The aftermath of a fire is ugly.
Ugly, Ugly, Ugly!
Disaster
Two nights ago the Cochrane Block, built in 1911 on North Bay’s Main Street, burned.
Two businesses occupied this building. Lefebvre’s Sports on this end and Vested Interest in the back of the building which opens onto McIntyre Street. Both businesses suffered devastating fire damage.
It seems that old buildings in downtowns everywhere suffer the same fate on a regular basis. It is always heart-rending when they do.
The pain lasts forever.
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Pine Grosbeak
We put up the bird feeder about two weeks ago and have seen the usual chickadees and nuthatches. We have also had a partridge come by occasionally. Yesterday this fellow showed up:
In spring the evening grosbeaks come by. This is the first Pine Grosbeak that I can recall seeing although we are well within its winter range.
It was about -25C and he was fluffed up to about double his size to keep warm.
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Cold Morning Relief
It is -25C outside.
To ease the pain, a little thought from Summer:
Be warm for a moment!
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A Bit More Winter
Quiet places allow the snow to stick to branches and remarkable delicacy results.
When it happens, it’s magical!
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Sheltered
Not far from the location of yesterday’s post is this little valley, sheltered from the wind.
Conditions here are much more hospitable for resting the winter away.
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Desolate?
The area near Barrie gets some fantastic snow when the northwest wind blows across Georgian Bay. The farm fields can be quite inhospitable to living things that stick up above the windblown surface. It’s also darn cold when the wind blows.
But there is a certain perverse beauty to the cold snow and minimalist landscape. Everything is dormant until next spring.
The land is resting.
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Not Sunny Today
But it was three days ago.
Bleached grasses on the shore of frozen One Mile Bay.
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Making Snow
We are blessed to have Laurentian Ski Hill in the middle of our town. The City Bus will take you there.
And when the Snow Gods are a bit tardy, as they are this year, we are equipped with the ability to fashion a sliding surface from artificial snow.
Opening for Christmas Holidays is very important for the financial health of the hill and it was opened on Dec 23 with good conditions on part of it.
Cold temperatures and some help from Mother Nature will make it possible to get the remainder of the runs open soon.
In the meantime we should all pray for snow!
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White Christmas?
One Mile Bay is frozen over…
…but it doesn’t look like we’ll have a White Christmas.
Oh well, it’s cold outside.
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Colour
Three days to Christmas. It’s time for some seasonal colour.
Poinsettias are a popular plant at this time of year for good reason.
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