TODAY’S THEME………………………Sharp

Today’s theme is inspired by a knife that I received as a gift for Christmas.

This is the FIRST ceramic knife I have owned although I have had occasion to use one before and loved them.

The FIRST thing to say about it is that it is EXTREMELY sharp!

I hesitate to say it is sharper than the best Henckels knives I have but if it isn’t….it’s darn close AND it’s VERY thin so it’s superb  for thin slicing fragile things like tomatoes.

The blade is obviously  more fragile than it’s steel counterpart but that being said I understand they are quite robust.

One downside is that these knives CANNOT be sharpened….but OF COURSE I’ll try anyway!

As a bit of side interest as this knife was imported into Canada and as we are officially bilingual French/English there had to be the same cautions in French with the knife as there are in English.

The English caution is simple enough…”BLADE IS EXTREMELY SHARP.”

Not much ambiguity there.

The French caution however consists of  a total of 64 words.

I am ‘functionally’ bilingual so without boring you with a literal translation it says almost the same thing with warnings about keeping it in it’s sheath and not handling the blade with your hands or fingers…blah blah.

So what’s going on?

Is our government ruled by ‘overkill’ or do they think French people incapable of understanding “Blade is extremely sharp”…in French?

P.S. The actual blade itself is about 5 inches long and the handle VERY comfortable and well balanced…………..I LIKE IT!

 

TODAY’S THEME…………………….Rural

This picture is just about as rural as it gets.

The horse belongs to my neighbour’s brother who lives on my way to see my fishing buddy.

This horse works during the winter for the farmer who uses him to pull a sled with which he brings his firewood to the house for next year.

Winter is both the best time to cut trees AND the easiest time to transport them….gliding as they do smoothly with an old wooden sled with steel runners.

I’ll see if I can get a picture of him bringing a load of wood one of these days.

The mini-barn is well stocked with hay but when the weather is warm enough for the grass to peek through he would MUCH RATHER eat some of that!

As this is Julien’s only animal he DOTES on it, lavishing a brisk combing quite often and feeding it only the finest hay he can find.

At least once a winter ( at night ), it gets out of it’s paddock and roams the road we both live on and someone wakes Julien up in the middle of the night to inform  him.

I know because I have been the late-night knocker at least 2 times!

I think he’s a Percheron so it’s no wonder he isn’t hit…..ANY car would pay more than the horse I think.

 

TODAY’S THEME……………….Tiny

This little beauty was just sitting on the side of my bushroad path and with no new snow in a few days and the usual occasional strong winds there is a small amount of tree-borne debris that falls…in this case a tiny Pine cone.

The Pines around here don’t get monstrous like on the west coast but still over 100 feet and I have several on the back of my property more than 4 feet in diameter.

This little cone however was only still on the tree because the tree was short, young and protected from the wind somewhat.

Obviously there are cones much larger…usually 6-8 inches around here and MUCH smaller but these small ones are usually not open yet and this one was.

Not too exciting but up here we find it where we find it as the skyscrapers and rock bands are few and far between.

By the way the White Pine is the Provincial tree of Ontario……so there!

 

TODAY’S THEME…………………..Big and Small

Today’s theme is partially inspired by tonight’s event in the nearest big city.

We scored ( no pun intended ) some front row tickets to a semi-pro hockey game.

A hockey game with players JUST under the quality of the NHL and where most teams recruit from.

With it is a picture I took a few days ago with a glance at what REAL hockey means up here in the north country.

The same style that I played MANY years ago as a child……backyard hockey on an ice surface cleaned from whatever previously water-covered surface  was available.

In my case, and in the case of my kids it was the top of the driveway flooded on the COLDEST nights by dad and cleaned of snow when it snowed by the kids….IF they were interested in playing.

In this case the ‘rink’ is a low naturally water-filled spot in a farmer’s field plowed by the kids themselves who live nearby.

Usually, but not always the goalposts are sticks nailed to a flat piece of wood but here they have upgraded to better posts AND a net!!!

Brings back some wonderful memories and it’s heartwarming to see that SOME things NEVER change.

I hope it ALSO brings back memories to others….be it hockey or whatever.

 

TODAY’S THEME………………………Motionless

I took these pictures a few days ago on my way into town.

About a kilometre or so down the side road I saw these 3 Raccoons on the road.

The minute they saw my truck the decided to go back where they had come from and wait until I passed by.

I had intended only to stop for a moment and grab a quick shot of them as they stood near the side of the road but they had a  different idea.

They RAN….leaving me with what turned out to be 1 poor shot and an opportunity for a very nice one.

Luckily I took both of them.

The first, obviously is them running away and ‘them’ turned out to be what I’m pretty sure was a mummy and her 2 yearling cubs ( or  kits ).

I realized they were going to simply run away and leave me with no good picture so I took a chance and got out of my truck just enough to I guess ‘lightly’ threaten them and the mum did as I had hoped she would do….she got her babies up the nearest tree and stood guard at the bottom…keeping a sharp eye on me.

Perfect…..that’s what I wanted and I took about 5 more pictures as they were partially treed.

This one is cropped and, I believe the best of the group.

I hope you enjoy it.

 

TODAY’S THEME………………..Activities

This picture was taken a few days ago on a bay called Ash Bay.

It’s part of the French River waterway system quite popular with both locals and tourists for it’s fishing in the summer but in the winter it’s only lightly populated by locals with ice huts.

Here are 2 I got a shot of after the cars had moved off the ice.

The most common fish caught in this river in wintertime anyway is a pike….in almost any size you can imagine although the huge ones and the tiny ones don’t seem to be very active.

I am supposed to be going with a buddy pretty soon so if I catch anything I’ll be sure to post it here.

If you look closely at the picture you will notice that both of them are equipped with stoves for both heating AND cooking as eating on the ice is a MUST!

As long as you don’t drive you are unofficially permitted to drink while ice fishing and frankly the # of ministry people that go out and brave the cool weather makes it nearly impossible to be checked in any case.

If you chance by a hut while it’s occupied you will CERTAINLY be offered either a beer or a hot cup of coffee and your presence, assuming you are licensed, permits 2 more tip ups in the water as long as you remain and they can be quite tempting at times.

I don’t own a hut preferring the cheap and lazy method of walking out on the ice with my bucket which contains all I will need…..except the fish….the lake needs to provide that!

 

TODAY’S THEME………………Rare

I selected rare as today’s theme because of the nature of the shots I took.
I was out the other day…snooping around and exploring in my truck and down at the very end of a tiny easy-to-get-stuck road, where the snow plow turns around i saw some prints that I have never seen before.

I’ve seen the animals and posted a picture of them taken not very far away from here but although I knew they overwintered up here I had NEVER seen their tracks in snow.
I took a picture of them with my hand as scale but it was a little too blurred to post so I measured my hand against the print in my photo and found it was about 5 1/4 inches long.

The animal it came from is a Turkey Vulture and as i said these are the FIRST prints I have seen of them in snow.
There was a barrier gate at the end of the road blocking traffic in winter and the height to the lowest rail was about 2 feet and the bird went around it rather than going under giving me a pretty good indication of it’s height.
It’s not too spectacular but nonetheless I was pretty happy to find it and I hope you enjoy it.

 

Should be back pretty soon

I apologize to any of you that follow my blog.
Between computer problems which left me offline for a VERY long time followed by a camera breakdown have frustrated the dickens out of me.
It looks like I should be up and snapping again as I ‘borrowed’ back my smaller camera ( out on a semi-permanent loan ) and the 60D is back from repair.
Now to just wrap my head around things again and hopefully I’ll be posting by the beginning of next week.