Our Morning Walk

Thursday morning offered an unexpected opportunity to go for a walk by the harbourfront.  It was minus 2C, so considerably milder than of late, although the wind was still cold.

The harboourfront looks very different in winter.  Last August, I posted about this same walk here.  Now, the harbour is all frozen and ice extends almost around the entire island.  I read in the paper that this is unusual for so early in the winter, but we have been experiencing some extremely cold weather.  

     The lighthouse stands out as the only bit of colour on an otherwise drab landscape.  We pass this about ten minutes into our walk, so it also marks ten minutes to the car on our return.  Although part of the boardwalk is visible in the photo, it does not receive winter maintenance, so we walk on the adjacent path, which is a bicycle route in the summer.

 No one is using the shelter on this day - in milder conditions, it is a popular spot for people to sit and chat, or enjoy their coffee.

 

There are still a few birds about, but they are less visible when it is cold.  We did spot chickadees darting about, but they were too fast for me to capture a photo.

   

The end of the trail and the frozen harbour beyond.  Off to the left (out of the photo), the Confederation Bridge was barely discernible in the distance.

   

 Winter walks are full of black, white and shades of grey, as in the trees by the shoreline.

  

  A frozen stream, where we watched the muskrats playing only a few weeks ago.

   

   

There were footprints in the snow.  Could this have been the muskrats leaving the warmth and safety of their den and looking for food?

Quite a few people are still leaving seed and peanuts out and we saw one grateful squirrel having his fill.

Since drafting this post, the weather has become brutal.  We were out yesterday doing a couple of errands and it was minus 18C with a wind chill of minus 33C.  It is difficult to describe these temperatures to those who have not experienced them.  All that I can tell you is that being outside longer than a minute or two is more than enough!  As the wind chill remains below minus 30 today, we have opted to remain indoors.