.Guelph (and Interims)
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These
pictures are mainly from July (after I came back from Tennessee, but
before I joined Danielle in Ear Falls); November and December (after finishing up at Long Point); and January to April (when Danielle and I were living in Guelph for her winter semester) |
 A typical Lambton County field (though they usually don't have so many trees!) |
 An old road in Lorne Henderson |
 Me and the old man smoking Colts. I'm the one on the right. |
 Leaves of Grass with rain |
 A scene from the Marthaville gravel pits. |
 I spent several days at my grandparents farm |
 My grandpa getting ready to do some work |
 A crazy storm moved in like a train while I was walking down the road |
 The front as it passed over me. It was quite menacing and had me wondering whether I should have taken cover |
 Me and my grandpa. I'm the one on the left. |
 This abandoned building stands next to my grandparents' farm and is actually the school house where my grandpa went to school. |
 Full bloom in Moore, one of Lambton County's best natural areas |
 A view of my grandparents' farm in late fall |
 This trail near Alvinston is almost always too wet to walk until it freezes |
 A rehabilitated gravel pit near Marthaville |
 Wawanosh wetland |
 I spent 6 weeks at my parents' home after Long Point, being able to enjoy one of the benefits of nighttime light pollution in towns: surreal winter nights! |
 Danielle and I went walking through the oil fields at Oil Springs, by this old abandoned cabin |
 Christmas Day in Oil Springs. We were dreaming of a wet and foggy Christmas and we got our wish! |
 The now-traditional winter camping trip to Pinery has become less wintery in the last few years. Winter camping without snow becomes simply cold camping |
 Aside from not being able to ski, skate, or go "taboozin", I was very sick and no one else felt very well either. Reading in the heated cabin was the best option |
 While I was back in town I worked at Grammies Pizza again. Danielle came and helped me on my last day. |
 Danielle painted this large canvas while still in high school |
 We're finally in Guelph, and have discovered this new 4km trail |
 The new trail, which is minutes from our apartment, rises to a bluff overlooking the Eramosa river valley |
 We took a day trip to Rockwood conservation area, where we saw some excellent rock features, both natural and artificial |
 This building had been a mill before it burned down some time ago |
 Even more fascinating than the ruins of the mill are the steep cliffs surrounding the water |
 If only the ice was thick enough to skate! |
 The scenery here illustrates the difference in landscape after travelling a mere two hours northeast from Lambton County's clay plain |
 The Guelph Arboretum. This stand of red/silver maples is inundated for most of the year, making a walk on the boardwalk quite interesting at any time |
 I was walking one day when I stumbled upon this Mourning Dove that was unusually tolerant of my advances |
 Just behind our apartment is a small woodlot we can walk to |
 The Radial Trail, within a 10 minute drive of our apartment |
 A "typical" winter day on a hike at the Radial Trail |
 Due to a mild winter, we were only able to go skating two or three times this year |
 We woke up to a wet surprise one morning when we discovered rain had leaked in onto our floor |
 We went to the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto. |
 A trail along the Eramosa river near our apartment. |
 Joining with our "backyard" woodlot is another undeveloped area that allows us to walk for a good hour and a half through "forest" (i.e. Buckthorn and Scot's Pine) |
 This is a marshy area that lies near the Eramosa on the Radial Trail |
 This is the woodlot behind our house after a large snowfall |
 The Arboretum after a storm |
 The Chickadees along this trail were obviously used to being fed. |
 Spring finally arrived, with temperatures in the mid-teens and Turkey Vultures everywhere! |
 We took a trip to Rattlesnake Point to enjoy a hike along the Escarpment. |
 The view from the top was quite nice |
 On the North side of the Eramosa is this grassy area with short spruces and isolated Hawthorns |
 We parked ourselves on a hill near Guelph Lake on a warm afternoon while Danielle studied and I read |
 The boardwalk in the Arboretum, now free of ice and teeming with active invertebrates (including a frightening amount of mosquito larvae) |
 Although it looks big in the picture, this snake was hardly 6 inches long and was quite curious about my camera |
 The first native wildflowers of the spring (Coltsfoot started blooming in early April) that I saw were these Bloodroot flowers |
 Overlooking a pond in the Guelph Bird Sanctuary, a large area lying along the Speed River |
 Sharp-lobed Hepatica blooming in one of Guelph's only deciduous forest trails |
 Bloodroot and Wild Leek on the forest floor |
 Bloodroot and the leaves of Trout Lily, whose blossoms we will unfortunately miss once again |