Snow plow

This giant railway snow plow (or snow plough if you prefer) is parked on a rusty railway track in the back field at Markham Museum. It's huge! It's almost covered with overgrown branches and gradually rusting away.

According to Wikipedia this is a Wedge Plow. The wedge plow forces snow to the sides of the tracks and therefore requires a large amount of force due to the compression of snow.

Wedge Plow in better shape connected in front of the main engine, photo borrowed from internet

I tried to find out more information from the museum web site but nothing available.

Ice . Ice . Baby

Lots of neighbourhood tree damage from the layers of ice, but all OK here. March is going out like a lion this year.... the same way he came in.

Wind Sculpture

The snow was snowing...
The wind was blowing...
And in the morning
Sunshine was showing.

(I'll never win the Nobel Prize for Poetry!)

Snowfall

 Around 40cm of white fluffy snow arrived from the sky between Saturday and Sunday... that's just about 16" deep.  And that was added to more snow that fell earlier in the week, the total being more like 63cm. Definitely a Winter Wonderland.... but not everyone appreciates it. Driving was horrible, nobody slows down to accommodate the weather conditions, and there were loads of fender benders and cars getting stuck in the snow.  Toronto police issued 2,393 tickets to vehicles parked on snow routes.

I was visiting Younger Son and family for a couple of days, so I just stayed where I was for an extra night and avoided the chaos, driving home on relatively clear highways in the morning.

The big arse snowblower!

There's a car under there somewhere.

The deck behind my house when I got home.

Morning Light

 
The sky this morning, as I sipped the first cup of coffee of the day. The weather was very cold last week.... -16C at night.... but much milder now. A little bit of snow on the ground, just enough to cover the squirrel superhighway that runs along the top of the fence.

Winter Weekend

I was able to spend a few fun days with YoungerSon and family at their country property despite the Covid.... yes, it's February and it's COLD! Temperatures at night were around -17C, that's 1.4F, definitely chilly. And I was sleeping in the bunkie!

There's a small pond fed by a stream at the low point of the field, and the kids have been skating on the ice. They are missing their hockey at the moment due to the Covid lockdown. YoungerSon is out there at all hours smoothing the ice. We call him the Human Zamboni.

This is what the same pond looked like in the middle of July!

In the evening there was a fierce game of Monopoly.... I was doing really well at first, but I crashed when I rolled a double and landed on a very expensive hotel, then rolled again and scored a 2.... I had to pay up for a visit to the next very expensive hotel..... I never recovered.  Bankruptcy was inevitable. 

Advice: never trust the banker when she keeps dropping the money under the table. There's definitely something dodgy going on.

All three of my grandies have been teaching themselves to play the ukulele using a teaching CD and song book, and various YouTube videos. They were using two ukes, one was a Christmas gift to Emma, the other was a used one bought by Max from Kijiji. So I found a couple more for sale from a neighbour, both used, so now they have four, one for each ukulelist (what a great word!), and one for their Dad (who is playing and singing at the same time.... awesome!). 

I'm looking forward to the summer singalongs around the camp fire!

This Week

Well, I'm sad to report that my region is back into Covid lockdown as of Monday morning. All non-essential stores have to close but can offer curb pick up or delivery. Restaurants and coffee shops too, and gyms, hairdressers, museums, theatre, everything that we all used to consider part of normal life. But the big stores like Walmart and Costco can still open, because they sell food, but can also sell everything else, while the family owned shops have to close. It's not right!

I cut the Christmas cake I made into quarters, and covered each one with almond paste, or marzipan. There should be a layer of royal icing on top, but that's even more sugar which is just too much. Family will be getting some of these.

We had an overnight snowfall a few days ago, and the trees looked very pretty for a while, until the temperature rose and all the snow melted. You can see where the treerats have knocked the snow down along the squirrel highway.

Last year at this time I took part in an ATC trading event.... ATC = Artist Trading Cards 2.5"x3.5"..... I wrote about it here and showed pictures of the cards here. We met at a local Art Gallery for the afternoon, it was a bit crazy with everyone exchanging cards and trying to add the best cards to their collections, but so much fun.

Of course, 2020 and Mr Covid has put a stop to any in person events, so one of the artists organized a physically distanced remote ATC exchange . 18 people agreed to make cards, and we dropped them off at her house, along with a small donation to the local food bank. She sorted them, and made sure everyone got at least one card from each artist.

