Pano bookends

Pano, Sep 13, 2010 - morning

Panorama taken on the morning walk with the dogs.

The American Goldfinches are really enjoying the feeders. I have captured a photo of about 16 of them on the two feeders - unfortunately it was blurry so not worth posting. This photo shows 6 females and one male. We think they are getting fattened up before their migration flight.

Taz still carrying his trophy rock catch!

Pano - Sep 13, 2010 sunset

This is a cool photo - it shows the sunset, a huge cloud, and rain on the horizon at the right.

Beautiful Day!

Pano - September 10, 2010

A beautiful late summer day! I thought it was so neat how the clouds were almost glowing because they were backlit by the sun.

Back yard photos

August 7th, 2010 - 6:53 am

Bright summer morning. Taz is enjoying laying on the grass and chewing on his bone.

August 17th, 2010 6:30 pm

The sky is clearing after a storm.

August 19th, 2010 - 6:10 pm

A rainbow after a storm.

September 4th, 2010 8:15 am

The dogs are enjoying another nice morning.

Panos in warm weather

August 13th, 2010

What a beautiful day! The hill is starting to turn green again. It was a lovely temperature, with just a hint of wind to ruffle the surface of the water.

This pano shows you the rock collection that Taz has been building - I used a blue asterisk (*) to indicate the rocks (or groups of rocks in some cases) that he brought out of the lake. The area on the right is sandy and was grown in with the weedy rushes, but Taz's playing with the stones (pouncing on them like a cat, and playing with them with his big goofy paws) has sort of cleared out some of the rushes.

The water level in the lake is quite low - about 18-20" below normal at this time of the year. This means the lake is getting warmer, which is harder for the fish to survive. That may have been what happened with this fish. For a few days, Tawny and Taz went over to an area with a bunch of reeds, so I went to investigate. The foul odour was the reason why the dogs were attracted to the area, and the fish is the reason for that odour... Poor fish.

The low water level has also shown us where a Kong sunk. I put some lines of dots to indicate the rope for the Kong so you can see it. The main body of the Kong is just to the left of the row of blue dots.

It's no wonder that Taz can swim so fast as he can make big strokes with his long legs!

Beautiful Saturday!

Pano Saturday July 7, 2010

Saturday dawned to the start of a beautiful day! The humidity was low as a result of the rain (or deluges!) we had this week so it was really comfortable temperature wise. The rain is bringing life back to the landscape and the bright sun made everything sparkle!

A bee on a thistle flower.

The barn swallows were swooping around in their acrobatic flight catching lots of bugs. This is the best photo I could get, I took about 20 photos and I'm amazed that even one of them turned out.

Submarine Dog

July 14, 2010

A gorgeous day!

I include this photo that I took in our back lawn only because the photos of the electric blue dragonfly that I took down by the water didn't turn out well.

This is a small frog sitting on the sand.

Freda's Bee Balm. I was going to spell it Bee Bomb for fun, but figured everyone who know I was just trying to be funny.... (not!)

Submarine Dog. Cruising along very inconspicuously along the Green Lawn Ocean! hahah

July 7 - Hot!!!

Nothing likes the hot humid weather. Even the birds are quiet until dusk. Although, the portulaca likes the hot dry weather. This is the lone portulaca in the front rose garden.

The roses are recovering from their traumatic insect attacks.

8am and 27C. We sat on the porch and enjoyed some coffee. And then we went inside to the air conditioned comfort!

This pano shows the haze from the humidity. Although 27C isn't too comfortable at 8am, I still prefer it to -27C... :) That time will come soon enough, unfortunately!

It's HOT!!!!

HOT HOT HOT!!!!

34C in the shade. No wind. HOT!!!!

A beautiful summer day

June 15, 2010
Tawny took a little rest break this morning on the walk and thought she was hiding from me. Very funny, Tawny old girl!!!!

