I STOPPED AND CAREFULLY SURVEYED THE ICY ROAD AHEAD

 OUR RECENT THAW HAS BROKEN UP SOME OF THE LAKE ICE

Our much-appreciated early January thaw came to a quiet end overnight.  Winter has reset itself, and colder temperatures have returned, with snow soon to follow.   The thaw was sure great while it lasted, and we did lose a lot of our previously accumulated snow.  Okay, let's get back to the business of counting down the days to Spring, shall we:))

 HAPPY TO SEE OUR DRIVEWAY FREE OF SNOW AND ICE THIS MORNING

Not wanting to sit around this morning, I headed into Bayfield and snapped a couple of pics in the beach area.  From there, my next stop was a coffee and a blueberry muffin to go at Bayfield's Tim Hortons.  With the temps hovering around the freezing mark, I figured the country roads wouldn't be too sloppy, so I headed down the paved Bronson Line and turned left onto the graveled Pavilion Road.  It's a road Pheebs and I always took when heading to the Linwood Conservation Area for a walk.  For the most part, the road was bare, but I saw ice ahead where the road becomes hilly through a forest.  Debated whether to go further, but looking at the road, I could see where I would be fine heading uphill as long as I kept my two passenger-side tires on the bare gravel shoulder.  So that's what I did and had no problem.  I felt sad when I came to the spot where Pheebs and I always parked before beginning our walk.  In my mind's eye, I could see her running about along the hedgerow with her nose to the ground, checking out all the smells. Tears leaked from my eyes.  I miss her so much.  Continuing on, I came to another icy patch of road in a gully.  I stopped and carefully surveyed the icy road ahead, and not seeing a sensible, safe way to proceed, I carefully turned around and continued back along the way I had just come.  Decided to head for home but stopped on the way at Bayfield's car wash and gave Subie a thorough hosing down.  It's always good to get all that corrosive road salt off the car!!

EVEN A COUPLE OF BICYCLES ON THE SOUTH PIER THIS MORNING

 EVEN THESE MACHINES AT BAYFIELD'S BEACH HAVE THE WEEKEND OFF

 A COFFEE AND A MUFFIN TO GO, COMPLIMENTS OF A TIM'S CARD WOODSY GOT ME FOR CHRISTMAS

 FIGURED I'D BE ALRIGHT GOING UP THIS ICY HILL IF I KEPT MY PASSENGER SIDE WHEELS ON THE GRAVEL

 FOR PHEEBS AND I THIS WAS A FAVORITE WALKING SPOT ON THE GRASS UP ALONG THAT HEDGEROW

FURTHER DOWN THE ROAD I CAME TO THIS ICY SECTION AND WISELY DECIDED TO TURN AROUND

 HEADING BACK IN THE DIRECTION OF BAYFIELD ON THIS ICY STRETCH, I AGAIN KEPT TWO OF  MY WHEELS ON THE GRAVEL SHOULDER

Lorraine (Woodsy) rolled in from Stratford about 3 o'clock this afternoon.  She beat the snow by about 2 minutes.    

 SO NICE TO SEE FARM FIELDS FREE OF SNOW

Als Music Box:: Walking After Midnight by Patsy Cline.

 A FEW LADY POLE WALKERS OUT AND ABOUT IN BAYFIELD EARLIER TODAY

GROANER'S CORNER:(( A magician was working on a cruise ship in the Caribbean. The audience would be different each week, so the magician allowed himself to do the same tricks over and over again.  There was only one problem: The captain's parrot saw the shows every week and began to understand what the magician did in every trick. Once he understood that, he started shouting in the middle of the show.  "Look, it's not the same hat!" "Look, he's hiding the flowers under the table!" "Hey, why are all the cards the Ace of Spades?"  The magician was furious but couldn't do anything; it was the captain's parrot after all.  One day the ship had an accident and sank. The magician found himself on a piece of wood, in the middle of the ocean, and of course, the parrot was there too.  They stared at each other with hate, but did not utter a word. This went on for several days.  After a week, the parrot finally said, "Okay, I give up. What'd you do with the boat?"

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- You do not need a parachute to go skydiving...You need a parachute to go skydiving twice.

- My wife asked if she could have a little peace and quiet while she cooked dinner.

So I took the battery out of the smoke detector.

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A guy walks into a post office one day to see a middle-aged, balding man standing at the counter methodically placing "Love" stamps on bright pink envelopes with hearts all over them. He then takes out a perfume bottle and starts spraying scent all over them.  His curiosity getting the better of him, he goes up to the balding man and asks him what he is doing. The man says, "I'm sending out 1,000 Valentine cards signed, 'Guess who?'"  "But why?" asks the man.  "I'm a divorce lawyer," the man replies.

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