More from the Land of Ice and Snow

Feeling a little cabin-feverish, so decided to venture out, possibly to the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington, Ontario to see if I could get some good winter grass shots. We've had sufficient snow and winds, so anything that looks pretty good in the gardens now would be a good design addition to home gardens in our area.

So many ornamental grasses are advertised as great 3.5 season plants - the .5 of nothing would be in the spring before they start to grow. Unfortunately what works for Piet Oudolf may not be as successful here - frost is one thing - snowy blizzards are a completely different ball game. Also, something that he's recommended for various areas in Europe will not work as well here. Given our growing season, we may not end up with the lovely seed heads - not enough heat and our season is just too short - or if we do get seed heads the actual stalks that hold up the seed heads disintegrate at the base of the plant leaving you with an ugly mess rather than the magic wands that float above the snow against the gorgeous blue sky.

Well, no blue sky, just grey skies and lake effect snow everywhere, so I bailed on the QEW (Queen Elizabeth Way - the 2nd largest highway in this area) to go down to the Bronte Harbour, just because, if I can't photograph plants, I'll photograph water and what's what here in Oakville.

Ok, so not a total waste - a little bit of grass - good colour, good movement. And a couple of Canada Geese. I could have put collars on these two and brought them home for dinner.

From Lakeshore Road you can see the shrink-wrapped boats and frozen interior harbour.

The sound of these pieces of ice knocking together sounded like a giant stomach in need of urgent meal. Most of those hunks of ice are about a meter (yard) square.

On the other side of the harbour you can get right down to the shore. And then, if by magic, the sun came out, no really, it did - squint carefully and you can see its reflection at the shoreline.

Practically kicked my boots off just to feel the sand and water between my toes.

Even thought about skipping a few pieces of ice across the drink.

Once I'd had my fill of cold air I high-tailed it back to the car. Driving home you could see the snow popping up everywhere. Here it is clear with the flurries ahead.

And here I am two blocks from the last photo, in the middle of it.

Will try again tomorrow to go back to the RBG, but for today and now - it's into the kitchen - guests coming for dinner - RB, soup of some sort, maybe something with the fabulous Medjool dates that are in from California for dsrt....we'll see. Just nice to think that I'm eating something that was harvested from a Palm tree.