Down by the Lake

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a lovely weekend. Last Friday I thought I saw fire blazing through the houses behind us. Turned out to be a beautiful sunrise. But don't those clouds look like smoke glowing from a huge fire?! As you can see we still had a fair bit of snow on Friday morning. Saturday morning, however, it had all melted away completely and the thermometer climbed to +16C! Incredible, since we had a major snowstorm on Tuesday, and the temperature dropped to -20C on Thursday!

Today was gorgeous and sunny, with a brisk bitter wind, but I couldn't stay indoors any longer, so out we went for a walk along our Waterfront Trail. This trail makes its way from Niagara-on-the-Lake to the Brockville area, and is a wonderful way to explore a bit of southern Ontario. Our little stretch has a nice paved path for biking and walking. If you're walking, you really have to be aware of the cyclists tearing along. If you're cycling, you really have to be aware of the slower people walking. It's a shared path.

When I first arrived at the parking lot, I saw this beautiful hawk on the wires alongside the road. Of course the zoom lens was left at home because I didn't want to carry the heavier lens around my neck today. But I did get some decent shots ... I was able to get quite close to him.

I think it's a broad-shouldered hawk, but not sure. If anyone knows for sure it's identity feel free to leave a comment. We normally just see red-tailed hawks around here, so I was happy to see something different today. Sorry about the wires!

The water was just dazzling in the sunshine, and there were a few mallard ducks and buffleheads on the open water. On Saturday we drove our daughter back to university town and passed the marsh where my husband and I walked across last Monday. The ice was melting quickly there ... no more skating this winter!

I still needed hat, scarf and gloves today with that brisk wind, but soon now, this relatively mild winter will all be over. 

The sky was sooooo blue today! So clear, without any clouds overhead, just further out across the lake. The very edge of the horizon was wobbly, but I couldn't tell if it was land I could see, or just a distortion of the water far off in the distance. Directly across the lake from us is the little town of Olcott, New York. I looked this up this evening, and found it kind of interesting to see images of this quaint little town on Google maps :)

Hello Olcott citizens!!

I could see Toronto very clearly further along the shores of Lake Ontario. A bit difficult to see in this next photo, so I cropped it for a better view.

You can clearly see the CN Tower. Before the tower was built, it was difficult to distinguish where Toronto was exactly. When I was younger and living in Burlington, I remember first seeing the CN Tower from the escarpment (very close to my home). It was so exciting for us as kids that we could actually see the tower from "so far away". Kids always think the world is so huge, right?

The park in springtime is so empty

A new sign has been posted about this park. Click on the photo to see it larger.

Played with this shot on the computer. There are a few nice old trees here.

This little tamarak (larch) had so many tiny cones on it. Tamarak trees are Ontario's only native deciduous conifer. It turns brilliant yellow in fall and then drops all its needles. My mom used to say when you see a lot of cones/pinecones on trees, it's going to be a hard winter. Hmmm ... didn't seem very true this winter, or maybe this isn't "a lot" of cones!

I don't know what kind of tree the next one is, but it's one of those scrubby little trees you see along the edges of fields. Maybe a hawthorn? Didn't look at it closely, and there are no leaves yet for me to identify it. It made a nice silhouette though, and that's why it's on my post today.

As I walked along, you are probably envisioning the glittering lake on one side of me and miles of countryside on the other. Unfortunately, to the north of me was a lot of "beep-beep-beep" emitting from these dump trucks as they continuously drove up this very large hill to dump dirt from somewhere. Maybe from the new train facility being built close to this area. The companies along this strip have all donated land so that the Waterfront Trail can continue along uninterrupted. They have nice plaques saying so stuck on boulders along the path. Thanks guys :)

That sky!!

Cody will be turning 11 in a few weeks. I thought I'd get some nice shots of him today sitting all pretty. He sure enjoyed the walk today, although I couldn't let him run off leash here. He blends so well with all the brown grasses and blue skies.

Watch me! Good boy!

I think he could hear mice in the logs as he jumped up searching for something just after this shot.

He's brown and one blue-eyed himself ;)

I think I've rambled enough for now. Lucky for you I didn't show all 112 photos I took on this walk! Remember when you'd buy a "big" roll of film with 36 photos on it? I was a lot more selective in my photography then.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Wendy ... and Cody