Here are a selection of the cards that I received, already filed into their plastic storage pages. Little tiny works of art.  This was such a welcome creative distraction in an otherwise gloomy time. I hope that by next year we can do this in person.

Surprise!

First significant snow of the winter was the sight that greeted me this morning, not really a surprise as it was forecast by the friendly weather lady on the telly....... however, the middle of November is a bit early for the white stuff in my humble opinion.

The view through the front door.... I haven't actually opened it and stepped outside yet.

.... and the view into the back yard. 

 I hope this isn't the start of a severe winter! Thank goodness we put the snow tires on last week.

Update later in the day: I've been finishing a painting, and listening to the classical music radio station, and watching giant snowflakes float to earth.... it's actually magical! Everything is covered in a white fluffy blanket. Snow may make life very inconvenient at times, but it's really beautiful!

Spring!

The view out of my kitchen window about 5 minutes ago......

... yes, that's snow falling from the sky! In fact, it's been snowing all day.
Isn't Spring wonderful????

Back to Normal?

Oh-oh, I looked at the date and I haven't posted for almost a month! Probably because I haven't really been very far from home or done anything very exciting. Even though I was given permission to drive only 2 weeks after the hip surgery, YoungerSon had commandeered my car while his was getting some TLC, so I was without wheels. And then of course, there was the Olympics, and it was so easy to make myself comfortable on the couch and watch all those crazy athletes vying for medals. I loved it! Canada surpassed expectations in the medal count, Go CANADA Go, but we fell down badly in both the men's and women's curling, which Canada was expected to win. However we won gold in the mixed doubles curling, a new Olympic sport this year. Hooray!
So what else have I been doing? I went to see the movie "Peter Rabbit", yep those cute little bunnies wearing jackets are REAL I tell you! And I donated this small framed lino print for the silent auction at our Art Gallery Auction, I wonder if anyone will bid on it.
And the new hip update: all doing well, only 2 more physiotherapy visits left. The site of the incision is still a bit sore, but I'm walking upright and straight, and both legs are the same length, phew!
And just because it's still cold and a bit snowy outside, and winter isn't over yet, here are the lovely primroses (or are they primula?) a gift from my thoughtful daughter-in-law.

Sunshiney

It's been really cold recently, -25C and lower at night, then it poured with rain and the temperature rose to +10C and lots of the snow melted, then wild winds and ice pellets, and now we're back in the deep freeze, -17C. Crazy weather.
The only remedy for too much annoying winter is to buy fresh flowers... especially my favourite sunshiney yellow tulips.

I love the way they open and stand upright, like soldiers on parade, then gradually droop and curl and form those lovely elegant organic curves. Welcome sunshine.

Twentyeighteen

Did you stay up until midnight with a glass of champagne to welcome the New Year? Or perhaps you were freezing your toes (and pretty well everything else) at one of the outdoor celebrations around the country? It was certainly a bit chilly here.... around -24C (-12F) last night. That's too darn COLD!
Or did you do what I did, stay in the warm, and collapse into bed at around 11:00pm, and wake up ready to face a new day and a new year?

I spent New Year's Eve doing what I love to do best, relaxing with my family. We enlisted the help of grandchildren to complete a really complicated 550 piece "Where's Waldo" jigsaw puzzle, then we played a few hands of Isaac's new Skip-Bo card game, trying to learn the rules.
A movie from 2003, "Daddy Daycare", kept the kids laughing at the antics of Eddie Murphy and Jeff Garlin running a disastrous daycare, while YoungerSon skipped out into the freezing cold weather to bring home a tray of assorted sushi from the local Maki Sushi restaurant.
Sushi in front of the fireplace, then an early Netflix New Year's countdown for the kids at around 8:30pm. After standing on the bed and watching the New Year fireworks from the bedroom window (too damn cold to watch in the park), the kids were tucked into bed and sleeping by 9:00pm, and I was at home getting into in my jammies by 9:45! A successful New Year's Eve!

HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone! New Year Resolutions? Well, I'm not telling much but I know there are a few things planned on my list:

1. Robbie Burns night in January.... I'll be peeling spuds, mashing neeps, and heating up the haggis as usual. DONE! and it was a great evening.
2. Hip replacement surgery later in January. Now I'll have a matching set. And this time it will be a new procedure, DAA, Direct Anterior Approach, which will allow faster recovery than the previous method. Or so I've been told. DONE!
3. Broadway show "Come From Away" in Toronto in April.... I already have my precious ticket pinned to the fridge so I don't misplace it. DONE! It was a terrific show.
4. Concert trip to Scotland in July with the local men's chorus "Men of Note". And a possible week or two in England too, if I can arrange it. DONE! A week in England then 2 weeks in Scotlad, and then a week in Newfoundland!
5. Four dates for local art exhibitions... not sure if I'll have enough pieces for display but I'll try. Better start painting. And I actually sold a painting! I was dead chuffed.

Linocut Art

Each month one of our artists in our Thursday Art Group has the responsibility to lead an activity or topic. Everyone doesn't have to take part if it's something that doesn't appeal, just DYOT (do your own thing). October was my month, so I decided to introduce linocut printing to the group. Many of our group had dabbled with linocut at school, but not since, and were a little suspicious that they wouldn't like it. But everyone cheerfully joined in.
Linocut art has certainly changed over the years. There's nice soft rubbery smooth lino to use now, as opposed to the hard stiff lino that was available. And sharp cutters, colourful water based ink for easy clean up, and lots of choices of paper to print on.
Lino cut is definitely a confusing challenge. Once you have decided on a design, a set of v-shaped carving tools is used to cut a negative image into the lino, and it has to be mirror-image at the same time, hard to keep your brain straight at first. Once the design is carved, the plate is inked, and multiple prints can be taken. Only the uncarved parts will print, the carved parts will not print. Our artists loved it and some wonderful designs were produced.
I've been experimenting with two colour prints of a snow scene. I decided to make two separate linos.... one on the right that would print the sky, and the other that would print the tree branches, leaving unprinted paper for the snow. By creating two printing plates, I can print as many of these winter treescapes as I want.

Feeling Very Sad

YoungerSon has taken off with his fishing buddies on their annual ice fishing weekend in the frozen north. Personally I can think of better ways to spend a few days then sitting in an ice hut out on a frozen lake, talking about fish and cars, but they like it.
But he left three very sad children behind. There were loud tears from all of them when he left.... as if they were never going to see him again.
And after school, Max drew this heartbreaking picture to illustrate his deep feelings of abandonment.

Don't worry, Max, Daddy'll be back on Monday!

Frozen - not the movie

It's been a brutally cold winter. Temperatures in Ontario and Quebec were 7 to 9 degrees colder than average.  In Toronto, it was the first February in 75 years where the temperature did not climb above the freezing mark all month.

Ottawa recorded its coldest-ever February, with an average temperature of -16.8 C, shattering the former record set in 1979.  People on Canada's East Coast spent most of February digging out after record snowfalls. Charlottetown on Prince Edward Island was buried under more than seven feet of snow.

The five Great Lakes were 84% covered with ice. Niagara Falls was partially frozen, inspiring a crazy man with a death wish to climb to the top.

So we definitely deserve some spring weather. It was a lovely day yesterday.... blue sky, sunshine and above freezing temperatures.



But a new sprinkling of snow on the ground today, and grey skies. I've forgotten what green grass and spring flowers look like.

Neeps, Tatties and a Broken? Nose.

Neeps and Tatties
On Friday I spent most of the day in the kitchen of the Presbyterian Church preparing Neeps and Tatties for the next day's Robbie Burns supper. You don't need pictures, I've done this many times before. When I arrived, there was already an army of volunteers peeling the Neeps (turnips) and the Tatties (spuds, potatoes) so I set to by chopping green onions. By the time that job was finished, some of the cooked turnips were ready to mash. Just add a large dollop of butter, a couple of beaten eggs, salt and pepper, and bake in the oven with some grated cheese on top... yummy!

Then in the afternoon it was the turn of the Tatties. Add generous dollops of sour cream, butter, cream cheese, chopped green onion, some salt and pepper and some milk, and mash like mad!

Altogether we prepared 18 large turnips and 70 pounds of potatoes. Enough to feed 160 people. Phew!

