Spring Melt

For the past few weeks we've been wavering between winter and spring. Last weekend we were leaning more towards spring, so it was a good opportunity for a wander through the woods at Lemoine Point.

Winter Walk in Gatineau Park

This was meant to be a snowshoeing experience, but as it turned out, there wasn't enough fresh snow, so it was just an ordinary walk!

Black-capped chickadee

This is Herridge House - complete with fire and bird feeding station

Woodpecker (Downy or Hairy?)

Blue Jay

And this is Healey House

Quebec City Winter Carnival

Thanks in part to a kind Christmas gift, A and I headed to Quebec City for a long weekend to check out Carnival, the largest festival of its kind, and now in its 57th year. It involves all manner of wintery activities and entertainment: here is a taster..

The festival site

The popular snow slides

The festival is on the banks of the St Lawrence: partly frozen at this time of year

Of course, Quebec City is a charming place to visit even without the festival, and so we went for a wander through the old town:

Place Royale, and the Notre-Dame-des-Victoires church

Rue du Petit-Champlain

There are many fine snow sculptures

and ice sculptures

A night parade with many crazy floats

and the star of the show: Bonhomme!

Winter sports were well represented - both participation (only one skating fall for the whole weekend), and spectator:

Pond hockey

Dog sledding

Ski joring

That's right - the skier is being dragged along by the horse and rider: they must follow a course, and pick up rings as they go. One of the crazier sports I've seen!

So, a very entertaining, enjoyable weekend. And I didn't even mention all the good food we ate!

Kingston in the Snow

The thing about taking photos in the winter is that hands get cold very quickly. So given a nice winter's day that wasn't too cold, I took my camera with me:

Shore of Lake Ontario

Looking across the bay at the Royal Military College and Fort Henry

The Wolfe Island ferry still makes it through the ice

The Spirit of Sir John A

Skaters in the market square

A Cold Walk by the Lake

A sunny winter's day was the perfect time for a walk down to the shore of Lake Ontario:

Looking across the mouth of Portsmouth Harbour to Kingston Penitentiary

Recent warm weather and rough water has prevented any ice on the lake ... yet

Shards of ice on the shoreline

Lake Ontario Park

Christmas Holidays Part 2

For Christmas and a few days after, I stayed in Vancouver with A's family (including new nephew). Here we enjoyed the scenic west coast, and spent some with the family.

On one day we went into Vancouver city, where we found some more sights: float planes in the harbour, the Gas Town clock, busy streets and quiet back alleys.

For some fish and chips and ocean air, we spent an afternoon at Steveston, an old fishing and canning town on the mouth of the Fraser river.