Why Eggs Benedict this time of year?

 Because, of course, there's no place like home for the Hollandaise.

No dreaming of a white Christmas needed

 

Bing Crosby got his wish! We are certain to have a White Christmas in Northwestern Ontario.

There is now two feet of snow on the ground and more is arriving every day. 

Here is an actual headline from our local newspaper: "Snow and cold predicted for this winter."

Shades of the Hippy Dippy Weatherman: "Sunny today, getting darker towards evening."

If you are a Glass Half-Full person, you can see the benefits of lots of snow -- plenty of moisture for trees, less chance of forest fire next summer, etc.

If you are a Glass Half-Empty guy you can see that the snow is breaking the trees and we could be in store for another flood year come May.

If you are a household member who doesn't get involved in its removal, snow is, "Just beautiful!"

But if you are a member of the shovel brigade, snow means ibuprofen, heating pads and liniment.

Most of the creatures in the Boreal Forest figured out what to do long ago. They don't go floundering around with just their little noses peeking above the white stuff. No, they grew snowshoes to stay on the top.  

First Nations people took their clue from nature and made their own snowshoes, and toboggans. By the way, do you know how to say moose in Ojibwe? Oh, I guess you do.

I'm headed out now with our lab, Doc, to break trail, again, on our acreage in Nolalu. If I don't get back in time, Merry Christmas, everyone!

Look, Ma, No Smoke!

 This is in response to a comment I made a couple of blog posts back about how our high-efficiency Napoleon wood stove produces no smoke.

Incidentally, the clean-burn of these stoves also means less chimney-cleaning. I inspect our chimney annually but it has never needed cleaning. I have a friend with a much taller chimney than mine who also hasn't needed to sweep his chimney after switching to a high-effer. He used to clean his chimney monthly.

Fast Times at Chickadee High

 

When you're a chickadee, life is sped way up as this video can attest.

Images of a person's happiest days

 It's Sunday and that means I always read the obituaries in the newspaper.  Just about every week one of these will include a photograph of a person holding a fish. It always strikes me that the family who supplied the information for the obit thought the fishing picture best depicted this man's life. It was when he was at his happiest. It's how we always want to remember him.

Having watched thousands of fishermen at our former business, Bow Narrows Camp, I understand it wasn't just the fish in the photograph that made the man so pleased. It was the entire experience that came before and after. There is something about fishing that transcends sport. I wrote about this one time in my old blog at the camp. See Fishing, Spirituality and Us.

We realized over time how important fishing and the trip to camp was to some people. As one of our guests told me, "I'll be here next year the same week. If I'm not here you'll know I died."

And one year he wasn't there.

We also had several people who hung on just to make one last trip. They died almost immediately afterwards. That fishing trip was how they wanted to remember their own lives on Earth.

 

Time is short; fun climate program

 

Not many hours of sunlight now to harvest dry firewood. I'm scrambling to find enough dry balsam fir and spruce to supplement the couple of cords of birch I put away last spring. There was just too much snow for me to get more birch at the time.

I would like to recommend a new CBC show about nature and climate change. It is done by meteorologist Johanna Wagstaffe and I think most of you will find it fun and extremely interesting.

Just the name of the first show: What are Trees Saying To Each Other About Climate Change? should perk your curiosity. One of her guests is Suzanne Simard, the British Columbia forester who discovered how trees communicate.

Here's the link: Planet Wonder.

If you want a hoot, listen to this Bob Snider song about climate change.