Summer Time, and Missing Golf in the Boreal Forest

I have played some PGA rated golf courses in my life. Playing a challenging course is a lot of fun. However, when I just want to relax, I play a small nine hole golf course cut through the boreal forest back in the sticks. It is my favourite golf course for just relaxing.

It is called Blue Heron, and it is located near Lanark, Ontario, Canada. It is a short course. Being in the tropics, I miss the golf. Summer in the Bahamas is hot and stinky. The courses all charge ridiculous fees to play golf and I don't play much in the tropics.

Here are a few photos from the course:

The Clubhouse

Waiting for tee-off.

The path to the tee box for the first hole.

Looking across the first fairway.

The sign on the road.

This is the URL for the golf course: http://www.blueherongolfing.com/

If you find any balls on the course marked "The One & Only Ocean Club", then you will know that they are mine.

Pour mon ami Yves

I promised my friend Yves who is in the Bahamas some pictures of what spring looks like in the hills of Quebec today.

"Yves, ce sont les images du la belle province car elle jette son manteau d'un autre hiver."

Our backyard is to my right. This is the walk to the Gatineau River.

Further down the road.

Crossing the road, are the tracks of the old steam train from Hull to Wakefield.

The train tracks.

Winter survivor.

Cottage country road along the Gatineau River.

I love Canadian cottages.

The hills are starting to turn green.

On Christmas Day In The Morning

The Lovely One and I were surprised this Christmas morning by our friends who live on Meech Lake, a few kilometers from our house in the Gatineau Hills. They invited to go for a Christmas morning skate on the frozen lake. This is so typically a Canadian winter thing and reminds us of our northern winter heritage.

Here, we leave our tracks across the surface of ice:

The rocks and trees fall to meet the shore of the lake:


There is open water where a creek meets the lake, not far from this picturesque house:

A child's playhouse graces the shore of the lake:

Wally and I sit on the shore near a chapel in the woods on Meech Lake:

When we first got on the lake, the Gatineau Hills were shrouded in a winter morning mist:

At this point of rock, the wind has swept the surface of the ice:

The Lovely One enjoys the weather and the skate on a perfect Christmas morning:

The tree-tops in the mist are like smoke on the hilltops:

Our group heads up Meech Lake towards the Prime Minister's cottage, which was still a long way away:

A stately home hugs the shore:

Downward shot of me skating backwards:

Our cheeks were rosy and red. The skate was a good work out and it was a perfect way to mark a Canadian Northern Christmas. Merry Christmas everybody!

Northern Lights Were Running Wild

My flight north from Nassau was delayed by two hours. There was a huge delay in Toronto, because each and every plane had to be de-iced. So I got home late at night. As we were driving to our house in the hills, it looked like there were spotlights arising into sky. However as we drove we couldn't catch up with them. Suddenly we realized that we were seeing a rare sight -- the Northern Lights or the Aurora Borealis.

As soon as the car stopped, I jumped out with my camera and snapped a frame. Unfortunately the northern lights were dancing across the sky and they moved out of the frame. What they did though, was light up the snow on the garage roof. That is what showed up in my picture (above).

It was a heck of a way to be welcomed to the north -- with the Aurora Borealis streaming across the skies. I have not seen them in at least 8 or 9 years. I wonder what the portents are. The Japanese seem to think that the northern lights are extremely lucky. Me -- I think that it is bad luck to be superstitious.