Morphed

A fire at the John Deere dealership in Maxville, a village east of Ottawa, wiped out an old building and left a slightly melted sign, which may give new meaning to the line that nothing runs like a John Deere. In fact, the unintentional colour mix has potential.

Oops!

Winter always seems to catch some of us offguard. Maybe Santa left this boot when he was scoping out his route.

Cool harvest

I took this shot about a week ago. It is a glimpse of a huge corn field beside my house. It is not my crop, but I know it well. I have watched the snow recede from the land, the spring seeding, the late spring sprouting, and the mid-summer spurt when the deep green stalks were knee high by the Fourth of July. I watched it tassel and when the raccoons started their late-night raids, I knew the corn was mature. I watched the sun rise and set on this stand as it turned from green to gold. Only a few days ago, snow covered the corn. But Mother Nature, in her own way, smiled, and the snow left for a few days enabling the harvest of these stalks which yielded countless bushels of corn. Combines worked non-stop on the frozen ground, bringing in tonnes of corn. The field is now bare, awaiting the snow.
So, what do you think? Too wordy?

In the big league

Steve Barton is an example of a smalltown guy who can make it in the big leagues.

A veteran National Hockey League linesman, Steve is from Vankleek Hill, a small town in eastern Ontario.

Ronna got this shot of him when he worked a game at the Centre Bell in Montréal recently.

Armed, not dangerous

Wonder who the owner of these bumper stickers would vote for...

Wire and ice

We have had the usual mixed bag of weather lately, ranging from snow to rain, freezing rain and balmy temperatures. The result on some days was a covering of ice which left some neat photo ops.

Blue moon

This corn field took on a surreal hue the other night, taking on cool colours that are no doubt a harbinger of what Mother Nature has in store for us here in the Great White North.

Mettle

Ronna chats with Brenda Kennedy (who is obviously off-camera) as they discuss the Iron Curtain that Mac Williamson created for an art show. He used 621 lids from orange juice cans to create this lasting work.

And what am I bid...

Ronna and I spent a day at an auction in St-Eugène, where an assortment of essentials, including a muskrat trap, was put on the block.

Backdrop

We are fortunate to see the whole spectrum of natural colours at this time of year.

Fall colours

The Thanksgiving weekend gave us weather that we logically would have received in the summer.

But nobody was complaining. The weather was perfect, whether you wanted to watch light dance on a Muskoka lake or take a leisurely paddle along a stream.

Road kill

The Green Party, one of the five main parties seeking votes in the October 14 vote, is aiming to make inroads this time around. A sign for our local Green candidate somehow made it into the southbound lane of a highway on the weekend, and was run over by traffic. So, was the placement of this sign an accident, an act of vandalism, or a clever tactic to make a statement about the impact of our wasteful ways on the planet?

A little to the left

The visit by Liberal leader Stéphane Dion to Alexandria began with the movement of Dan Boudria's campaign sign a little to the left and ended with the leader kissing hands and shaking babies. In the interim, we got up close and personal with some of the staff members, such as the one to the right in the top photo, who was never unplugged.

It was very exciting, actually.

Turkeys shoot the breeze

With Thanksgiving approaching, this flock of wild turkeys is plotting camouflage strategy.

Wetting the beak

You know the water in this lake is good when even the ducks are drinking it..