Ice Exit and Loon Arrival

It was an incredible weekend with temps so warm that garden activity was done in shirt sleeves on Saturday. Sunday was a bit cooler, but still lovely.

Then Monday morning happened. We were wakened by the incredible winds and rain. It was wild.
The wind was so strong that it  blew the ice into shore from the middle of the lake - moving our dock as it came.

But by the end of the day (with a good power outage and a little workout for the generator), the ice was nearly gone.

Here's this morning's photo.  Ice is pretty much gone, with just a bit around the shoreline. This was a much faster melt than last year.

And the first loon call was heard around 8:00. They really must be circling to see when it's safe to land.

Is it Spring yet?

What a winter it was!! It made for a great spectator sport from Barbados, but we were very happy to miss the extreme cold temperatures that seemed to go on forever. The silver lining for all of us from Ontario was that our friends there from Nova Scotia and PEI had it way worse than we did. I am sure they are still digging out.

Don't tell Mother Nature, but we have had 4 sunny days in a row!! With the sunshine and the milder temps, the snow is melting quickly and the ice is starting its slow departure. The last few days have encouraged us to walk, and the grader did the roads yesterday, so a few million of the potholes are gone. Still absolutely no point in getting the car washed, but you can't have everything.

Here are some pictures we took on yesterday's walk. You can see that there is water around the shoreline and that the portage is really starting to open up.

This is our shoreline and you can see water at the edge.

The Salmon Lake side of the portage. Look at that blue sky!!!

Still patches of snow under the trees, but going quickly. 

Today on the way back from town, I heard on the Moose FM that the snow is going very quickly due to the warmer temperatures and warm winds. Should all be gone soon.

Someone said that they were on their lake last weekend and there is still lots of ice. Even though we can see the water round the edges, there may still be up to two feet under there.  But fingers crossed it will be all clear by the time you and the loons start coming back.

Next up - blackflies.