
A
typical Lambton County field
(though they usually don't have so many trees!)
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An
old road in Lorne Henderson
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Me
and the old man smoking
Colts. I'm the one on the right.
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Leaves
of Grass with rain
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A
scene from the Marthaville
gravel pits. |

My
sister Bekka playing her
ex-guitar
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I
spent several days at my
grandparents farm
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Me
and my grandpa. I'm the
one on the left.
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A
crazy storm moved in like a
train while I was walking down the road
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The
front as it passed over
me. It was quite menacing and had me wondering whether I
should
have taken cover
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My
grandma's garden
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My
grandpa on one of his tractors.
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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
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Wawanosh
wetland, the
rehabilitated marsh that consists mainly
of phragmites and trees that were planted in lines (and mowed in
between to prevent new growth!)
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Marthaville
gravel pits in the
winter, a more successful habitat restoration than the one in the last
picture
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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!
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Danielle
and I went walking
through the oil fields at Oil Springs, by this old abandoned cabin
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Christmas
Day in Oil
Springs. We were dreaming of a wet and foggy Christmas and we
got
our wish!
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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
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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
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While
I was back in town I worked
at Grammies Pizza again. Danielle came and helped me on my
last
day.
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Danielle
painted this large canvas
while still in high school. After winning her several awards
at
local art shows, it has been put out to stud on her bedroom wall
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We're
finally in Guelph, and have
discovered this new 4km trail
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The
new trail, which is minutes
from our apartment, rises to a bluff overlooking the Eramosa river
valley
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We
took a day trip to Rockwood
conservation area, where we saw some excellent rock features, both
natural and artificial
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This
building had been a mill
before it burned down some time ago
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Even more fascinating than the ruins of the mill are the steep cliffs
surrounding the water
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If
only the ice was thick enough to skate!
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The
scenery here illustrates the
difference in landscape after travelling a mere two hours northeast
from Lambton County's clay plain
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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
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Just
behind our apartment is a small woodlot we can walk to
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The
Radial Trail, within a 10
minute drive of our apartment
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A "typical" winter day on a hike at the Radial Trail
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Due to a mild winter, we were only able to go skating two or three
times this year; unfortunate when we had two ponds that were nearly
within walking distance of us
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The
Arboretum after a storm
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This
is a marshy area that lies
near the Eramosa on the Radial Trail
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This
is the woodlot behind our
house after a large snowfall
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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!)
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We
woke up to a wet surprise one
morning when we discovered rain had leaked in onto our floor!
It
turns out there was a crack in the wall behind the drywall.
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We
went to the Art Gallery of
Ontario in Toronto. Unfortunately nearly the entire museum
was
under renovation and there was nothing to see. After hitting
rush
hour traffic on the way home, we vowed never to return to that dreadful
city! |

A
trail along the Eramosa river
near our apartment. Although the main trail can be quite
busy,
most dog walkers don't stray off the path, leaving people like us to
see much wildlife, including the resident mink.
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We
took a trip to Rattlesnake
Point to enjoy a hike along the Escarpment.
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The view from the top was spectacular
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Spring finally arrived, with temperatures in the mid-teens and Turkey
Vultures everywhere!
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We
parked ourselves on a hill near
Guelph Lake on a warm afternoon while Danielle studied and I read
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On
the North side of the Eramosa
is this grassy area with short spruces and isolated Hawthorns... a good
spot to find Eastern Meadowlarks and Savannah Sparrows
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The
boardwalk in the Arboretum,
now free of ice and teeming with active invertebrates (including a
frightening amount of mosquito larvae)
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Although
it looks big in the
picture, this snake was hardly 6 inches long and was quite curious
about my camera
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Overlooking
a pond in the Guelph
Bird Sanctuary, a large area lying along the Speed River
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The
first native wildflowers of
the spring (Coltsfoot started blooming in early April) that I saw were
these Bloodroot flowers
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Sharp-lobed
Hepatica blooming in
one of Guelph's only deciduous forest
trails
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Bloodroot
and Wild Leek on the
forest floor
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Bloodroot
and the leaves of
Trout Lily, whose blossoms we will unfortunately miss once again
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Excavations on the north side of Guelph, bordering Marden Tract
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