The Travels of the Agnew Family

Well it's almost time for the groundhogs in Canada and the northern US to predict how much longer winter is going to last. One of those groundhogs, Willie, lives in Wiarton about an hour north of us. In preparation for prediction day the town of Wiarton is hosting festivities this weekend. As it's the first time since we've lived in Walkerton that we have been home for the event Ed and I decided to drive up and see what it was all about.


A view of Georgian Bay, some snow, a little ice and lots of open water.

Every event needs a parade, right? This festival was no exception.


We were a little surprised to see our neighbour (she's driving the car) in the parade. I had forgotten that she owns the local beauty pagents (that's probably not the correct term any more) and takes the girls to events all over the region.


The parade included people handing out candy (a favourite of the kids), a firetruck, the royal bank tiger, a juggler and of course Wiarton Willie.

After checking out the craft show and eating a bowl of chili at the Masonic Lodge we walked to the park to check out the festivities. There were two huge blow up igloos, one with entertainment and the other with crafts for kids.


There was chain saw carving, ice carving,


a trebuchet that kids at the local school built and were demonstrating,


fire dancers, the juggler from the parade,


sleigh rides,


and Zoo Guts. Kids were given a card with the picture of a organ (i.e. stomach), then they went into a structure and found the organ, then they took the organ to the appropriate animal and put the organ in place. I'm standing in front of the polar bear. The photo on the right is one of the ice sculptures that was created with a chainsaw.


Ed's favourtie part of the day was playing with Duke and Daisy, 5 month old Pyrenees puppies. When they are full grown they will weigh between 90 and 120 pounds. Pyreneese are used as livestock guardian dogs. These two will destined to guard chickens where relatives of then guard sheep.


Good-bye Willie. Hello snowman. Dustin (our neighbour's grandson) must have been busy today.

It's warming up again and the snow is melting. January 26


Oops, it snowed again. January 27

I think this is going to be one of those seesaw weather years. Cold for a few days, then warm for a few days. Not a good year if you want to ride your snow mobile. The swamps and creeks aren't freezing so only a few snowmobile trails are open.


Ed's been working in his shop that last couple of weeks. This winter's project is furniture for the guest room. The night stands are ready for staining. January 29

Another beautiful sunny day. As we didn't get to snowshoe yesterday we decided that we needed to snowshoe toady. One place we could guarantee good conditions for snowshoeing in Bruce Tract, just south of Paisley. In the summer the Bruce Tract is a mountain bike park so there are lots of trails that meander through the trees and up and down gullies. Most people stick to a couple of main trails that stay on level ground but we enjoy the gullies and are happy breaking our own trail. We follow a bike trail that takes us further into the park resulting in a hike that is just over 5 kilometers in length.

It was a beautiful day today, so we decided to spend it outside. Inglis Falls is just outside of Owen Sound and a trail takes you from the falls to Harrison Park in Owen Sound where there is a restaurant. Our plan had been to park at Inglis Falls and snowshoe to the restaurant, have lunch then snowshoe back to the falls. We were late leaving home so we drove to the park and ate a lovely lunch at Harrison Park Inn Restaurant and then looked for the trail to the falls. Unfortunately, either it wasn't signed or we missed the sign but we couldn't find the trail, so we drove to the falls and hiked a loop trail. Poor Ed carried both sets of snowshoes on the hike as the trail was so well packed it was easier to walk in your boots than to snowshoe.


The falls.


Looking down the Sydenham River.


The river above the fall.s

Ed likes documenting the snow, he usually takes photos after snow falls.


January 18


January 19

Between me not feeling well and the yucky, snowy weather we celebrated Ed's birthday on the 14th by hibernating --- I did cook him something nice for dinner.

This was the first time in ten years that Ed has been in Canada for his birthday so we decided to invite some friends for dinner to help us celebrate.




Ed decided that his birthday cake should be raspberry pie, so I decorated the pie.

It's been a quiet first couple of weeks of the new year. Ed was still getting over his Christmas cold and I was fighting what turned out to be a loosing battle with a cold.

Winter has definitely arrived but Mother Nature is having trouble deciding if it's going to be a rainy (warm) winter or a snowy (cold) winter.


January 10


January 10


January 11


January 14


January 14

Geocaching is all about finding the cache but there is a little extra feeling of triumph when you are the "first to find", i.e. the first person to find the cache ---- the first name on the log sheet. Today Ed was first to find on three new caches in Teeswater (about 20 minutes from Walkerton). It's the first time he has been the first to find a cache. Should I mention that I was the first to spot 2 of them?

It doesn't take much excitement to make us happy on a cold January day.

The weather on New Years Day wasn't very nice but we did manage to take Christmas decorations down (inside and out).

The weather was much nice today so we went for a walk and Ed took a few nice "arty" shots.