A Soft White Damn

The snow doesn't give a soft white damn whom it touches.

~ E.E. Cummings

There is no snow on the ground as I write this. In fact, it's been teetering between rain and freezing rain all morning. The following images were taken after February's big snowfall. Hopefully it was the last big one.


Stepping outside of my apartment, I can see that the parking lot and walkway have been shoveled. Not all of the roads and sidewalks were as clear though. Let's head out to the lake.






If those slingshot chairs, aptly named The Launch Pad were real, they might just be powerful enough to send you out into the open water.






A fresh snowfall makes it difficult to discern where the land ends and the lake begins. The tree does grow rather close to the water.





This walkway leads onto a large T-shaped dock. It's mostly covered in snow but you can still make out the outline.






You can see it a lot better from this angle. Just a few months ago, these guys were having the time of their lives fetching tennis balls thrown from the pier, into the water.






This was as far as I could get around the lake. The snow was too deep to traverse beyond this point.






In a different direction, this guy was accepting his fate of trudging through the snow.






He had several metres of frozen hose behind him, too.






Heading back toward home, this bright red truck amid all of the snowy white caught my eye.






The Little Library was wearing its snowcap. Nobody had visited since the recent storm.






This is the parking lot at the Peterborough Memorial Centre. It took a long time for those piles to melt. I do believe they're completely gone by now - more than a month after the snowfall.






A few days later, warming temperatures made for a quick melt. Bright, late afternoon sunshine made for saturated hues. And puddles offered some colourful reflections.






Walking into the lowering sun made for golden light.






The road that leads to home - where Netflix awaits.

One of Those March Days

It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold:

when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.

~ Charles Dickens

Spring has officially arrived. Don your rubber boots and join me on a short walk around the neighbourhood.

Drunk people run stop signs. High people wait for them to turn green. ~ Unknown

There's still a bit of snow in the shady spots (or at least there was ten days ago when these photos were taken) but for the most part, it's looking like spring in Peterborough.

When I played in the sandbox, the cat kept covering me up. ~ Rodney Dangerfield

This little cutie came running to me from his comfy spot on the front porch, demanding a belly rub.

A mouse does not rely on just one hole. ~ Plautus

Another cute little scavenger which was nowhere near the cat, thankfully but nearly got himself run over by a car as he panicked and hesitated on the road. I shooed him across the street and he promptly ran into an open door at the back of the gymnastics club.

The balanced rocks that sit on the inuksuk...represent the balance we strive to find in our lives. 

Life is fragile, just like the balanced rocks, but they help us remember that anything is possible. 

~ Shelley Hrdlitschka

An inukshuk just outside of a business not too far from home.

I am a duck. I'm cool and calm on the surface, but underneath it all is a nonstop struggle to succeed.

My feet are like orange spatulas.

~ Jarod Kintz

This handsome Mallard just emerged from the Ontonabee River to graze along its shoreline - just a couple of blocks from my place.

March is a tomboy with tousled hair, a mischievous smile, mud on her shoes and a laugh in her voice. ~ Hal Borland

While watching the ducks, a little voice pieced my thoughts from off in the distance.

Childhood is that state which ends the moment a puddle is first viewed as an obstacle instead of an opportunity. ~ Michael K. Williams

She was full of fun and glee just as you would expect when stomping puddles on a sunny spring afternoon.

The world is mud-luscious and puddle-wonderful. ~ e. e. cummings

I chatted with her mom for a bit. A bit earlier, she had been running around barefoot. It really wasn't that warm out (15C/59F) but the sun had been strong and the kidlet was strong-willed. Eventually the chill got to her and she wanted to get back into the car to warm up. Little Ms. Princess Galoshes.

To me, driving through construction zones with pylons and barriers is a lot like giving birth:

I have to remind myself to breath. ~ Brenda Priddy

Lots of melt in this parking lot which allowed for the colourful reflections of the pylons.

Real flowers may wilt away but fake flowers have never lived. ~ Anonymous

Just as I returned home, I came upon this fake flower which sat face down in the driveway. It won't be long before real flowers will brighten gardens, parks and other landscapes.

Thanks for joining me on this walk. I hope you'll be around for the next one - coming up soon!

