Winter Wonderland in Gravenhurst Muskoka

Enjoying our coffee this morning, reading the paper, wondering if we will ever make sense of the world again, when Jim says want to head up north.  Sure, want to eat here or have a Canadian breakfast sandwich at Tim's.  Hello, whip upstairs, wash, dress and we're off to Tim Horton's and off to Muskoka.

Great day, great drive and then we pass through Orillia, we almost turned around 5 kms away from Gravenhurst, but thank goodness Jim pushed through.

About now I am saying thank you to Lindsey for giving me Jackie's snow tires, what a difference they make lol.  The snow was coming down pretty fast now, so there wasn't going to be a lot of dawdling.

This is our neighbours cottage (house :).  Driveway is cleared so thought we would walk down here instead of plowing through 3 feet of snow on our driveway and a 5 foot high snowbank from the plows.  Luckily our road is plowed otherwise we would have had to walk in from the highway.

 

Our neighbour Jack, inspired me when we first moved in.  Seeing how beautiful his gardens were it encouraged me to do all the digging and planting I have done over the last 15 years.  Now seeing them in the winter and all his little birdhouses and metal artwork, I may just have to go shopping again.

This birdhouse is definitely my favourite and looks beautiful in the snow.  

That is our little cottage, definitely the most snow we have ever seen on it.  Usually we don't go up until late March, when the snow has started to disappear a wee bit.  Fingers crossed for this year.

Time to start heading back to Gravenhurst.  Couldn't resist a couple of stops on the way.  I would love to know how old these horses are, they have been sitting by this fence the whole time we have owned our cottage.  

Massive icicles were everywhere, these ones clinging to the rocks.  Some of the houses had bigger ones than these.  One thing we don't worry about on our cottage, seeing as the heat is turned off, there isn't any melting going on, on our roof.

Honestly, I can't remember ever seeing this beautiful little red barn before.  What a surprise seeing it today, as bright as could be, you couldn't miss it.

Jim recommends our next stop is the Sawdust City Brewery to pick up some of their new beers and luckily for me they have a washroom, now I will be able to relax when we go check out the Segwun at the Muskoka Wharf.  

Alright even in Canada this sight looks a wee bit strange.  People are snowplowing the lake.  WHY??  LOL yes this is Canada and there is something called the  "On the Pond Hockey Tournament" being held in Gravenhurst next weekend.  So needless to say they have to get the rinks ready.  Looks like they are going to have a great weekend for it.

You could easily get lost out there, it was blowing like crazy here and a wee bit chilly (read that to mean freaking freezing).  I could barely take my hand out of my gloves to take a picture.  But then the Segwun and Wenonah appeared.  Click, click, click.  OK, Click ............................. x 30.  I have only put a few of them up.  LOL, it's not like they are moving, nope they are pretty well sitting there on a frozen lake, the only thing moving was the snow and the flags.

 

Winter really is wonderful, what a different perspective it gives you on everything.  The colours are brighter, you can see through all the trees that are so full in the summer.  It is like discovering a whole new world.  Why would we want to live anywhere else, fine fine it could be a wee bit warmer :)