For many, this weekend was wickedly cold, better to stay inside and do indoor stuff. I was feeling a bit glum, so the fellow packed me in the car for a little drive, stopped at a park along the edge of the bluffs and made me take a short little walk. Very short walk, since he isn’t a fan of the cold and neither of us was particularly dressed for it. When we looked out onto the lake, holy smoke! Like real smoke. It was amazing!
This winter has teased us for short intervals, reminding us we are indeed in Canada, and there should be some nod to winter. But a cold day here and there, with well over freezing temperates aside from that, haven’t made this a winter with any real conviction. As last week progressed, however, the temperature dropped and dropped. Cold warnings were issued. Then Saturday happened. It was so cold that the air was much colder than the lake. Steam started rising from it. There were some large columns of this lake mist that kissed the clouds hanging over them, making me realize that the clouds on the horizon might indeed be fog rising up from the lake.
Ice was forming along the shoreline; mist was blowing over the water, tendrils of smoke were rising up in the distance.
When we got home, I put on my cold weather gear, grabbed my camera and headed to the edge of the bluffs. I took photos, lots of them. It was so cold that when I took photos of some passersby who wanted a shot of them with the amazing backdrop, their phone just turned itself off due to the cold. My fingers started to feel the cold through my gloves. But the sun was lowering, so I had to stay to see pink tones wash over the scene. When would I ever see this again? And the mild case of hypothermia helped me sleep — haven’t slept that soundly in ages.
When I got up Sunday morning, I had no idea that the event was still continuing. If I had realistically thought that the lake would still be covered in mist, I would have made it out for morning light. I did, however, realize late morning of my mistake in assuming and headed back out, this time dressed even more warmly. The only time I realized how cold it was was when I took out my cell phone to tweet some “cool” shots and had to take off my gloves.
Not only was there mist rising from the lake, there was ice, as far as I could see! I had never seen ice in this area extend that far from shore. I headed down to the edge of the lake, wanted to get some shots at lake level. Gulls were landing on tiny ice floes and ducks were fishing between the ice.
It was beautiful, even without magic light. The mist tendrils subsided completely shortly after noon. The fog cloud still hung over the lake, but by the time I had climbed back up to the top of the bluffs, even the ice had dissipated and that which was left was once again clinging to the shoreline.
It may have been cold, but, wow, it was an amazing weekend show by Mother Nature.
