A misty day

The opposite bank of our river could hardly be seen today. We have been having a mini thaw, typical of January. The cold is sure to come back soon; in the meantime, the ice and considerable piles of snow are melting and dripping, rain has been falling, and the humidity in the air at temperatures that suddenly soared above zero (Ottawa airport recorded a record +7º yesterday) has condensed into fog. Along the banks of the Rideau the river ice has started to melt from above and water drops are poised to fall from the twigs of the bushes. All this makes for mysterious views on the river banks and when I came home after a walk I immediately went out again with my camera to try to capture some of them.

Transformed

The rain washed the remains of winter away from the Rideau River and this week's unprecedented heatwave from Winnipeg to Halifax did the rest. There's no ice left now. On Petrie Island, on the Ottawa, families have been building sandcastles on the beach. Our local riverside parks, suddenly full of people picnicking on the park benches and running along in shorts, were muddy at the start of the week; the mud is drying up now. The buds on the maple trees have burst open; maple syrup yields are reportedly much lower than usual this year as the sap rising season was so short. Frogs and butterflies have been spotted and the migrant birds are settling in for the summer. Dust is settling too, all over the city.

The end of March is predicted to be back to normal.