Catching Up

Thursday morning I left for a very quick trip to the archives at the University of Guelph. Great train connection got me from Belleville at 8:30 a.m. to Guelph at noon. Pouring rain!! Connections back not so good., So Friday afternoon I was to take a bus to Toronto--arrive around 7:00 p.m., then the train back to Belleville, and drive at around midnight 25 clicks up the highway to Thomasburg (so I could spend Saturday at home, watching the Liberal Leadership Convention). Friday morning I was glued to the Weather Network for clues as to how the first winter storm of the season was going to affect the plan. Freezing rain was predicted for north of Belleville--I stared at the line on the map trying to guess how wide that little band north of the lake, out of the freezing rain zone, was. No way to know.

By 5:00 p.m., when I was boarding the bus in Guelph, the rain had stopped. I peered out the window the whole way monitoring precipitation. None, though things were plenty wet! Toronto, windy, but the rain had stopped, and the temp was 6 C. Hung around the station wishing I had bought a first class ticket so that I could have been in the first class lounge watching the leadership candidates give their speeches (some nature buffs are also political junkies). Ten p.m. came, and I boarded my train and started my precipitation watch again...lots of water, nothing falling from the sky! Belleville, no rain, lots of water sitting around, temp still above the freezing mark. Ferocious wind!! So I started out. Did I say "wind"? Highway was bare and dry, but the wind was so strong I could just barely keep the car on the road. I did though, and arrived home safely, feeling like I'd been away for ages. Bev of Burning Silo, northeast of Thomasburg, was not so lucky Friday. She describes the storm in her post, We got lucky this time (clearly luck is a relative concept), and also makes reference to the 1998 ice storm, which she was also in the thick of. We were lucky then too, in fact the edge of that storm was just 20 or 30 kilometres to the east of Thomasburg!

Watched the balloting Saturday. I think the Liberals probably made a good choice electing Stéphane Dion as their new leader. Sunday? Wandered in a fog (of the mind). And today realized that in my brief absence, Carnivals came to town:

I and the Bird #37 is up at Five Wells. I and the Bird is a carnival of bird and birder blogging, and this edition is a thanksgiving treat. Check it out!

They say a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush--I don't know about that, I like birds in bushes. Festival of the Trees is a celebration of trees (and bushes), and without trees I wouldn't have most of my favourite neighbourhood birds.

Downy in Maple
The 6th edition of Festival of the Trees is up at Arboreality. It's a fantastic collection of tree-related blog posts. Do not miss it!

Circus of the Spineless is normally up by now too--but November's edition has been delayed--expect it December 7. Today is the last day for submissions--send to Tony of milkriverblog, hurricanetg AT hotmail.com.