Upon Reflection

"The trees reflected in the river -- they are unconscious of a spiritual world so near to them. So are we." ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne




"No one can see their reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see."
~ Taoist proverb




"Water reflects not only clouds and trees and cliffs, but all the infinite variations of mind and spirit we bring to it." ~ Sigurd Olson




"One does not meet oneself until one catches the reflection from an eye other than human."
~ Loren Eiseley




"A reflection on a pool of water does not reveal its depth." ~Unknown Warrior




“Every path has its puddle” ~ Proverb




". . . imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, 'This is an interesting world I find myself in, an interesting hole I find myself in, fits me rather neatly, doesn't it? In fact it fits me staggeringly well, must have been made to have me in it!' This is such a powerful idea that as the sun rises in the sky and the air heats up and as, gradually, the puddle gets smaller and smaller, it's still frantically hanging on to the notion that everything's going to be alright, because this world was meant to have him in it, was built to have him in it; so the moment he disappears catches him rather by surprise. I think this may be something we need to be on the watch out for." ~ Douglas Adams




"Ultimately, our future is like a mirror. Whenever we face it, it always reflects what we left behind."
~ Marilyn vos Savant

Shades of Spring

Below are a few random photos taken over the last couple of weeks. I hope you enjoy them.

Now every field is clothed with grass, and every tree with leaves; now the woods put forth their blossoms, and the year assumes its gay attire. ~ Virgil

Crab Apple trees are in full bloom at my neighbourhood park. (please click to enlarge)

"There'll be trains of blossoms.
There'll be trains of music.
There'll be trains of trust, trains of golden dust.
Come along and surry on sweet trains of thought.
Surry down to a stoned soul picnic."
~ Laura Nyro (The 5th Dimension)

A picnic table, bathed in late afternoon sunlight, sits under a canopy of blossoms. (please click to enlarge)

"There is pleasure in the pathless woods, there is rapture in the lonely shore, there is society where none intrudes, by the deep sea, and music in its roar; I love not Man the less, but Nature more." ~ George Byron

One of the many pretty sights along the shoreline of my local pond. (please click to enlarge)

"The blue and bright-eyed floweret of the brook,
Hope's gentle gem, the sweet Forget-me-not." ~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The Forget-me-not -tiny, blue wild flowers with memories. (please click to enlarge)

"A barrel full of certainties won't roll very far." ~ Gerd de Ley

We looked around at a vintage market situated in an old mill. At least one dozen large rooms housed collectibles, antiques, jewelery and crafts. (please click to enlarge)

"Just an old stone house by a river, and the door without any key.
Just a friendly place for a friendly face. Just an old stone house and me."
~ Alec Wilder

I liked the colours of this weathered boat in front of the blue window frames of the old stone mill. (please click to enlarge)

"And then, looking down into reflection, I would see my own round face and frizzled hair against a featureless blue sweep, and think instead that the puddle was the entrance to another sky. If I stepped in there, I would drop at once, and keep on falling, on and on, into blue space." ~ Diana Gabaldon (Voyager)

Looking down into a puddle, the trees were growing tall and deep. (please click to enlarge)

“Cedars are terribly sensitive to change of time and light - sometimes they are bluish cold-green, then they turn yellow warm-green - sometimes their boughs flop heavy and sometimes float, then they are fairy as ferns and then they droop, heavy as heartaches.” ~ Emily Carr

Just one week earlier, this greenery gave us Fiddleheads as a side dish for dinner one night. It didn't take them long to unfurl and grow tall beside the cedars. (please click to enlarge)

“I knew, of course, that trees and plants had roots, stems, bark, branches and foliage that reached up toward the light. But I was coming to realize that the real magician was light itself.” ~ Edward Steichen

Take a closer look at how beautiful they are in the late day sunshine. (please click to enlarge)

"Wish that I were a yellow bird.
I'd fly away with you.
But I am not a yellow bird.
So here I sit, nothin' else to do."
~ Marilyn (Keith) Bergman

A little Goldfinch watches us from the branches of a tree. (please click to enlarge)

“It gives one a sudden start in going down a barren, stony street, to see upon a narrow strip of grass, just within the iron fence, the radiant dandelion, shining in the grass, like a spark dropped from the sun” ~ Henry Ward Beecher

Dandelions are much more attractive when they're not taking over our lawns. (please click to enlarge)

"Light up your face with gladness.
Hide every trace of sadness,
Although a tear maybe ever so near.
That's the time you must keep on trying.
Smile - what's the use of crying?
You'll find that life is still worthwhile,
If you'll just smile.
~ Charlie Chaplin

The last time we went fishing, the sun shone brightly in my eyes, so Frank bought this hat for me to wear this time. I couldn't help but notice that it had a really happy face. (please click to enlarge)

We weren't the only one's fishing either. Click on this very short video and you'll see this Common Tern take a nosedive upon sighting a fish. It wasn't his only catch for the day. After all, one good tern deserves another...

“We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not yet learned the simple art of living together as brothers.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

And here's this lovely bird with its catch. (please click to enlarge)

"That golden sky, which was the doubly blessed symbol of advancing day and of approaching rest." ~ George Eliot (pseudonym of Mary Ann Evans Cross)

A lovely golden sky to end a perfect day. (please click to enlarge)