Trews in Kingston

I was working in Kingston for several days this week....and as luck would have it, so were The Trews! My sister's keen eye caught the fact that they were playing again at the Ale House, a mere few blocks to walk from my downtown hotel.

We saw them play the same venue back in 2015, and returned to the scene of the crime for another great show. Opening band Hermitage Green was visiting from Ireland, and still adjusting to winter, but they were quite good.

Apparently The Trews had toured Ireland with them, so they were returning the favour. Being from the same town as The Cranberries, they did a cover of "Dreams" as a tribute to Dolores. They also featured another song with a didgeridoo....the end of which was pretty resting on the head of the audience!

The Trews rocked the place as usual, with Colin cavorting below the airplane suspended above the stage. John-Angus took a guitar solo up the stairs, across the balcony, and back down the other side.....all without missing a note!

And of course, it's Kingston.....so it wasn't altogether surprising when Tragically Hip bass player Gord Sinclair showed up and joined them on stage for rousing covers of "Courage" and "Grace Too", much to the delight of the gathering.

After scraping the freezing rain off my sister's car, she even offered me a ride back to the hotel to spare me the icy trek!

In line outside the Ale House

Hermitage Green

John-Angus solos from high above

Band of Brothers...and cousins...and friends....

Jack and JA on backing vocals

Trew-ly magical evening

Gord Sinclair with the "Courage" to take up the guitar....

....and back to his usual bass with "Grace", too

Hold Phone, In Your Arms (those are my arms in the crowd)

Yer not the Ocean

You are just a Lake.

We took a few moments to visit nearby Lake Erie in all it's icy splendor, and even managed to catch a wayward fox loping warily off the entrance to Wheatley harbour.

We later met up with Jane's parents for a birthday dinner at The Pogue, then visited with them at their airbnb cottage down along the Pulley Road shoreline.

Fox on the ice!

Beached!

Ice Ice Baby

Channel to Wheatley Harbour

View from the cottage

Ice Storm!

They were calling for a crazy 12 hours of precipitation overnight - snow, then ice pellets, then freezing rain, then just plain rain. We didn't get any snow in the end.....just lots of ice, coating everything. Good day to reschedule that planned trip to London and work from home instead.

Not sure how we managed not to lose power.....or break any ice-laden trees, bent low under the weight of winter's chilly embrace.

As the temperature crept upward, the melt was on and chunks of ice fell throughout the day, clattering off the steel roof, thunking onto the back deck, and jingling off the willow in a glacial cacophony. We even kept the cats inside all day, much to their collective feline chagrin, to avoid any injuries from falling ice!

The Juke's glaze was minimal, hiding from the east wind as it was, in the lee of a tree. The work car, however.....completely coated with a thick layer of ice. Even the tires were covered....every lug nut and air valve had it's own new cover!

Absolutely beautiful.....especially when you have the option to avoid driving in it. Jane did eventually make a run to the Superstore, to gather our previously ordered Click and Collect.....though she waited until afternoon when the roads were markedly improved.

A glazed expression of winter

Beautiful and dangerous!

No laundry today

The willow continues to shed it's ice to the ground below

Spiky grass!

That's ALL ice!

The windows facing east offered a particularly scenic vantage

We Get the Drift

What a difference a day makes. If you check yesterday's post, you can see that we (finally) got a little bit of snow. However, the wicked wind has a will of its own, here in windmill country - in spite of not receiving much new snow overnight, the white stuff that we did have was definitely repositioned.

Two shovel repairs and a fair bit of shovelling later, I got both cars out to the road. No point shovelling the rest of the driveway, since the snow will all be somewhere new by tomorrow morning anyway.....generally right back on the driveway.

'Tis the season.....after all, it's damn near February!

One day and not much new snow later.....

Socked in!

The Juke has been freed from Mother Nature's icy grip

The only safe place to park is at the road

Winter is Coming

Winter finally arrived, as we are receiving our first significant snowfall of the season on January 19th. With more snow expected over the remainder of the weekend, winter may be here to stay.

Alas.

Happy New Year!

After ten days of festive visits stretching across southwestern, central and eastern Ontario, we opted for the usual quiet New Year's Eve at home.

This year's iteration followed our recent tradition of two days of appetizers and mulled wine over New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, along with some sort of movie marathon. This year, we chose to re-watch the eight Harry Potter films.

We saw another green New Year here in the sunny south, hitting +5 C albeit rainy and windy for the turn of the calendar.

Bring it on, 2019!!!

Starting green for 2019

Festive finger foods!

Harry Potter marathon

Mulled wine!

Santa Claus Parade!

For the first time since we moved here, we actually attended the Wheatley Santa Claus Parade. From what we heard was a down year last year, potentially the last local parade if something didn't change, the community responded with a wonderful effort that we also felt compelled to support.

For a small village, they put together quite a production! A series of floats and walkers made the procession northward up Erie Street, with a throng of onlookers crowding the main intersection (i.e. our one traffic light) to enjoy the parade.

For a Sunday in early December, we were luckily rewarded with a balmy +14 C and sunshine to grace the festivities. What a great parade.....see you next year!

The Parade begins!

The Grinch!

Festive Centipede

You know it's a rural community when gifts come in buckets!

Even Elvis made an appearance!

The Wheatley Sharks Junior 'C' hockey team

Horseplay at the corner of Talbot and Erie

Here comes Santa Claus....