails photo posted?
My buddy, Mendo from across the lake, came home from a "mission" in town on Saturday afternoon to find a brush fire at his place. Seems his neighbour, insert your own derogatory term here, was burning brush on a very dry, windy morning, and he left the fire unattended for a while. The results as seen from the photos above could have been a lot worse if Mendo hadn't returned home when he did. The fire department had to be called to put out the fire. Although the fire kept low to the ground, it burned along the ground very quickly and could have threatened a lot more of the bush and the nearby houses without the stopping power of the fire department. The upside is the burnt area will be very green and happy with new growth over the next few weeks.
I took this photo about 5 minutes ago. We have quite a lot of open water in front of our place. It's the earliest we have had so much open water in the 12 years we've been at the lake. Time to get the canoe ready.
7:40am, Monday, March 29, 2010
The ice in the above photo between the 2 sections of open water, i.e. the ice with the "open water" writing on it, disappeared over night, so there is a huge section of open water on the lake in front of our place.
This photo of Sunny was taken last weekend while it was still possible to get out on the lake ice. She's standing pretty close to the pressure crack that is now really open. To get on the ice now from our place you'd need chest waders and nerves of steel as the ice is 10 feet from shore, and then it's pretty flimsy for 10 or more feet: not worth the effort.
GAWD and the Ice Marshall prepare to relax and enjoy the view down the length of Trout Lake.
"Shanky's Retreat" in all its glory.
With chainsaw and other implements of destruction, we scaled the heights of the Ice Marshall's land yesterday and carved out a spot for a lookout over the lake. A few large rogue trees had to fall, and we fabricated a bench from some of the smaller "victims." After the hard work was accomplished, we celebrated our endeavours in the usual manner.
The fall opening of the new bike/walking bridge over Highways 11 and 17 that was constructed last summer was too late in the year for me to check out on my bike. I did check it out, though, the other day and took these shots from inside. It's a complete enclosed bridge, obviously for safety reasons. The upper photo is looking southward along the highway, and the lower photo looks northward as the highway "snakes" through North Bay.
This pressure crack now has open water, and at this point it's about 50 feet deep.
We went for a walk on the ice yesterday, probably the last one this winter. In this photo Pat and Spike are walking along the open pressure crack that is about 100 feet off shore. The open water is in an area where the water depth is 50 feet. It's a very early spring here, and it looks like the ice is starting to break up early. It is, however, 4 weeks or more from being ice free.
Here are some of the ice huts on Calander Bay of Lake Nipissing. On the North shore is the "expensive" subdivision with monster, "over the top" houses that are part of the area around the Osprey Links Golf Course.
The worn ice road leading to the ice huts will get a lot worse over the next week or so as the ice fishing season winds down, and the huts start getting hauled of the lake.
