fish fry

This being Lent, and I am trying to stay off meat unless I'm invited out, so the fish fry was on the order sheet for this evening. The fish - white fish - are cooked outside and we all crowd into the high school gymnasium. It is a Lion's Club fundraiser. This is Bill who had been cooking under the tent in the dark, who took a break and came in to check up on his friends. He is covered with dry batter. I wonder what will happen when these clothes are put in the machine. Will they be washed in a thin batter?

shovel

It's been a terrible week. However, I expect that the best retort I have is that I shall use all these experiences for a book I plan to write. That will stop them in their tracks. These are not loving thoughts, and here I am at the beginning of Lent.

big tomato

This hangs from the side of a local restaurant. But how appetizing is it? A truck has nicked it and icicles hang from it. It is perhaps a fitting symbol for a city where there has been snow every month of the year.

Shrove Tuesday

The palms are being burnt to make the ashes for tomorrow: Ash Wednesday.

And here's some answers to some questions:

Timmins used to be the biggest city area wise in Canada, but I think that another amalgamation has supplanted us: perhaps it is in British Columbia.

We have known it to snow here every month of the year - so ground hog predictions are a little misleading.

Candlemas is an older name for the Feast of the Presentation which falls on February 2. It is not a Protestant thing, but it is a minor feast day in some churches.

It is so great to hear from you all. I sit at a little computer, just me and the cats, and there is a whole world out there.

The Daily Planet

I went to pay for my paper subscription this afternoon. The previous Daily Press building would be familiar to many of you. It was the model for The Daily Planet, the paper where Clark Kent worked. It seems that Superman actually came from Timmins, along with one singer and one Nobel laureate. Whoever would have guessed?

Ground Hog Day

Whilst the rest of the Christian world may have celebrated Candlemas today, in Canada and the in the United States we celebrate Gound Hog Day. This morning the rodents come out of their burrows and see if they can see their shadows. If they do there will be six more weeks of winter. Of course if they do not, then winter will be shorter (probably by a day or possibly two). This morning the varmit would have seen his shadow. I didn't see the actual animal but here are the shadows. So sometime in late March the snows may begin to melt.

swimming

I'm back in Timmins catching up on an overloaded desk, but I went over to the swimming pool to do some laps. And now I'm talking on the telephone as I get this out to you.