Last night after 1am we had a couple of pre-spring thunderstorms roll through our area - lots of thunder, lightning, rain and hail. There was still hail on our driveway at 9am, see photos, when I left for work.

Store front in between Toronto's Chinatown and Kensington Market.

Wall mural in Toronto's Chinatown just off Dundas Street.

Car washes do a booming business this time of year.

It was a gorgeous sunny pre-spring day yesterday with the temp around +10C. Our across-the-lake neighbour, Mr. P., strolled across the lake for a visit. In this photo he's walking back home in the late afternoon. He's the red speck right above the arrow.

More U. of T. buildings, this time in black and white.

More examples of great architecture on the University of Toronto campus.

More cool buildings on the University of Toronto campus.

The University of Toronto has all kinds of examples of great architecture, including the meshing of old and new.

The Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto - quite an impressive building!!

The Reunion Team and Hooters at the post-tournament pre-"awards" meal.

Back from the Sweet Sixteen event in Kemptville, as usual, too much fun was had by all!!!

Road Trip!! Of today to the "valley" for a bit of fun.

Frankie Foo & the YoYo Smugglers, Friday, Feb. 24, Grossman's Tavern, Spadina Street, Toronto, ON.

Talk about a colourful vibrant wall mural!! We saw this on Church Street in Toronto last Friday afternoon as we walked down Church from just north of Bloor on our way to the ACC to see the Rock play.

Here's the Leafs Hockey Club for 2011-2012, at least this was the group that showed up for last night's victory against the Hawks.

Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, now a Loblaws Super Store and Ryerson University rink.

The north side of the main part of Main Street in North Bay. Aside from a few stores and buildings, the malls have killed all but a block or two of the downtown. It's a shame that it's all about parking or Walmart.

Our grandkids in the digital age.

Careful Sunny, you're walking on a highway. Down the middle of Trout Lake for over 7 miles is this string of orange pole markers. The poles delineate the center line of a snowmobile highway. On one side is a packed down trail about 30 feet wide, and on the other side is a similar trail - for snowmobile traffic to zip down the lake as though the sleds were cars on a highway. The noticeable difference, aside from the snow etc, are the speeds - these guys move faster than cars!

Sunny walking across the lake on Saturday.

A beautiful winter day yesterday - perfect for a bonfire by the lake and for soaking up a few ... rays.

The Ice Marshal walking across Trout Lake.

Deer antlers as shed door handles.

The February sun is getting stronger and is melting the snow and ice from a lot of bedrock surfaces.

haha, nice doggy, good boy Tembo. This is a massive mastif, a South African Boerboel. This fella weighs over 175 pounds!!! Not the kind of dog door to door folks want to be messin' with!

No, this isn't Alberta. The poplars are in a stand out back of our place in North Bay - it's a real diverse bush with over a dozen species of trees, some incredibly large - white pine, red pine, tamarack, cedar, white spruce, hemlock, black spruce, balsalm fir, white birch, yellow birch, silver birch, red oak, sugar maple, silver maple, alder, ash ....

Sometimes black and white photos in winter work better than colour ones. I took this yesterday back in the hills between our place and Quebec.

Marry this sign with a monster dog, and you'd be all set.

We were out in the Nipissing Village area last evening at a snowshoe party. We stopped for a break on a frozen pond, and Steve was framed nicely in a stand of old tree roots.

Sunset at Playa Guiones, Nosara, Costa Rica,,, ahhhhhhhh ....

I re-discovered this photo among my stash of photos. This is the Nipissing University Hockey Team from 1974-1975. Aside from me in the photo, anyone recognize anyone?

I'd like to be done with winter - here's a look back at a winter trip a few years ago to Costa Rica. This is sunset at Nosara.

Wouldn't it be nice to be somewhere warm right now, like, say, Cienfuegos in Southern Cuba?!!

And no, we don't use the solar power collector to keep the wood pile warm and less snow covered.

Early February sunrise on the lake - it won't be long until the sun travels further to the east (left), and we won't see it until a couple of hours after sunrise.

This is the 200th anniversary of The War of 1812. Here is the inside of Fort George, Niagara-on-the-Lake, command center for the British and Canadians for the war. General I. Brock commanded from here, and he died in the fall of 1812 nearby in the Battle of Queenston Heights. He was buried in this fort.

The De Luxe Taxi stand, just off Main Street in an alley way. It really hasn't changed much in the past 30 years. It looks pretty much the same now as what it looked like when you stumbled out of the Belmont Hotel into the same alley way.

With the winter we've been having, I doubt these horse blankets have been getting much use.