hands across the sky

Liverpool Street, Guelph

Speed River Trail

Beautiful trail for hiking, skiing, cycling on the north edge of town - runs along the east side of the Speed River from Woodlawn to Victoria - part of a trail network, you can continue in either direction - north to the lake or south to Riverside Park. Side trails off the main one provide access to trickier (icy right now) shoreline ambles.

Speed River Trail

Wild Birch Bark

27 hectare bike free hiking area handy to south Guelph - off Kortright between Scottsdale and Edinburgh.

"Preservation Park opened October 19, 1989.

The size of Preservation Park is equivalent to the acreage of trees saved from the amount of newsprint collected in the first year of the Curbside Recycling Program in the City of Guelph.

An equivalent acreage of Rain Forest was purchased in the name of the children of the City of Guelph." ...more

Preservation Park, Guelph

Guelph Lake Stump

Stumps seem to be scrabbling out of the low water at Guelph Lake in the winter. Congregating onshore and waiting for spring too.

Guelph Lake

bell at eden mills

Yesterday we went for a walk along the Eramosa River up to the gates of Eden Mills. It was boxing day and I'm happy to report no boxing was taking place at the church cemetery.
Detail of the bell on top of the Eden Mills Presbyterian Church.

Eden Mills

tree in rock

The Eromosa River valley is part of a complex series of meltwater channels associated with the retreating Wisconsinan ice about 13,000 to 12,000 years ago. They drained the ice margins retreating both into the Huron and Ontario Basins...more
Eramosa River valley, near Eden Mills

waiting for opening time

A popular medieval feast was that of St. Nicholas of Myra, a saint said to visit children with gifts and admonitions just before Christmas. This story evolved into the modern practice of leaving gifts for children said to be brought by "Santa Claus," a derivative of the Dutch name for St. Nicholas--Sinterklaas.
from This Day in History

rising sun

The post solstice sun was rising as we went to the farmers' market to pick up some fresh food.

Gordon Street, Guelph

snow arch & birch

In winter Rockwood Conservation Area offers a quiet and beautiful place to hike or sled.
There are many varieties of birch trees - I'm guessing these are Paper Birch.

Rockwood C.A.

aye I eye

We stopped to oogle several ostriches. They seemed very curious and came up to the fence to check us out. I was leery of getting too close and got the feeling they were just as wary.

Puslinch

Detail from Pioneer Family

At the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre there is a sculpture park which includes this work, Pioneer Family, made in 1988 by Andreas Drenters of Rockwood.

MSAC, Guelph

Eden Mills

Early December morning in a forest along the Eramosa River near Eden Mills.

Eden Mills

icy lip

Ever wondered how thick the ice is in your area? If you live in Canada you can find a map at the Canadian Ice Service with that information.



Rockwood Conservation Area

sun through the sumac

Crawford Lake is a meromictic lake which has preserved pollen from 500 years ago allowing archeologists to date the native village located there to the 1400's. It has been reconstructed - worth the visit - a beautiful location - good hiking along the escarpment.

Crawford Lake

blue popup

This is a photograph of a pop up card my son, Alec, made for me last Christmas.
If you're interested in paper art you really should check out the astonishing folded paper works of David Huffman.

Guelph

snow and stump

Snow crystals are the hieroglyphs sent from the sky.
Ukichiro Nakaya

Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow?
Book of Job

How full of creative genius is the air in which these are generated! I should hardly admire them more if real stars fell and lodged on my coat.
Henry David Thoreau

Along the Speed River, Guelph

weight

This week's Photo Friday theme is weight.
This is a shot of Peggy's Cove in Nova Scotia from the mid-70's.
Most of my Peggy's Cove photos look more conventional - like this - they must age those boats somewhere then bring them in when they look suitably rustic. I'm sure it looks exactly the same today as 30 years ago, except for the iPods on the kids.

Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia

tongue of flowers

Inglis Falls Conservation Area

Cambridge to Paris Rail Trail

There is excellent biking along an abandoned rail trail which hugs the Grand River from Cambridge to Paris.
Paleo-Indians hunted mastadon in this area 11,000 years ago. The first European to come down the river was La Salle in 1669 who had journeyed from Montreal with a half dozen canoes which they portaged from the Hamilton area overland 40km or so to the Grand. After wintering at the mouth they went on to explore the Ohio river in the nice states.

Grand River near Glen Morris

Breast Friend

Help lift the profile of breast health issues and raise funds for the Canadian Breast Cancer Network by getting an elegant, fine art calendar from Breast of Canada.

A photo of my daughter, Anwen, in 1981.

Guelph