Ahhh...The Cottage Life!

 

 

This is the back view. She seemed to be getting the sun. It has been cooler and it was wonderful in the sun.

These are great to help keep the mosquitoes and other bugs down. I encourage them to habitat.

 Every once in awhile I just go touring in the car, no where in particular. Just off to see new things. I am seeing many more of these popping up in the farmland area. On barns especially. Good for them!! A nice green way to supplement electricity. I like Wind turbines. I know there is a lot of controversy about them but since I have been on site for Safety compliance at both Wind turbine sites and Coal fire plants, I will tell you I will take wind turbines hands down!

The Ontario government hopes to phase out all coal-fired plants by 2014, replacing that capacity with wind power and other clean energy sources.

The Nanticoke coal-fired electricity generating station on Lake Erie is Canada's single largest source of air pollution. This gigantic coal-fired power plant -- the largest in North America -- produces a toxic brew of pollutants, including sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, mercury, lead, cancerous heavy metals and arsenic. (Nanticoke is owned by Ontario Power Generation -- formerly Ontario Hydro -- which, in turn, is 100% owned by the Government of Ontario.)

Cleaner sources of electricity:

• Wind power -- zero air emissions
  
  
• Solar photo voltaic -- zero air emissions
  
  
• Hydro -- zero air emissions (can have other impacts)
  
  
• Landfill gas/bio-gas (e.g. from municipal composting facility) -- varies depending on technology and source
  
  
• Natural gas --The smog-causing sulphur dioxide emissions of a modern high-efficiency natural gas power plant are 99% less than those from existing coal-fired plants. Emissions of nitrogen oxides (also a source of smog) are 90% less and emissions of greenhouse gases are 60% less. Gas-fired plants emit no mercury, lead or heavy metals, all of which are emitted by coal-fired power plants.

Still lots of boats on the water at Belwood Lake. This is a man made lake and in the fall they open the dam and reduce the lake back to the river only. Belwood Lake was created in 1942 with the construction of the Shand Dam, the first dam in Canada built solely for water control and flood purposes. It is amazing how different this water body looks in the late fall and winter but Belwood, being a reservoir lake, does more of a transformation than any others I have seen. In the winter you can walk out on the very shores that are normally well under water.

Go see all the wonderful skies at  SkyWatch Friday!  Scenes from all over the globe a t Scenic Sunday.

I have a client whose building looks out onto these Twin Towers. When I was leaving the other day, the sun was lined up so nicely I just had to stop and get a picture (or 5, lol) Too see more SkyWatch Friday click "Here".
These towers are at  the corner of Hurontario and Burnhamthorpe in Mississauga for those interested in seeing them.

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I live beside a "clay pit" or mine. It has grown quite a bit since it started but it is only a three man operation. It was only about a third this size when I moved in 30 years ago. This whole area is clay. The red clay that factories love to make brick out of. They are relatively quiet neighbours.

I walked there yesterday being as it was a holiday and no one was around. (Yes, I snuck in!) It ends abruptly as seen here in this pic. My family used to take many walks back in the forest here and there were lots of hills for tobogganing in the winter months. Now every one is grown and no one but me is interested. Once in a while I still walk back there, mostly for old times sake now. It is still quite pretty past the pit. I see Wild Turkey back here. They were re-introduced to Ontario about 25 years ago and are in massive numbers now. Seem to like it here.

There is a bulldozer and an excavator down there. I believe that the same man who runs these also takes the load in a large transport to the bricking factories. If you were to walk straight through the pit and up the hill in the back you run into my back yard.


 There has always been ponds in the pit but they have moved around over time. There was a bigger pond and lots of flooding in the winter which froze and family and friends would skate down there. There was no one around and no operation in the winter in the first 20 years. Now it is all year.


 Love Cat Tails! Or Bulrushes, whatever you wish to call them. There are so many prints and scat down by the pond. Deer, turkey, raccoon and coyotes prints that I could see. There were Turkey Vultures flying over head that have been coming back to this area ever since I moved here. Offspring of offspring I imagine.

To those that know the area, you can see lots of change. Lots more of the great outdoors here at Outdoor Wednesday!