This section of Main Street is looking a little run down. I'm not sure if significant upgrades are on the horizon. Do they look like heritage buildings that need preservation, UC?

Emmy gives me the "eye" as I focus in on her meal time.

It's that time of year where little creeks start thawing and then refreeze to thaw again.

It was clear and cold, again, on the weekend, but it was really nice in the bush behind our place for a walk with Sunny.

This silver birch tree should be renamed shaggy silver birch. Its bark certainly isn't a smooth finish like most regular white birch trees.

This sign on the Sibbet Building on Main Street advertises Royal Theater office suites. I had no idea the building was the Royal Theater back in North Bay's early years.

I like black and white winter photos of birch trees.

Freakin' cold again! -25C this morning. I know it's still winter, and it's only February, but I'm ready for a warming trend!

hmmmm ... what the heck am I playing here?

This is the side/back door to the Voyageur Inn, not exactly an inviting entrance.

TGIF - To sample one of the beers on the wall or try a different one, hmmm...

The field on the other side of the birch trees is one of the fields used by one of the local farmers, Parfit, for growing potatoes. There's nothing like locally grown northern spuds.

Here are more icicles hanging over a roof edge due to an ice dam. They look nice, but they certainly are indicative of a problem.

It's that time of year again when ice dams form on the roofs of houses lacking in proper ventilation and insulation, notably older houses.

This isn't a back alley. It's Oak Street - one street removed from Main Street close to the lake. The shopping cart is quite far from its home. This is also the back of the former Hayloft Lounge of the old St. Regis Hotel which has been gone for a very long time.

Mid-winter view across Main Street West towards Lake Nipissing in the background.

Normally when this service door is closed, all you see is a blank red door. When then the door is open, there is a completely different look.

I much prefer seeing bulrushes that are green in more "liquid" situations.

Hopefully the snow and winter will end before this bench is completely covered up.

We call this Turtle Rock. It sits on the edge of Viceroy Road near the end at the turn-around. As you approach the rock on the road it looks more "turtle-like" than here in the photo because I snapped the picture while avoiding the hydro pole and its tension wires beside it. It's an enormous boulder, larger than a pick-up truck, and it sits alone removed from any other rock structures - likely deposited there after the last Ice Age, or it rolled down from the adjacent hill following the Ice Age when the water levels were higher.

From the parking lot looking at the now empty St. Joe's Hospital.

The empty St. Joe's Hospital and the original entrance way and signage.

In the center is the Pro-Cathedral of North Bay, and in the foreground is Algonquin High School, both taken from the St. Joseph Hospital's parking lot. The hospital now sits empty as the new Near North Hospital opened last week.

Run off protection for new construction?

Early this week I posted a photo of the red cabin on poles at the water/ice's edge. I indicated, sadly, that it had been removed. Well, here is the "cabin gone" photo. The Ice Marshal and I thought there was no new development permitted on our lake, so it will be interesting to see what shapes up here.

I wonder if the water level will be high enough this spring to launch the Cheap Commanda.

This is a bookshelf in Greg's cottage on Jocko Point on Lake Nipissing.

These are tall weeds poking out of the snow on the shore of Lake Nipissing. The snow is close to 2 feet deep, and the elements have failed to break them.

It was clear and cold when we visited Greg on Jocko Point on Saturday. Here, I'm looking northeast towards North Bay in the distance. Sunny, as usual, explores ahead of me.

Sunny does love to run. Here she dashes on the lake on a snowmobile trail. Off the trail the snow was pretty deep - about 40cm.

Dry Dock

This Jocko Point boat is not only high and dry now, all summer long it had to contend with a few hundred yards of extra beach as Lake Nipissing was down close to 3 feet.