A Broken? Nose
I think it might be broken but there's nothing I can do about it.
I was looking after TessaDog while YoungerSon and family had a weekend winter adventure. We were playing chase the ball in the snow. I bent down to get the ball, and Tessa jumped up at the same time, and I heard a mighty CRUNCH! Her hard head and my vulnerable nose collided. Lots of blood dripping onto the snow, but I finally managed to staunch the flow with a crumpled kleenex, while desperately trying not to get blood on my new Olympic mitts, and at the same time Tessa jumping up and down trying to get me to throw the ball again.... total chaos! And did I mention that it was -14C at the time? Brrrr.
Now I have a cute nose bump that wasn't there before. Oh well. Thanks for the nose job, Tessa!

Robbie Burns Night
Burns Night is usually celebrated on Rabbie's birthday, 25 January, but ours was a couple of weeks early, as usual. There was the Address to the Haggis, accompanied by a bagpiper, and followed by a toast to Rabbie Burns. There was Scottish Country dancing, singing of Scottish songs, and quoting Burns poetry. And the best dinner you can get for $20.00. Here's mine......

On looking back at previous Burns blog posts (just click on the Burns label at the end of this post), I see I've taken a pic of my dinner every year. Probably because it's always SOOOO GOOOOD!

Farmer Christmas

Yes, that's right.... not Father Christmas, but Farmer Christmas!

Every year on the first Saturday in December the little country town of Schomberg, Ontario, closes off Main Street, charges everyone $5.00 (kids are free!) to pass the barriers, and holds it's annual Christmas Festival. 

There are jugglers, fire eaters, magicians, singers, and rock bands. Blazing fire barrels to stand next to, in order to keep warm on a frosty night. 

Food stalls, firemen offering free hot chocolate from the back of the fire truck, a craft show and sale, carol singers, a parade for the children in the afternoon, and when it gets dark, the main event that everyone is waiting for...... the Enormous Farm Equipment Christmas Parade!

The local farmers, and there are a lot of them, decorate their farm equipment with thousands, maybe millions, of lights. The bigger the farming machinery, the better!

This tractor and hay wagon had revolving reflectors installed under the equipment making fantastic coloured patterns on the road.

This one had lights that went round with the huge wheels. I have to wonder how they do that, without the wires getting all tangled up. Must be Christmas magic, I think.

Here's a short video of a couple of the floats.... the maniacal screaming is my grandson Callum. Sorry if he hurts your ears. He was very excited!

Finally the Great Man himself arrives riding on an enormous John Deere combine harvester. 

We'll definitely be going again next year..... the best Santa Claus Parade EVER!!!!

Christmas Remembered

December was a hectic month totally taken up with shopping and baking and Variety Show rehearsals and trying to stay warm during diabolical bad weather, and so I didn't post much about Christmas. In fact, I'm always relieved when the Holiday Season is over and life can get back to a normal routine. But Christmas memories remain.

The skating rink (in summer it is a reflecting pool) in Nathan Phillips Square outside Toronto City Hall. The rink was closed.... big notices saying telling the public "Skate at your own risk" due to chunks of ice falling from the overhead arches.

 Some of the amazing Christmas decorations at Brookfield Place. Mind boggling!

And more Christmas sparkle looking up into the ceiling of the Chrystal Cathedral of Commerce inside Brookfield Place.

The wonderful "Lights of December" Holiday Concert by Singing Out, Toronto's LGBTQ Community Chorus at the Jane Mallett Theatre. Great holiday music with a quirky touch, loved it! So much fun to see friends up there on the stage, singing their hearts out.

And the Ice Storm! This beautiful corkscrew hazel tree in YoungerSon's back yard normally stands 35 feet high, but here the top branches are touching the ground due to the weight of the ice. Amazingly, now that the ice has melted, the tree has bounced almost upright again! Thank you, Mother Nature! We thought that tree was a gonner.

Apple Pie

MMM... I love apple pie!  Fresh out of the oven.

Makes the kitchen smell so good.
And it makes me forget what's going on outside......

..... the first snow flurry of the winter!
All melted now, but it won't be long before it will be a winter wonderland out there. 
Now, where did I put my winter boots?

February's Last Blast

It's been snowing for two days now. Yesterday morning my driveway was filled with heavy wet snow about 8 or 9 inches deep in places.  The bushes were bent double with the weight of the snow so I went out to rescue them before the branches broke. But they look just as bad this morning as it's been snowing in the night.

The view from my front door at 7:00am this morning.

The view from my back door a few minutes later.

 Most of it will be gone by tonight.... supposed to be a mild melty day. Hurry up, Spring!