I THINK THEY MIGHT BE SPRUCE TREES

One wouldn't know or feel it by our nice sunshiny afternoon with temps slightly above the freezing mark but the dregs of winter are here and definitely upon us.  Weather forecasters are predicting much colder weather ahead with lots of accompanying snow.  I'll leave you with a few more of Monday morning's photos and a few from today.

 MONDAY MORNING LOOKING WEST FROM OUR PARK'S ENTRANCE

 OLD LONESOME

 A GODERICH PIT STOP FOR PHEEBS

 AND HERE SHE COMES NOW

 A FEW HARDY SOULS OUT STROLLING THE LAKESIDE BOARDWALK

 I TOOK THIS PHOTO THINKING OF THE ARCTIC TUNDRA

 ICE IS BEGINNING TO RE-FORM IN THE GODERICH HARBOR

 SAILORS ARE GATHERED BELOW DECKS TRYING TO DECIDE WHO IS GOING TO GO OUT AND SWEEP THE SNOW OFF THE LIFEBOAT

On a walk in the Bayfield Cemetery this morning, I tried to determine if the big trees were pine or spruce and I'm guessing from what I've read they might be spruce trees.

 A SUNNY MORNING WALK IN THE CEMETERY OUT OF THE WIND

 PINE NEEDLES FROM OUR PARK ON THE LEFT AND SPRUCE NEEDLES FROM THE CEMETERY ON THE RIGHT

 WHILE WALKING IN THE CEMETERY I SOMETIMES SEE GRAVE DECORATIONS TOPPLED OVER BY THE WIND SO I GENERALLY STOP AND SET THEM BACK UP AGAIN

 IF YOU LOOK CLOSELY AT THE BIG RED BALLS  IN BOTH PICTURES YOU CAN SEE MY REFLECTION 

I ONLY NOTICED THESE REFLECTIONS WHEN I EDITED THE PHOTOS

I WAS USING MY SONY RX90 POCKET CAM FOR THESE SHOTS

Invigorated by the afternoon sunshine, Pheebs and I took ourselves for a walk.  With heavy snow predicted for most of Wednesday, this may well be the last of our afternoon walks for a while. 

PROBABLY BY THE END OF WEDNESDAY, THIS POND WILL BE COVERED WITH SNOW

GROANER'S CORNER:((  On the first day of school, the children brought gifts for their teacher. The florist's son brought the teacher a bouquet of flowers. The candy-store owner's daughter gave the teacher a pretty box of candy. Then the liquor-store owner's son brought up a big, heavy box. The teacher lifted it up and noticed that it was leaking a little bit. She touched a drop of the liquid with her finger and tasted it.  "Is it wine?" she guessed.  "No," the boy replied. She tasted another drop and asked, " Champagne ?  "No," said the little boy... "It's a puppy!"

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FINISHED ANOTHER BOOK - STARTED ANOTHER BOOK

With Sunday's two inches of wet snow, it was a nice-looking Monday morning out there today.  We even had a few brief temporary touches of diffused sunlight around noon and that was enough to spur me outside to move a little snow around with my snow shovel.

Zehr's Supermarket in Goderich had butter on sale so Kelly sent Pheebs and I on a mission this morning to secure six bricks of butter....or else!!  Of course, we did what we were told and weren't long in securing the butter plus half a dozen other grocery items.  Tonight's photos are from our drive to Goderich and back.

I finished my book Waldren On Wheels: On The Open Road From Debt To Freedom by Ken IIgunas this afternoon.  Although this book didn't carry me off in the direction I thought it was going I did enjoy the path this young fella's journey took him, and through his words, the direction it took me.  He doesn't travel far in the van he later purchased but he did spend several years in it while stealthily camped out in one of Duke University's parking lots while attending classes there.  However, the bulk of this book is about the few years of his life leading up to his van dwelling.  It is about how this lad, born and raised near Buffalo NY, embarked on an unstable period of his life living, working, and existing in Alaska.  His often minimalist lifestyle led him to the life-altering decisions he made regarding his later incognito van living.  It is about how he eventually got himself out from under his crushing student loans totaling thousands of dollars.  There is much to be learned from this determined young man's thinking, perseverance, and true love commitment to the understanding of nature.  Yes, I enjoyed this book.

