ice floating in the waters of Georgian Bay at Victoria Harbour, Ontario, Canada

ice floating in the waters of Georgian Bay at Victoria Harbour, Ontario, Canada, a photo by gnawledge wurker on Flickr.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA SZ-14

Federal Dock at Albert Street

Victoria Harbour in Tay Township in Ontario, Canada, on Georgian Bay, east end of Lake Huron, one of the Great Lakes. About 100 miles due. North of Toronto.

Earlier in December this year the bay had begun to ice over almost completely but then the daytime temperature rose above freezing and the ice changed state back. Colder temperatures returned since this shot and the ba y is iced with a thin solid cover as of Dec. 29th.

 

 

rained out photo jaunt

my camera icon

The rain stopped after overnight steadiness and I headed off along Highway 12 for the Fall Fair at Orillia but soon after I began the monsoon avalanched heavy rain.  So I stopped partway to Orillia and had lunch at Tiffany’s Restaurant in Coldwater, Ontario.

I ended up in conversation with a senior couple and their daughter.  He is 88 years old and was a truck driver for Canadian Ordnance Corps in Northeast Europe.  He described meeting a school buddy in Ghent who was too embarassed to admit he that he was shot in the buttocks during the Battle of the Hochwald Forest (Operation Veritable and Operation Blockbuster).

from the wikipedia article “After the war, General Dwight Eisenhower, the Allied Supreme Commander, commented this “was some of the fiercest fighting of the whole war” and “a bitter slugging match in which the enemy had to be forced back yard by yard”.”

This gentleman weighed 140 lbs when he went in the Army and weighs that today. It was a great pleasure and privilege to speak with a World War Two veteran.  This gentleman has a razor sharp memory.  We talked about lake levels in the Great Lakes and fierce local weather. He has an avid interest in weather and runs his own home weather station.  He remarked on the extreme low pressure that followed a harsh storm that blew through on Friday, barometric pressure was as low as that experienced with hurricanes.

Tiffany’s Restaurant, Coldwater, Ontario

wood detail of store front in Coldwater, Ontario

old signs on side of store front in Coldwater, Ontario

shore edge

Image = shore edge in front of my home on the eastern end of Georgian Bay, which is the east end of Lake Huron, one of the Great Lakes of North America.  I have been living up here 100 miles north of Toronto for twelve years (fulltime).  My family rented here in the sixties and then bought a lot and built this cottage in 1969-70.  It is a beautiful place and I am fortunate to live here.

until the shore growth got high enough to hide predators, families of Canada Geese would amble in to crop away at the plant life…..it is fun to watch the tiny golden goslings mature into as of this week nearly full-sized geese.. the neck stretching guard adult geese are careful in their watching and quickly sound the alarm when they dont like something in the area, which produces a mad rush and much splashing as the family skedaddles out into the safety of the bayy

Sony H50 camera

yesterday’s drive to Sodom on Lake Ontario

I had an appointment at 130pm at St. Michael’s Hospital in the downtown core of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  I lived in Toronto for 42 years so I have some experience in driving in its clogged traffic, but I have lived on Georgian Bay for ten years and I am used to the lighter traffic up here.  What’s more Toronto traffic is widely believed to be worse and getting worse each year.

The weather was poor, fog and rain all the way down and most of the way back up.  Around 7 pm I had reached Barrie on the return drive and decided to stop to unwind over a coffee and having finished it I walked out to get back on the 400 north and encountered a sharp drop in temperature and a strong wind.  The day’s drive had been bad with the fog and rain and all the vehicle spray especially the treat of having a tractor trailer pass by at 120km per hour.

The wait was medium for the Ontario health care sytem, 90 minutes.   I was there about the diabetic ulcer slowly healing on the back of my left ankle, my glacially healing heel.  My care at this appointment was from a chiropodist and a student nurse specializing in wound care.  The nurse’s accent place him as originally from eastern Europe.  His English was flawless.  The treatment last about twenty mninutes.  The wound is better.  It will still be several months before new skin forms a complete covering.

I have a return appointment next week at which I will see the plastic surgeon.  At the moment a skin graft does not seem to be in my future.  They seem to want me to heal this on my own.  Which makes sense.  If it takes months to heal the wound, the new wound from the incision to harvest skin for the graft would also take months to heal.

I have been wearing an aircast to off load the left heel.  I find I am tippy with this the air cast.  I wrap a small plastic retail bag around the open toe and tape it to the cast to keop my foot from getting soaked and freezing in the winter weather, both the rain and snow we have had this season.

I am also using a wooden cane with a flip down winter claw foot to snap in place of the rubber tip, for ice and snow and for balance.  Curbs and stairs are more interesting these days.

I walk well on level ground, but on uneven ground or bumpy and patchy snow I do less well. I follow my instructions and shorten my stride and take it slow.

It is hard to judge when this all began for a sore started on my other foot first but healed on its own.  This heel has been almost six months.   Perhaps another two to three months to go to get it well.