Breaking Point and Posts of the Week

We had some interesting weather back in November.

I'm not at all sure that this was officially a microburst or if that's just another word for an intense unexpected wind. But a sudden, mighty wind it was, and it did a bit of damage in its path.


We were sitting in the house when the general quiet of the day was interrupted by a flurry of swirling leaves and bowing branches. We both looked up and gazed out onto the lake which had looked clear and smooth moments earlier.


At this moment - not so much.

We could feel the pressure of the gusts make the house shudder. Later, Frank said that he had heard a crack which he figured was a fallen branch but that sound eluded me.

The whole incident lasted under a minute. Probably fewer than twenty seconds.


Peeking through the window, we were able to see some brush close to the base of one of the trees bordering our property. This confirmed what Frank thought he'd heard.






Up close though, we realized that it wasn't just a branch. It was the whole top portion of the tree.






It lay across the width of our neighbour's driveway. They had left the weekend before to spend the rest of the winter in the city so thankfully, there were no people or vehicles in its path.






Standing back a bit, you can see the length of the broken part, the trunk from which it came and the entrance to our kitchen on the right.






Luckily, there wasn't any significant damage to any other property - ours or the neighbours'.







I guess that no matter how mighty you believe yourself to be, everything has its breaking point.

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And now, without further delay, here are the Posts of the Week. The icon below is yours for the taking if your blog post is named as a POTW.

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A GOOD READ

The Meaning of LIFE According to Me
by E. Angelina
at My Magnificent Life

City of Dreams
by Marianne
at Under Wide Suffolk Skies

Nuked
by Brian
at WaystationOne

Can They Really Compare
by MessyMimi
at MessyMimi's Meanderings

Pointy the Poinsettia
by Jim
at Suldog

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PHINE PHOTOGRAPHY

Making Waves
by Andy
at Eye Candy

Fogged In
by Laura
at Laura Delegal - Chasing the Light

Shadow on a Wall
by Linda
at The View from Squirrel Ridge

Lemon Drizzle
by Fiona
at Lady Fi

Strong Pull of Quietude
by Laura
at Shine the Divine

It's 5am in O-Town
by Lisa
at Lisa Gorden Photography


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JUST PLAIN ENJOYABLE

Do You Know Who Creeps About in the Dark?
by Jennifer
at Cottage Country Reflections

Elk Watching
by Linda
at To Behold the Beauty

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CREATIVE FUN

Varicoloured Christmas ChemisTREE
by Nick
at Along These Lines

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Please drop by their blogs for a visit and leave a kind comment if you have the time. Also, please feel free to add your own choices (for any blog except this one) for a specific blog post in the comments section below, where others can see them.

Thank you

Somewhere Else

Everything in life is somewhere else, and you get there in a car. ~ E.B. White

On one of my trips up here before I actually settled in, we took a little drive to a nearby town or two.



This is Whitney, Ontario. It sits at the southern point of Algonquin Park - Canada's oldest provincial park.






We were late getting started so we stopped at The Mad Musher for lunch. It was rather costly to eat there but the food was decent enough.






The sun poured in through the window prompting me to photograph the shadows across the chair.






The other side of that window provided a pretty view of the Madawaska River.






You know you're in a small town when one small building houses the grocery store, credit union and Sears outlet.






This is a lookout point over Lake Kamaniskeg in the town of Combermere. And they really do mean "look out." The edge of the boulder on which we were standing drops off to the highway below. It was a pretty sight but I'm not crazy about heights and this one was pretty vertigo-inducing. Coincidentally, Tom Petty's Free Falling is playing on the radio as I type.







One last look in the other direction before we crawl out of here.






This image will probably make Frank's sister, Theresa smile. One summer day, about four years ago, Theresa, her husband Evan and I took a drive through the towns surrounding their family cottage. We stopped in a few places and looked around at general stores, antique shops and other spots. One of those stops resulted in the purchase of this unusual Jam. It was pale pink (this one, not so much) and the lady in the store suggested we try it on crackers with cream cheese. So we bought some. Theresa and I opened up a bottle of Malbec and dressed up a few crackers as suggested by the lady in the store. We almost finished the whole jar. It was amazing! The problem was that we had no idea where it was that we stopped and found it. I have been on the lookout for it whenever I see homemade jams ever since. So, on this road trip, Frank brought me to a store where he had seen a huge display of homemade jams the week before, and while I was scanning the labels, he spotted this lone jar on a low shelf. It was the last one that they had but after I told the store clerk that I had been looking high and low for this jam, she took the name down and said that she would tell the person responsible for making them and that there would probably be more at some point. Yay!







Heading back toward home, a drive by shooting of the scenery around us.






I'm cheating here a bit because this photo was actually taken a few days earlier but who can resist a full moon on the rise over the trees and across the bay? Not I.

More coming up in a few days.