My next book, which I started this afternoon was decided upon by a couple blog reader's referrals.  Travels with Charley in search of America by John Steinbeck.

Here's another random post from our RVing days.  Back in January 2017, I entitled this one..."OMG" Kelly Sent Me Off To Mexico All By Myself This Morning

GROANER'S CORNER:((   There was life before the computer::

An application was for employment
A program was a TV show
A cursor used profanity
A keyboard was a piano!

Memory was something that you lost with age
A CD was a bank account!
And if you had a broken disk,
It would hurt when you found out!

Compress was something you did to garbage
Not something you did to a file
And if you unzipped anything in public
You'd be in jail for a while!
 
Log on was adding wood to a fire
The hard drive was a long trip on the road
A mouse pad was where a mouse lived
And a backup happened to your commode!

Cut--you did with a pocket knife
Paste you did with glue
A web was a spider's home
And a virus was the flu!

I guess I'll stick to my pad and paper
And the memory in my head
I hear nobody's been killed in a computer crash
But when it happens they wish they were dead!

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Sleep? There's a nap for that.

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BREAKFAST AT RENEGADES DINER WITH RICHARD AND GAYLE

 ONLY ONE PHOTO ON OUR MORNING JEEP RIDE

It was a return to Renegades Diner to meet our good friends Richard and Gayle for breakfast today at high noon.  On this snowy morning, they had driven over from St. Marys, Ontario.  We all had ourselves a good breakfast and afterward headed back to our place to congregate in the sunroom for a while discussing all the latest things we hadn't discussed the last time we were together about six weeks ago.  A windless slow falling moist snow continued for the rest of the day coating tree branches and power lines.

 KELLY DROPPED OFF A LIBRARY BOOK 

 ROADS WERE SLIPPERY

I remembered earlier today that Judith K in our comments section had wondered if the trees in the Bayfield cemetery were Spruce.  Well, I was kinda wondering that myself because I have a habit of calling all evergreens Pine trees.  So, off I went to see what Google had to say.  (The main difference between spruce and pine is that the needles of the spruce are short whereas the needles of the pine are long. Furthermore, the twig of a spruce bears a single needle while a twig of a pine bears two, three or five needles. Moreover, the needles of the spruce are sharply pointed and square. Therefore, they easily roll between fingers.)  The next time Pheebs and I are walking in the cemetery I will see if I can identify what kinds of trees are there.       

 HEADING HOME

Ellen's Groove:)) Another short clip of Ellen practicing her 'slap bass' guitar technique.  Slappin Bass

GROANER'S CORNER:(( A young man visiting a dude ranch wanted to be "macho," so he went out walking with one of the hired hands. As they were walking through the barnyard, the visitor tried starting a conversation: "Say, look at that big bunch of cows."  The hired hand replied, "Not 'bunch,' but 'herd.' "  "Heard what?"  "Herd of cows."  "Sure, I've heard of cows. There's a big bunch of 'em right over there."

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As the storm raged, the captain realized his ship was sinking fast. He called out, "Anyone here know how to pray?" One man stepped forward. "Aye, Captain, I know how to pray." "Good," said the captain, "You pray while the rest of us put on our life jackets. We're one short."

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A WEE TOUCH OF SNOW OVERNIGHT

 A QUIET SATURDAY MORNING CEMETERY WALK

An overnight light snowfall left us with a slightly white landscape this morning and it was enough to leave area roads with a few icy spots. Pheebs and I were able to take ourselves for a walk around the perimeter road of the Bayfield Cemetery.  Along with a drive down around the north side of the harbor that was about it for the day.

 SAILBOATS PATIENTLY WAITING FOR WARM AND WINDY SUMMER DAYS

 A TOUCH OF COLOR ON A DREARY GRAY DAY

 I'LL JUST CALL THIS PHOTO 'HOUSEBOAT'

And here's a page out of our ranch sitting days near McNeal, Arizona..... Forboding Skies and Big Winds  This is where we were and what we were doing 13 years ago today.

GROANER'S CORNER:((  I said to the gym instructor, “Can you teach me to do the splits?”  She said, “How flexible are you?”  I replied, “I'm pretty flexible, but I can’t make Tuesdays.”

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The custodian of a church quit, and the pastor of the church asked the organist if she would be able also to clean the church sanctuary.  The organist thought before replying,” Do you mean that I know have to mind both my keys and pews?”

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