Chapleau River, Ontario, Canada - 01.03.12

Snow enthusiasts: it is time to head to the Great White North! Details on dog-sledding in the Haliburton Highlands coming right up!

Calling all winter outdoor enthusiasts in the Haliburton Highlands and beyond! Read all about the ‘musher-style’ fundraiser coming up this Saturday at Sir Sam’s Ski Hill Lodge for the Haliburton Iditarod & Yukon Quest Team! This event promises to be a spectacularly entertaining evening capped off by a meet n’ greet with each of  the incredible canines on the team!

If you attend, I’d love to hear about any part of your experience –the great food and camaraderie–the incredible, beautiful dogs–the stylish musher gear(!). Drop me a line at maplelakeontario@gmail.com or hop down to the comment section right on this page.

Cheers!– Cyn

First, let me apologize that my video shooting skillz are not so “mad.” It’s been windy and rainy here and yesterday was the only day nice enough to be in the water. As you can see it is pretty churned up. Still beautiful, though.

This is the day of our arriving at 3:30 a.m. so despite my spouse’s working to get the huge rock ( a/k/a”my favourite rock”) that is the final step to the water in place, we took it pretty easy.

No one felt like grocery shopping and the store-shelves would have been pretty bare post- Labour Day weekend so we went to “That Place In Carnarvon” or simply, “That Place”  for dinner. We were so glad we did. The service was outstanding, the waitstaff lovely and the food–just perfect. We were seated straight away at a table right at the wide windows which face Mirror Lake. Very pretty. We both had the Pork Schnitzel with Hunter sauce which came with one trip to the small in size but high in quality salad bar. I’ve missed Canadian-style potato salad and boy, what a treat to enjoy it again. Almost as good as mom’s. Dinner also came with garlic mashed potatoes or choice of three other selections as well as the veggie of the day.  I left the veggies and most of my garlic mashed potato only because after the salad bar and the very generous, juicy pork schitzel I was stuffed.

“That Place” is “relaxed casual” as far as dress which was good because I dressed for grocery shopping, LOL!
There is a really nice selection whether you prefer meat, chicken or fish–plus the lunch menu which also looks quite tempting.

Keeping in mind that this was the day after the official end of summer season I must mention that though we arrived early (first dinner patrons) by the time we left the restaurant (which has a nice cottage/eclectic comfy decor and is quite roomy) was near capacity. Obviously local folks like the place not only because of the number that showed op on a Tuesday night but because it has a Cheers-like atmosphere with the server knowing various patrons by name and by drink choice. The small bar seemed a good place to meet friends too as there was the hum of familiar/ friendly banter in the background.

Just a note: “That Place,” which is near the corner of Hwy 35 and 118, has gluten-free pizza for take out which can be really nice if you arrive and are starving but want to wait ’till the next day to grocery shop. The main menu also refers to trying to accommodate various dietary needs. “That Place” has moved to the top spot on my list of restaurants in the Maple Lake Area.

"That Place" in Carnarvon Ontario (CLICK to enlarge)

Canadian sign: inuksuk or more correctly, inunnguaq (2011) at Buttermilk Falls, Ontario, Canada on 7.28.11

Healey Lake, Hawkesbury, Ontario 9.28.09

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

As promised, here are a number of fall photos taken by webcam of the Southern Ontario area. I’ve adjusted a few for brightness and the very first one of  Healey Lake to amplify it a no-so-natural but I think, pretty way.

It was my plan to have a webcam trained on the trees and lake of Maple Lake but security issues presented themselves and I had to rig things that the cameras keep an eye on the most mundane areas surrounding the cottage. May as well make best use of the 2-year contract for high speed Internet, right?

These scenes are lovely however and they give you a good sampling of various regions in the rather large southern Ontario area.

Thanks to the Weather Network’s Weather cams.

Cheers!

So today it was no surprise to see that every web camera in Ontario that I usually peruse showed a scene including snow and/or ice. And while I can still look out and see green grass on the hill near the road, I can see no green save for the evergreen trees in the photos of Ontario taken today. Thank goodness for evergreens.

Lake Nipisssing, North Bay

Mountain Trout House, Kawagama (photoshopped*)

This camera illustrates a frustration that will only most likely grow deeper as the weather gets more severe.

*Much of this photo was obliterated by brown scum on the camera lens. Therefore the sky is completely photoshopped, as well ad some of the snow. I tried to make it look as I think it looks but still, I  must ask the question of Mountain Trout House. You’ve gone to the trouble of setting up your webcam and getting it featured at a couple of web camera websites on the Internet. You have a business and you’d like to show off the beautiful area that surrounds it, right? They why pray tell, can someone not go outside and clean the filthy lens to your webcam?

That goes for you too, Halcom Communications in Haliburton. You do a disservice to the town of Haliburton, a town whose lifeblood is tourism dollars, by having either your camera “down” (not available for viewing) or dirty or crooked or some combination of these. Why are  you trying to promote business with a crap webcam?! Iknow this to be a fact as my spouse checks every day from his super fancy high-powered work computer and he never, ever gets a good shot of the Haliburton “Eye In The Sky.” If that’s an eye in the sky, then it’s a blind eye.

Perhaps I sound a bit cranky but these two webcams in particular are what I’m offered as choice when I want to see webcam photography of “Maple Lake, Ontario.” I’m an action-oriented person and since I have Internet at the cottage–right now–right this minute I’ve decided to try to finance a webcam to capture Maple Lake. I’ll put it in next summer and run it through the summer (hopefully) so I can get an idea of the in’s and out’s of doing so. I’m also tempted to contact these guys who do a consistently fantastic job with their webcam offerings:

Reach Harbour, Lakefield

(Click photos to enlarge)

..and ask for any tips or suggestions. I can see that they are using a fisheye lens but beyond that am not sure what they are doing right. Not leaving the camera exposed to the weather is probably job one./end rant.

Penetangore River, Kincardine, Lake Huron

Calabogie Ski Hill Peaks Resort

(Click photos to enlarge)

Toronto Island

Boler Mtn. Slope, London

Blue Mountain