Pivot!

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Today I am grateful that I can be flexible.  Wait...I can hear some of you laughing but let me explain...

I know that I am a planner/organizer and I like to know (prefer to know, maybe even need to know) what is coming up, how it's going to happen, where, when and with whom.  I know exactly where I will be on May 18th for example (Zoo-de-Mack) or April 8th (watching the total solar eclipse with family), or September 22nd (running the Canada Army Run half marathon) or this Saturday (skiing at Stokely with a meet-at-WalMart time of 0915).

BUT...I can pivot when needed.  For example, if the weather over the next two days doesn't make for great ski conditions at Stokely, we'll snowshoe somewhere (please send your snow thoughts my way - this winter has been the pits in terms of winter sports and there is no snow in the two week forecast 😟).  See??? Flexible!

Which brings me to the reason for my topic today.  This post was supposed to be about snowshoeing.  See above re: the weather and you'll know why that isn't happening.  I have only been out on showshoes twice; once without my camera and once when it was -20 and I was only able to shoot a couple of photos without freezing my fingers.  I have also been out twice with snow school (part of my work at Hiawatha) but I believe the school boards would frown on me heading out on a hike with my big camera and a bunch of their students.  

I have looked over my list of topics for the year and considered moving one or two around so I could have a post for this week but the past week was just too busy.  I am working too much at Hiawatha and on my non-work days, I needed to be at Stokely while there has been decent snow.  Yes, yes, there has been plenty of time in the evenings but I am a morning person and I just don't like doing things in the evening.

The end result is that I am sharing some photos that I took since the project began in November but that didn't make it into the posts up until now.  This is me being flexible 😁 (or lazy, however you want to see it).


This tree root is on the Tom Allison Side Trail on the Voyageur Trail system which runs parallel to the shore of Lake Superior beginning at Red Rock.  The first four kilometers are a nice flat trail but extremely muddy at times.  I'm grateful for my Muck boots that keep my feet dry in puddles up to about seven or eight inches deep.



Colleen wears Bogs which do the same job as my Mucks.  You can see here that they were needed.  This is a creek crossing on the McIntyre Lake segment of the Voyageur Trail.



Ice is so weird!  Why did it form in concentric patterns like that?  This was on the Odena Loop of the Voyageur Trail.  I'm thinking now that I could have moved up my topic of "The Voyageur Trail" scheduled for later in the year since that is where most of these photos are coming from 🤦.  Oh well, there are sure to be many more.



There have been countless times when I have looked at a tree and asked myself, "What the heck happened here?"  This is a perfectly healthy cedar that made a left turn at Albuquerque and kept on going.



These falls are un-named as far as I can tell and they are at the end of that flat 4km section of the Tom Allison Side Trail.  I'll go back with the tripod some time and see what interesting shots I can get without having to try to hold the camera steady for the slow shutter speeds.



I love the in-between season when there is snow and still some greenery.  I was hiking with Pete and Darlene in Gatineau when I saw this.  I aimed the camera, took one shot and my camera battery died.  I had other shots in mind but was foiled by being unprepared.  To be fair, this was the very beginning of the year's project and I was not yet in the groove of carrying all the necessary gear.



If you don't like the shoreline of Lake Superior, walk a kilometer down the shore and you'll see something completely different.  This lake is so powerful and the different ways it affects the land is astounding.  I recommend a visit to the Visitor's Centre at Agawa Bay campground in Lake Superior Provincial Park for some eye-opening facts about this lake.



I love ornamental grasses, especially tall ones.  This is at the front door of my friend Donna's place and I suspect it is about 10-12 feet tall.  She lives in the Niagara area and I expect it wouldn't grow that tall here but maybe I'm wrong.


That's all for today.  I'm hoping to get this week's topic up on the weekend but being flexible and all, I'm offering no guarantees 😆.



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