Last Summer at Collingwood Harbour. Out of frame: silos, fishers, a yacht club — its docks and boats.

Drove down the pier… soil and rock underneath, its edges are armoured with piled stone and piled steel. A place to view Georgian Bay and back across the harbour towards Collingwood and its real estate shores. Not much wave action today.

The concrete silos are staid. The air is heavy. A blanket of haze folds and gathers through the horizon. The pier is a gradient of plans and activities: its connection to the mainland unequivocal; its termination in the lake contingent, questioned.

Footpath at the Eramosa River in the Ward (Guelph) during late Winter. Out of frame: recreational trail, Rice Island, and a recreational trail.

The paths meander through the trees. Here the snow is at its most resilient despite the current melt. It had been compacted underfoot through the Winter by those who have turned off the main trail. It is glacial and hard, but giving way soon.

Nothing much is wholly left to chance here… or deliberation. It just is. The branches fell where they fell, by wind and rot. And far from unusual in urban wooded areas, someone has gathered the fallen branches and used them to build something. People collect, people organize, and people build. Necessity is not always the impetus but neither is chance.

West beach, Port Hope, at Lake Ontario. Out of frame: uranium refinery, railway tracks, water treatment plant, and a creek.

A skiff of snow is on the beach. It is quite cold. Beyond the shrubs is a creek that drains the ravine to the north of the tracks. The creek washes over the beach, spilling into the lake.

The surface of the lake is beginning to thicken from the air’s chill. But it isn’t freezing yet, and may not freeze at all. Off shore, steam rises; the lake is still much warmer.