Train Ride into Summer

It is train day today.  These pictures are from our Augusta, Maine trip in September.  The brick building is in Barre, Vermont.  Barre Gray granite has the desirable characteristics of fine grain, even texture and weather resistance. It is used for outdoor art sculptures. I assume that is also a 'code phrase' for cemetery headstones. Our train of the day shows the Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes train going in reverse in its forest setting. I  can see in these pictures the dominance of the green of the forest in September.   Now just into November, the leaves are changing colour and falling so the green canopy has almost disappeared.  It will be replaced by the stark structural pattern of branches as we move closer and closer to winter.

So Many Footprints in the Sand

These footprints are bigger than bird tracks in the sand.  We got to see repair work on stairs that go down to the shore. This was on the unit a few doors down.  How does something this large get onto the beach? Lucky for this house there is an empty lot a few doors down for access.  You can see the tracks up the incline.   While we face the sunrise, the sunset colours also show in the sky and water, and the last two pictures are from yesterday's sunset.

California Dreaming

It starts in January and radio stations play various versions of the 1960's pop hit by the Mommas and the Poppas 'California Dreaming'.  It seems a bit unkind to remind us of the contrast between our Northern winter experience when compared to theirs.  Our latitude in the North is around 44 degrees. Toronto has a restaurant named in honour of its latitude - North 44.  Toronto is actually 43.7 and Grimsby is 43.2.  Compare that to Los Angeles at 34 degrees.

So the image of Santa Barbara's beach at sunset is very appealing for us right now.  Next to the palm trees are train tracks which are right along the beach there.  What a ride along the coast:  the routes have names such as the California Zephyr, Capitol Corridor, Coast Starlight, Pacific Surfliner and Sunset Limited.  These are the evocative names that make us in the north have 'California Dreaming' ideas.

In contrast, this weekend kicks off the January Ice Wine Festival in Niagara.  We've got cold weather for the ice sculptors to do their magic. The wineries have food and wine pairings.  Niagara-on-the-Lake turns its main street, Queen Street, into the Icewine Village.  The Twenty Valley Winter Festival does the same in Jordan Village, where it has continuous music, food and wine events throughout the day and evening. 

Track Works At Strasburg Railroad

This was taken a few years ago when the crew was was testing the new track work. Strasburg Railway, Strasburg, PA.