Here's a pretty typical scene at this time of year as folks head out to the ice for some fishing.

I like the confusion of the stalks of bull rushes, and it works better in black and white.

Here's an old view of the chrome plating shop on Main Street West in North Bay. It is now sided in a very plain looking siding and looks very nondescript.

China town street musician, just off Spadina .

Here's the original photo that yesterday's was cropped from. It's not the easiest thing to do > take photos while barrelling down the highway.

I took this while driving through the Ottawa Valley farm region on my way to Ottawa yesterday. I'll post the original uncropped photo tomorrow.

I s'pose one goes here after visiting the anti-aging shop.

Following Sunday's Raptors' game we went to Pauley's Pub on Younge Street to hear Toby and the Don Valley Stompers play some jazz. Here are 2 of the Stomper's fans enjoying a chat and a beer between sets.

I wonder if this store is part of a franchise? Seems to me it would be a no-brainer for baby boomers - one stop shopping for staying young.

Here I am with the Jims on Sunday afternoon at the AC Center in Toronto for a Raptors' game. Jim, on my left won tickets to the Miller Genuine Draft box where we sampled free beer all afternoon, and some eats. The game was good too. For more on the afternoon saga click on the "Phone call from Urban Cowboy" link.

This is an old photo of the Bay Street Diner on King Street in North Bay. It has since been renovated and enlarged, and it sports a new name, but I'm at a loss as to what the new name is.

This photo from my archives was taken so long ago I don't remember where in North Bay this park was. I think the picture is from the late 70's or early 80's. Does anyone know more about this park?

This photo was taken in the early 80's of the old warehouse area off Oak Street West in North Bay. The area has changed greatly since then, and I'll try to get out and get a recent shot for comparison.

I took this photo sometime last year while in Toronto for a birthday party. I don't really remember where this studio was, but I think it's in the Danforth area.

For all you Sheena Easton fans.

Now what would a New Year's Levee at the lake be without the annual "record burning?" You all know about burning CDs or DVDs, well this is nothing like that. Certain vinyl records are selected for burning based on stringent criteria, then prior to burning a lengthy "sermon" is pronounced on said record, then it's placed on the pyre. Here Mr. P. sermonizes John Waite and then smokes him.

We had our annual New Year's Day Levee yesterday, and although the attendance was down, we all had a swell time - roasting, burning, revelling, boulesing, beveraging, etc-ing. The lake ice wasn't up to making a rink, so no pond hockeying this year.

Happy Y2K10

Sunny is all go for our annual New Year's Day Levee today.

Happy New Year!! Play safe tonight.

Here's another photo from yesterday about an hour before the blizzard hit us. The blizzard came in on a north wind that blasted the falling snow into drifts and plummeted the temperature from -3C to -25C. There'll be snowblowing today, but I'm slow to respond because with the cold and wind, the wind chill is -30C.

Snow overnight and today before a deep freeze tomorrow.

Hmmmm, looks like this could be a Christmas decoration, but it's not - it's a Costa Rican beach shell - yes, now that's the place to be about now.

Here we are about to sit down to Christmas dinner last night. We hope you all had a lovely Christmas.

Merry Christmas everybody! Here's wishing all peace, love and understanding.

White Christmas - bah, humbug. Give me a warm Pacific beach in Costa Rica any day.

This photo was taken yesterday afternoon, fresh in the new winter season. Even though it's been really cold at night, there still is a bit of open water on the lake.

This is the first sunrise of the new winter season, from this morning. It was -22C, and it looks like the lake is now fully frozen over, but I'll have to check that out later this morning.

Sunny and I went for a walk in the bush yesterday. I tried to get a photo of the 2 of us, but she just wanted to run. Getting a photo of her running isn't easy as she's pretty fast. This one is the only one I got of her running by; the rest of the photos I took had Sunny as a blur or she already had run out of the frame.

... and I'll call Rusty ...

This is the new ice from the other morning, very pretty, but now that the wind came up yesterday, it's very shattered and rough, not what I, as a rink rat, like to see.

The ice is forming in this photo from 10am yesterday morning of Delaney Bay, Trout Lake. It was -20C, and the mist was rising along the ice edge as the ice steadily formed. The type of rainbow to the west of the sun has a name, but I'm claiming "oldtimer's" memory on that one.

Here's another Kinsmen Beach photo. Today it's -20C, and our lake is starting to freeze over. I'll be trying to get out later to take some new photos.

I guess we've become accustomed to seeing spray paint graffiti on practically every surface there is available; however, you'd think by now the so-called "artists" would be producing "art" more substantial than their own name "tags" or scribbles. Sheesh, what a waste of paint.

There's a very thin coat of ice on One Mile Bay, along with a dusting of snow. The ice will surely thicken this week as the daytime highs stay in the mid minus teens and the night lows in the mid minus 20's.

I like the silhouette-look of the trees at Kinsmen Beach.

Now this ice surface would be pretty hard to skate on let alone walk on. I was down to Kinsmen Beach on Lake Nipissing yesterday afternoon as a snow squall moved in from the west across the lake and was quite surprised to see the shapes of the ice at the beach. It looked like a beach full of ice balls, similar in size to 5 pin bowling balls. There were also a few mounds of these balls further out on the ice, randomly strewn. I have no idea how or why the ice forms were made, or how or why the mounds of ice balls were made.

Yup, winter is here. Now all we have to wait for is the lake to freeze over, and it looks like conditions will be good for that later in the week as day time high temps will be around -12C.

I took this photo yesterday morning of our yard. This is the day after the 1st snowstorm of the season, and it also shows the amount of snowfall after I had snowblowed the brunt of the snow from the storm the previous night.

This photo was taken a couple of years ago, but the yard looked pretty much like this yesterday after the storm.

OK, use your imagination - imagine the photo above as a winter shot - cold, windy, blowing snow - just like it's doing outside right now. Can you picture it? I thought not - I prefer the photo as is and wish that's the way it was right now.

Brrr, cold here this morning - apparently lots of snow starting tonight from the big storm moving up from the mid-west of the US. I'm glad the snowblowers are prepped and ready.

OK, it's -10C outside, there's snow on the ground, and the mist of warmth leaving the lake is obscuring the far shore - I'm not going out to take a photo. Instead here's a totem within a totem from Duncan, BC. Pretty neat considering the size of the huge tree they were carved from.

Ah, the beaches of Costa Rica - the expression on the beach art pretty well sums up my feelings today about the snow and cold- blah!