Are we almost done with Old Man Winter?

I don't know about you people but I am getting a little tired of Winter.  These cold temperatures do not seem to want to go away, and that is not just in Huntsville.  It's everywhere in the country.  As much as we try to embrace Winter, sometimes, the cold, especially with a windchill, is just too much to handle.  So, as a result, we haven't been walking in the great outdoors as much.  Having said this, on Wednesday, Russell called my bluff when I suggested we go for a walk.  It was sunny, -19 C but no wind.  So all three of us bundled up and off we went walking for one hour.  It actually felt good to breathe the cold Muskoka air.

All is well with us.  We continue to count down the days to our trip to Barbados.  This past week, I freshened up our shorts and T-shirts and dusted off our flip flops.  Can't wait to feel that sand on my feet.

Despite the weather, we are finding that the days go by very quickly.  We seem to keep busy doing things.  Russell is particularly enjoying a new hobby he calls digital photo manipulation.  With special computer software in Photoshop, he enhances photos that he took over the years and makes them look like paintings.  Pretty cool and they do look like real paintings.  He plans on framing some eventually. I am including two that he did yesterday.  I think they look quite nice.

Today was going to be a quiet day until our smoke alarm went off.  For some reason, when Russell started the fireplace, there was a little bit of smoke that didn't go up the chimney (yes, all the vents were open), instead it went up in the corner where the smoke detector is. The strident sound went on for a few minutes until the smoke went away.  There really wasn't a lot of smoke, I couldn't even see it from a distance but it was enough to set off the alarm.  Needless to say that Cooper was not impressed.  We took him outside right away so that he wouldn't have to endure the sound.  He was nonetheless upset and was howling like a little wolf.  I don't blame him for being affected by the sound.  It actually gave me a headache.  We brought him back in the house once the alarm went off and pretended like nothing happened.  He was back to his old self pretty quickly.

It is snowing a bit now, and still very cold but the low for tonight will actually be a balmy -15C. This coming week will be quiet with more trips to the gym in order to get ready for that trip of ours!  I wish you all a great week ahead. Now off to try those blueberry muffins that I made earlier on......

Original photo of Stubb's Falls, Arrowhead Provincial Park

Enhanced photo of Stubb's Falls.

Enhanced photo of fly fishing on the Humber River.

Original photo of fly fishing on the Humber.

Cooper daydreaming about......Summer!

Keeping the Coops run clear...next ending Winter!

Wintery day

For a second there, I thought Winter was over.  We almost went a whole week without snow until today.  It is a wintery and blustery day out there.  We did not expect a lot of precipitation but because it is drifting snow, it looks like we are getting a lot.  We had planned on going snowshoeing today but decided against it.  Instead, we are spending the day in front of the fireplace, cozy and warm.

This past week was good. I went to my new gym every day and I must say that I like it.  As much as I was disappointed when GoodLife closed in December, I am happy that I chose FITT Gym as my new workout place.  Change is good and my motivation level is high.  Could it be because we are going to Barbados in a few weeks?  Maybe...

We walked a lot this week but the snow trails are not as good as they were a few weeks ago,  As a result, it is harder to walk on snow and Russell actually over extended his knee while walking.  He also fell on ice and hurt his knee and elbow. He was carrying Cooper in his arms when he fell and the Coop fell on top of Russell, lucky for him.  As for Russell, he is recovering nicely from his fall but he needs to watch that knee.  The small meltdown that we had in the past week, mixed with some winds and cold air, has caused many areas to ice up.  One morning, we even had a flash freeze in a matter of hours and had to wait for the sand truck before we could go anywhere.

Not much else is going on.  We rented two movies this week:  World War Z and The Bucket List.  Both movies were quite good.  We may watch The Butler this week.  We are now in countdown mode for our trip and we look forward to it.  It will be nice to go back to Barbados.  We haven't been in 6 years. We used to go almost every year for the longest time.

Cooper is doing well.  He is now 32 months.  I remember when we brought him home, he was only 6 months old.  We enjoy going on walks with him and he likes it too.  He gets excited when it's time to put his boots on.  He is such a good sport and has such a good personality.  We are so thankful to have him in our lives. We will miss our Coop terribly when we are away.  The longest that we have ever been away from him is 4 nights.  Having said this, he will be having a great time at Camp Talemaker.  It will be a fun filled vacation for him.

That's about it for my blog this week.  It is still snowing but I think I see the skies clearing.....Russell has a nice fire going.  He will be watching football soon, the last two games before Superbowl.  I wish you all a great week.

Cooper loves a  nice stiff breeze....so refreshing!

Cooper knows you can't spit into the wind or other things too!