June 15, 2010 - panorama
Today was a beautiful, temperate and low humidity day. Absolutely wonderful! The best part was the low humidity. This panorama photo shows that the lawn is greening up even more after the recent rains.

A sequence of panoramas

June 3rd, 2010
This pano of the front lawn shows that it has gone dormant, due to the heat and the lack of moisture. We did water the big elm tree in the front (at the left of the photo) but the lawn is too big to try to keep green.

June 3rd, 2010
This pano of our little forest is before the dying elm was cut down. The left part of the photo makes the lawn look more burnt (yellow/brown) than it really was. The photo of the front lawn above is more representative of the actual colour/state of the lawn.

June 8th, 2010
This pano of the our little forest is the photo after the elm was cut down. Of course, we had some good gentle rain, so the lawn is starting to green up, and the trees like it too.

June 8th, 2010
This view of our front lawn looking towards the flower beds and the house. The lawn is starting to green up but is still predominantly yellowish.

June 6, 2010
The backyard is looking somewhat yellowish and dry. However that doesn't stop Tawny from enjoying a chewie on it. :)

June 10, 2010
After a bit of rain, the lawn is greening up. You can see the dark clouds that just passed over us are in the distance on the right side of the photo.

June 8, 2010
Taz is enjoying the lake scenery.

June 8, 2010
Tawny is enjoying the scenery too but is looking at me sideways, hoping that I will let her go to run down to the lake for a morning swim.

June 11, 2010
A beautiful day, with a few dark clouds. The grass on the hill is being cut, as you can see the tractor starting to cut the grass beside the road - look along the right side of the photo.

Rain, Beautiful Rain!

We only had a little bit of rain yesterday (Saturday), even though it was forecast to be rainy pretty much all day. I was going to cut the grass today but decided to cut it yesterday afternoon instead. Good thing I did because it has been raining almost all day.

This was the view of the lake this morning. The rain made a pretty pattern on the water.

A nice day and a nice dinner!

Pano - April 28, 2010

Chicken Cordon Bleu

Chocolate mousse with a dab of strawberry ice cream

And then, it's gone!

Photo taken April 1, 2010 @ 11:25am

The ice is disappearing... This shows that there is a large gap opening up between two pieces of ice. It won't be long now!

I have quite a number of photos that I have taken over the past two weeks that I will post in a few days. I haven't been able to do it so far because I have been very busy with some things.

April 1, 2010 - 6:25pm

Except for some ice at the north end (far right of the photo), the ice is gone!

Don't look too closely at this panoramic photo - the shore line did not match up very well.

Lake opening up

The lake is starting to open up. You can see quite a bit of open water at the north-west end of the lake (at the right of this photo). The prevailing wind is from the west and pushes the ice towards the south-east end of the lake (at the left edge of this photo).

If you click to zoom in, you can see some Canada Geese swimming in the narrow strip of open water by the shore at the bottom center of the photo.

How things change in a week...

March 10, 2010
Quite a bit of the snow cover on the front lawn has melted already, but there are still a few inches of the white stuff left, although it is all very icy and granular.

March 15, 2010
Almost all the snow has gone, but a little bit remains.

March 18, 2010
The front lawn is snow free and is starting to get a hint of green to it. That's pretty good considering that yesterday was St. Patrick's Day... haha

Lake panoramas

March 2, 2010
There is general snow cover on the lake and the hill.

March 8, 2010
Almost a week later, and the road (not shown in the photo) is completely clear of snow and ice. The path taken by the fisherman down to the lake is now almost snow free.

March 9, 2010
Notice how the lake is starting to get a blue colour to it.

March 10, 2010
Still a lot of snow cover by the lookout.

March 11, 2010
Some people are ice fishing. Probably the last time. Especially with the skidoo on the ice.

March 15, 2010

March 16, 2010

March 17, 2010
The hill is now snow-free, and the lake is starting to look dark on the far side of the lake.