When it snows -

On the way too and from town on the shores of Georgian Bay, I drive past this lovely barn which is part of what used to be a family farm and orchard. The old farm house is now a classy B and B and the barn used for storage I assume. The rest of the land is slowly being turned into the new style apple orchards - vines where apples are grown like grapes.

The barn stood out against the newly fallen snow which was heavy and wet, clinging to trees like early Christmas decorations and making the faded reds of the barn and silo seem like beacons.

I had to stop and take a photograph. The image seemed like a Christmas card to me.

And then I looked east through the sumach. The vine orchards with a red brick house sitting in front of a lovely snow-gilded woods stood out backed by the ski hills of Georgian Peaks with the mountain seeming to stand firm against a stormy black sky. A totally different but equally beautiful image.

Of course the snow is mostly gone now as temperatures climb and rain buckets down instead. The ski hills and resorts may not do well this Christmas season if our strange weather continues to see-saw back and forth between cold and unseasonably warm. Today it's already nearly 12 degrees C - well over 50 degrees F. Not a record, but certainly not a white Christmas being promised. It will be tough for those depending on skiing and boarding for their livelihood.

But perhaps I'll  enlarge these photos and paste one over a window, or one of my other snow scenes from another storm...and chuckle over the vagaries of nature. Yes it's largely due to climate change that these weather upsets are happening - but no rant today. I'm optimistic that human kind is recognizing the problems - certainly this winter it's clear - and is beginning to make efforts, one at a time or in great groups, to make a difference. Hope you can join in, in some way.