Blowing snow...low visibility up on our hill.

Cooper is determined to shake off Winter!

Living in Snow Country

This past week, the meaning of living in snow country became real.  We had a dump of about 40 cm of snow between Sunday and Monday, on top of what we already had, and we had more on Tuesday.  The snow banks were higher than ever, that is until we had rain yesterday.  About half the snow is now gone thanks to a one day meltdown... I will say that although I am glad that some of the snow is gone, I did not appreciate the slush and the puddles that this meltdown caused.  We could actually see some grass in the paths that we have created for Cooper in the backyard.  Crazy weather.  Flooding will also be an issue for many if the mild weather continues.

Many other cities in Quebec and Ontario also had extreme weather, which caused terrible delays for travellers.  I guess many students and perhaps even some parents enjoyed an extra day or two of Christmas holidays due to many closures last Monday.

With all this snow that we have, we decided that we might as well embrace Winter. So, Russell thought it would be fun to snowshoe his way to the side of our house in order to remove the snow from the satellite dish.  Off he went with his broom and cleared the snow.  I took the attached video and Russell had fun editing and adding music to it.  We have been walking a lot and went back to Arrowhead Provincial Park.  We even went snowshoeing with our neighbours John & Terri.  We went on Thursday and it was a beautiful day.  We were the first to snowshoe after the snowfall so we had to make our own trail.  We snowshoed in about one foot of snow.  Good and fun workout!  I will say that the snow makes for a very pretty scenery and Russell is taking wonderful photos.  

Russell and I went back to the Park today with Cooper for a walk. The conditions were not as good for walking due to the meltdown and we found ourselves sinking as we were walking.  Cooper, however, was doing just fine on four legs.

Russell went back to the gym after a two week break.  Good for him!  As for me, although I joined FITT Gym on Boxing Day, I haven't been yet but plan on going this week.  Just had other things to do.  We are having a quiet start to the new year and look forward to our trip to Barbados in four weeks time.  As for the Coop, he is doing fine although he feels a bit lost in the maze that his dog run is turning out to be.  The pictures below were taken the night of the storm.

That's about it for this week's blog.  I wish you all a good week and hope that the weather doesn't get in your way.

John, Terri and Anne on the trail in Arrowhead.

Taking a brief photo break with Terri and Anne.

Cooper's backyard...a maze.

Snow banks almost 3 feet high.

A super sunny morning after the blizzard.

Awesome blue skies.

Happy New Year! Bonne Annee!

Here we are at the beginning of a brand new year.  I hope that you all had a good New Year's celebration.  As for the three of us, we had a nice New Year's Eve and Day, although we didn't make it until midnight...at 11:20 pm we decided that we just couldn't stay up any longer.

The days leading up to New Year's were quiet.  It was as if we were on vacation.  We didn't do much and we didn't go to the gym.  As for the weather, well it got mighty cold.  On Thursday, we woke up to -31 C with a windchill of -42 C.  Needless to say that we didn't go for any walks while we had this cold snap.  Cooper went outside only to do his business and he was fast.  No fooling around.  He didn't want to be outside any more than we did. Walking on three legs is no fun for a dog.  Russell even picked him up a couple of times.  The beauty of having a small dog....

On New Year's Day, we watched the Winter Classic hockey game.  We are not big hockey fans but it was fun watching the game.  And it was an exciting one at that!  Then Russell watched the usual Bowl Games.  We had a fire going all day and it was nice. I cooked a turkey and it was enjoyed by all, including Cooper.

Our house is now back to normal after taking down the Christmas decorations.  It is always nice to put them up, but it is nice to put them away for another year.  As the saying goes, all good things come to an end.  This also means that, starting tomorrow, we will do our very best to try and eat better than we did during the holidays.  No more Christmas cookies and no more special foods that people typically eat around Christmas time.  This morning, I went grocery shopping and bought all of Russell's favorite foods (NOT!):  quinoa, spinach, beets, chickpeas, and the list goes on....We will also resume our fitness program this week.

Yesterday, we went to Arrowhead Provincial Park for a nice walk in the forest.  The park was packed with families enjoying winter activities such as skating, cross country skiing and snowshoeing.  We have a seasonal pass and plan on going as often as we can.  It is a nice way to spend a Winter afternoon.

That's about it for this first blog of 2014.  I assume that tomorrow is back to school for most students and back to work for many parents.  The weather forecast for the next few days is somewhat uncertain in many parts of Ontario and Quebec, so who knows....maybe some will have an extra day off.  I wish you all a great week ahead.

Anne and Cooper ready to walk the trail in Arrowhead.

Look at me....leash free...for a moment!

Stubb's Falls in Arrowhead Provincial Park.