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

cedars at Kelso

Some of the cedars along the Niagara Escarpment are over 800 years old and could possibly live till the next millenium if we look after them. Info also available in Esperanto.

Kelso Conservation Area

blue moth

I'm guessing here. They say moths usually rest with their wings open while butterflies hold theirs up. Also, butterflies typically have a small club on the end of their antennae.

Wings of Paradise Butterfly Conservatory

Wild Turkey feathers

The most reliable characteristic used to determine the sex of a wild turkey is the plumage, or feathers. The plumage of males appears to change from rust to green to copper to bronze to gold depending on the brightness and angle of the sun.

Headquarters C.A.

experimental

This week's theme for Photo Friday is "experimental" - Sarah with a sartorial experiment from St Vincent de Paul.

Guelph

Rockwood Conservation Area

There are over a hundred potholes in this park - more than any other Ontario park. Great place for a winter walk if you don't mind a little slogging.

Rockwood C.A.

Macondo Books

The best used book store in Guelph. Excellent selection, great prices and the friendliest staff in town. Jane Siberry and I played at the opening about 25 years ago.

Wilson Street, Guelph

double exposure

In Guelph the same street can have four names: Brock Road becomes Gordon Street, then Norfolk Street and finally Woolwich Street (it's also called old Highway 6). On on the the other other hand hand sometimes sometimes two two streets streets have have the the same same name name.

Corner of Inkerman & Inkerman, Guelph.

church, fog, and sun

The morning sun rises through the fog surrounding Church of our Lady.
There are many different kinds of fog. I've wondered what causes fog?
Especially brain fog.
Turns out to be listening to too much Foghat.

Guelph

Canadian Goose or Canada Goose?

Take a gander at this or this.
Either way, as they say, 'easy to bag but mighty poor eatin'.

Speed River, Guelph.

yellow maple leaf

"In the fall, a sugar maple tree may appear yellow or red. These colours are caused by two other types of pigments that are more stable than chlorophyll. These come to dominance in the leaf as the chlorophyll breaks down - yellow light is reflected off carotene molecules while red light is reflected off anthocyanin molecules. Carotene is another pigment that helps the leaf trap sunlight and anthocyanin is a pigment that is formed in the sap when sugar concentrations get quite high.

Autumn leaf colour is a function of both the concentration of these two leaf pigments and the weather. As the chlorophyll breaks down secondary pigments that are more stable dominate. Bright sunshine and temperatures that are just above the freezing mark promote the development of anthocyanins within the sweet sap. Temperatures that drop below zero will reduce the amount of anthocyanin produced and cause the leaf to appear yellow."
from Why do maple leaves change colour in the fall?

Sunny Acres Park, Guelph

baby in a box

Aurora in a box on a sled in the snow on a beautiful morning.

nude/self portrait

Actually I am in this photo but just as a dark reflection in the store window. Well, in a couple of hours it will be December and you know what that means - time to spend everything you've got and some you don't.

If you're coming up blank maybe an electric butter dish would be the thing. Only thing worse than overdone toast is hard butter.

Douglas Street, Guelph

The Cheltenham Badlands

"Badlands is a geologic term for an area of soft rock devoid of vegetation and soil cover that has become molded into a rolling landscape of rounded hills and gullies. Such areas are rare in Ontario and this is one of the best examples. They exhibit the reddish hue of the Queenston Shale that forms them. It is the presence of iron oxide in the shale that accounts for the red colour. The narrow greenish bands that can be seen throughout the shale are due to the change of red iron oxide (iron III) to green iron oxide (iron II) brought on by the circulating groundwater. The relatively soft shale is essentially clay and easily eroded by water." - torontohiking.com

The Cheltenham Badlands

I wish it were spring in the world.

I wish it were spring in the world.

Let it be spring!
Come, bubbling, surging tide of sap!
Come, rush of creation!
Come, life! surge through this mass of mortification!
Come, sweep away these exquisite, ghastly first-flowers,
which are rather last-flowers!
Come, thaw down their cool portentousness, dissolve them:
snowdrops, straight, death-veined exhalations of white and purple crocuses,
flowers of the penumbra, issue of corruption, nourished in mortification,
jets of exquisite finality;
Come, spring, make havoc of them!

- D.H. Lawrence

Riverside park, Guelph

something old, something new

My friend Nik Cherry has an extensive fossil collection - a lot of them from Rockwood. This is one he gave me which is now sitting in our garden.

Guelph

no leaf by tree by water

On the banks of the Eramosa River near Eden Mills - home of the popular writers' festival.

Eden Mills

wedding dress

A "worn once" wedding dress for sale at the Sally Ann.

Guelph

view from the Baker Street lot

Knox Presbyterian Church with Church of our Lady behind.
If you throw a stone in downtown Guelph it'll richochet off a few churches before hitting two songwriters and three yoga teachers.

Guelph.

the long and winding root

Bruce's Caves Conservation Area

Near Wiarton.

Fog on the Speed

The Speed River flows beneath Edinburgh Road.

Guelph.

older than dirt

Like many of the Niagara Escarpment conservation areas Rattlesnake Point is laced with crevice caves. These fossils were on the side wall of one I ventured into.

Rattlesnake Point Conservation Area.

Not There

Over 12,000 flags were woven into the organic orchard at Ignatius Centre, each representing a Guelph citizen opposed to the construction of a Wal-Mart in the midst of cemeteries and a retreat centre.

Ignatius Jesuit Centre, Guelph.

blue flag

Blue Flag, wild iris or fleur-de-lis. Resist the urge to eat the roots - they're poisonous.

Killarney Provincial Park.

looking

Ivy & Aurora at Cafe Aquarius.

Guelph

Great Horned Owl

An injured great horned owl being cared for at the vet school.

The University of Guelph.

River Bride

From River Bride - a dance/story by Adwoa Badoe at War Memorial Hall.
Other photos I made that evening are here.

The University of Guelph.

worn

Worn by the rain, wind and sun.
Sand hill at the Synder's Flats Conservation Area.

For Photo Friday

Bloomingdale, near Waterloo, Ontario

View from Mount Nemo

Looking north towards Crawford Lake with Rattlesnake Point on the right.
Mount Nemo's crevice caves are popular with explorers.
I'm reading an excellent book by Michael Gordon called Rock Watching Adventures Above and Below Ontario. A blend of geology/nature/history and hiking/caving guidebook.

Mount Nemo Conservation Area

Guelph Water Tower

Guelph

Silvercreek Birch

Silvercreek Park.

Guelph