Looking out my back door

Actually, looking out my back window. (Taking a break from ranting about dumbing down the language.)

Living in even a quiet, North Toronto residential neighbourhood, their are interesting and sometimes surprising scenes outside my back window. (This is where my office is - hence, the lights from my little office Christmas tree on the left side of the picture).

This is not the first time I've seen men in trees



but it's the first time when it hasn't been summer.



What I didn't capture well enough to post was the tree-trimmer sweeping up afterward.

Happy Winter Solstice!

Rear window, part 3: Men in trees

The first of five weeks' vacation - which I am spending at home, working on the Merle Foster book (about which, more later) - has just ended. As I puttered around this morning, I heard the sounds of shouting and some kind of machinery.
I wasn't surprised seeing as there is construction going on at the corner (although I thought the heavy lifting was pretty much over) and for all I know, there is some going on at the other end of the street.
But when I moved to work in my study at the back of the house, it became clear what was going on. A truck drove slowly through the back lane, then stopped and a cherry picker rose up.

And lo, there was a man with a chain saw, lopping wayward branches from trees and tossing them to the truck below (occasionally getting them caught on hydro wires) where they were being fed to a wood chipper.
It made for intermittent entertainment over the course of about two hours, and a few good pictures.





Oh, and I guess that should be " 'man' in trees."

Rear window, part 2

It was snowing like mad when I woke up on Friday, and, anticipating the storm, I had brought work home with me on Thursday night. In fact, I was tipped off when I overheard a colleague say that he was going to bring work home with him and not come in if we got the storm that was forecast.
He (who shall remain nameless, but not blameless) did indeed brave the snow and wind and showed up for work on Friday, but I, the lone wuss of the office, stayed home.
As I worked, I gazed out my window through the storm and saw my across-the-lane neighbour barbecuing lunch.
Hardy carnivore.

Rear window

The "picture" I posted of our snow the other day was pretty lame. This might make up for it.
I was working in my home office on Monday. It looks out on the back of the house and although I was concentrating on what I was writing, I became aware, in my peripheral vision, of a flying white lump of something. It was an across-the-lane neighbour shovelling her snow.
Well, it wasn't the neighbour — it was the snow she was shovelling.
When she was clearing the walkway between her house and the next-door one, she'd just heave each shovelful over the fence, and sometimes she'd achieve remarkable height.
This isn't the best example of that, but it's the best I could capture shooting through the window.
Today it rained and the temperature went above 0C. We still have lots of snow on the ground, but less than before.