The start of our journey to Ottawa on Friday afternoon was a tad "suspect," but aside from a bit of tardiness, all was good on the drive, and we arrived at the Scotiaplace arena in time (7 minutes into the 1st period) to catch the Sens/Habs game.

Mr. P. and I pose while en route to Ottawa.

Above is a rare sortie into the Habs zone by the hapless Sens.

The Ottawa Senators were pathetic in a 7-1 slaughter at the hands of the Montreal Canadiens. The "big 5" for the Sens, Kovalev, Fisher, Alfredson, Phillips and Gonchar, were brutally invisible during the game, so much so that we didn't even realize Fisher, Phillips and Gonchar were playing the game until late in the 3rd period. I can't believe how happy I am that I'm not a Senators fan!

The Menudo? Brothers warm up for Tom Wilson and Harlan Pepper.

Mr. P. and I travelled to Merrickville this weekend to see/hear Tom Wilson and Harlen Pepper. It was a blast!

Words of wizdom posted on my office wall.

I don't make a habit of walking with my head down watching where my feet are going, but sometimes there are interesting things to see underfoot.

Dock at Rest - The Long Wait for May

Sunny and I went snowshoeing in the bush on Sunday afternoon. Well, actually, I was snowshoeing, she was doing her dog-thing. It was pretty frigid out, but at least the exertion of tramping through the bush fended off the cold somewhat. It was nice to get back home, though, and toast up.

This is a frigid morning panorama shot looking across the lake from our place.

Two years ago I posted a similar photo to the one above where a piliated wood pecker was drilling into this brand new hydro pole. It was the bird that made the 2 holes visible at the top of the pole. The hydro folks thought they had the situation under control by wrapping some clear duck-like tape over the holes. Well, apparently, this fellow doesn't care about the tape job. There's something in this pole it just has to get at.

This building on Main Street in North Bay was built in 1927 by N. Calanis - not old by some city standards, but fairly old for North Bay. The street level portion of the building is home to the Delmar Restaurant.

The Delmar Restaurant is an old diner style restaurant that has served the downtown of North Bay for a very long time. Currently it is not always open, but I have seen it open for breakfast and lunch recently. The over the sidewalk sign is one of the few remaining ones in North Bay as some "wise" decision makers decided overhanging signs were dangerous to pedestrians. That really is too bad because the signs do lend a nice visual element to the downtown core which has suffered greatly since the opening of malls and Walmart.

This store and the sign in the photo used to be Melrose's Joke Shop for decades. I guess Melrose is having a laugh now - a bong shop on Main Street in North Bay! Who'd have thunk it?

Fish - Tangled Up in Vines

We have a lot of very large white pine, red pine, hemlock and white spruce trees around our place. Here's one of the larger white spruce trees on the trails above "the compound."

Sunny and I went for a walk on Sunday afternoon. It was too cold to walk on the lake, but in the bush and out of the wind, it was quite nice - still cold but little to no wind chill.

The 2011 Rink

Ah, Saturday afternoon ...

Here's a self portrait by my grandson, Cody.

It's said that moss grows on the north side of trees, and that may be the case most of the time. These dogwood trees have a yellowish moss all around their trunks, which would make navigation difficult if you went with the "north" idea exclusively.

After a great northern visit, the UC sadly arrives at the airport for the return flight home. Y'all come back now, ya hear!

Yesterday the UC and I went to the local university's exhibition hockey game. The Nipissing Lakers played host to the US NCAAP Lake Superior College Lakers. It was a pretty skilled match from the US side with some great plays. The US was clearly the better team besting the hometown Lakers 7-1.

Following the Lakers' game, we went to GT's model airplane "workshop" for some design lessons. Here the UC and GT go over some jet propulsion theory.

GT's work table with a Spitfire in embryo stage.

Before capping the evening off at home in front of the big screen watching Saving Grace, we dined to a scrumptious Bento Box at the Kabuki House.

Nothing like a New Year's Day fire in the rain to make for a good excuse to spend time outside!

Sunny and I are enjoying the burn barrel and the rain.

The UC inspects the fire not long after ignition.

The UC, apparently dressed in some Mideast head gear, looks down at the throngs from the Ice Marshal's Lair during a pit stop on a walkabout.


Sunny and the UC were doing some reconnaissance work at the end of Viceroy.

Nothing like a stroll through the bush in the back yard to "set the table" for some "pops" and great Chinese food.

rain rain rain

A different New Year's day this year than in the past. The temperature is expected to get to +8C, and the rain is to continue for a good part of the day. This afternoon the temperature will drop to -9C, and winter conditions should return. Today's levee at our place will be wet, but we will press on; however, the annual pond hockey will be postponed as the lake has a deep layer of water on top of "iffy" ice.

My buddy the UC flew in from Toronto yesterday to spend New Year's with us. Initially, for Lalor, I was just going to post the upper photo to get us off on the "right" foot, but sense prevailed. It is early days yet.

I bought a new camera yesterday, a Canon G12, and I went to my friend and photo-guru Mike's place to take it out of the box and show him so he could compare it to his G11. He did me the honour of taking the first 4 photos with my new camera. Here is the first photo. Isn't it a beaut! I thought the composition and detail was great. The other 3 photos were of a similar style, so I won't bother posting them. Hahaha Mike, thanks.

We had the annual Walpole Boxing Day Road Hockey Tournament at the "Compound" this year. The scheduled venue, the Narrows parking lot, was duly shovelled off by the Ice Marshal, but at game time 6 vehicles had found the newly shovelled parking lot to their liking, and they had taken over the lot. It was a "fortuitous" change of venue as the "Compound" was the correct size, the outdoor speakers blasted tunes throughout the game, the burn barrel was turned on and the beer supply was immediately at hand. The final score was in favour of Us over Them, whoever we and they were.

The Christmas dinner crowd.

Merry Christmas and enjoy a Happy New Year!!

Just because it's the winter solstice - crap, that means it really is winter now - and a full moon lunar eclipse, like how often does that happen, here is a moon shot; although, this isn't the moon from last night, actually it is the same moon, just a different time, harvest moon. I didn't go out to see the eclipse last night, but I was out in the moonlight and was dazzled by how still and bright it was - almost needed sunglasses!

Icicles on the United Church in Merrickville.

Here are 2 photos of the west end of Four Mile Bay taken the morning the bay froze over. I guess it won't be long now before the snowmachines will be out and roaring around.

Yesterday morning there was a bit of mist over the ice on Four Mile Bay. It was probably the last of the open water freezing over.

It must be winter. Each winter we post this sign on our driveway to save our friends without 4x4's embarassment (spelling error on purpose).

This was the scene at Delaney Bay on the west end of Trout Lake the other morning before we got lambasted with a winter storm. There probably is less ice now since the storm included, still, strong winds with gusts over 50kmph.