It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

We're Christmas ready, here at Bondi. Well, almost -- there are still some lights to string up, if we can tunnel through the snowdrifts Brian has been plowing up -- but we're good to go!

We're looking forward to welcoming our guests. Right now, we've got very limited vacancies from December 27th through New Years. One two bedroom cottage is still available for the New Year's weekend, with a minimum of a 3 night booking. We've got some space still over Christmas itself, however.

We've got one family coming from New Zealand, to see a Canadian Christmas! What fun! We're providing a Christmas tree for them, and we've spoken to the deer to ask them to be sure to come and pose on the lawn!

Spending the Christmas/New Year holiday in north Muskoka is a wonderful -- and economical -- way to avoid the crush and overspending of the Boxing Day sales and the hectic pace of a holiday that was always intended to give us a chance to draw our breath, reconnect with our families, and recharge (as opposed to running up the charges!!!)

The Truth about the Weather

If you listen to the weatherfolk in the media, most of whom look like they have never been outdoors in their lives, you would begin to think that a sprinkle of snow is a complete disaster. Nancy remembers a trip to England one Christmas, when one inch of snow shut down British Rail -- and she got into a heated argument with a London cabbie about driving in snow. But that's across the Pond. Over here, snow is a fact of life, which arrives every year about this time, and we are getting a little tired of the media moaning about how bad it is to be out of doors.

Besides, there is a huge variance in the weather reports -- it can be heaving it down in Toronto, and be sunny and dry up here. It can be snowing in Gravenhurst, and sunny up here. It can be raining in Huntsville, and the roads are dry at Bondi. And vice versa. Sure, there's a snowbelt near Barrie, but the roads farther north are often untouched... You get the picture.

Or do you? We want you to get the picture!!!

Our good friend and near neighbour, Gord Bell, over at Beauview Cottage Resort, is no slouch in the internet department, and he decided what was needed was a way to reveal the Truth and make sure you GET THE PICTURE!

He's set up a website, with webcam links to the great outdoors. The Accu Window Weather for Ontario Canada is now online, with 29 webcams accessible reaching many Muskoka locations. You can click on this site, www.accu-window-weather.com
and see what's really happening.

Bondi doesn't have a webcam operating just yet -- heck, we're still finalizing the high-speed connection "thing", but Gord's close enough to us to give you a great notion. And you can keep checking out this Blog -- we've got tons of current winter photos being posted almost every day!

Well done, Gord! Thanks for 'putting us all in the frame.' We've attached a picture from Gord's webcam -- this morning, over at Beauview, the sun is shining

Hang In There!

If you heard a soft WHUMP recently, it was the sound of Winter arriving in Ontario.
Or, as Brian called it, Insta-Winter... He should know, he's the one who's being doing the bulk of the shoveling, plowing and general rearranging of the snow.

The horses love it. And, as an added bonus, come in clean after rolling and playing outdoors. The deer trail their footprints across the snow like strands of pearls. The Bobs are collectively revelling in their new, toasty-warm indoor quarters. the birds are back at the birdfeeders. We've all had to dig out our sunglasses.

And Carol is thrilled that a new FabricLand has opened in Huntsville. She is our major domo in charge of decorating, and spends a lot of time with a sewing machine creating curtains, pillow shams, etc. for teh cottages. She's the one who suggested we use this photo -- taken by Brian (who takes much better pictures than I do), to epitomize the spirit of winter.

Hang in There! It might be cold, and snowy, but it is truly beautiful, and there's still so very much you can do! And weather, it is reported, is still the number one topic of conversation amongst Canadians -- so where would we be without it???

Take your Breath away

When sun shines on fresh snow, the effect is breathtakingly lovely.

Brian got the full effect of this. While he had the ski trails in great shape in October, the heavy fall of snow brought down branches and required clean up, so he has been spending a lot of time in the bush. The trails should be ready for our guests who are coming up for Christmas. We have a wonderful variety of ski trails, from gently rolling open fields, through our private spruce bog (where a moose was bedded down last week!) up onto the hardwood hills that offer a bigger challenge.

For winter watchers, we now can report that the bay is beginning to freeze. We follow this progress --in fact we have records of Ice In and Ice Out for our bay that stretch back for almost a century now!

Ice in means our last loons will be heading south. The Canada geese have left the lake. But there are those birds that stay year round. Snow means the chickadees and bluejays are coming back to the feeders, along with the woodpeckers and nuthatches.

It's easy to figure out from the tracks in the snow who your neighbours are.

And the sun in the trees, all sparkling, well, that just plain makes you feel good. And makes you reach for your camera, too.

Snow Ho Ho

Let's face it. Winter is more fun when you can play with the season. Our snow has arrived up here in North Muskoka. Our roads are clear, and we're ready for the season! The ice is starting to form on our bay.

Brian is out working on the ski trails. We've got almost 20k of trails at Bondi Village, along with toboggan hills, snowshoe trails and rentals, a tubing run, and lots of wildlife to watch.

Some of that wildlife might include David and his buddy Mike, who were delighted to have the chance to get the snowmobiles out of storage and ready to go. Obviously in November the Snowmobile Clubs (ours is the Algonquin Snowmobile Club) don't have their trails open, and since there's no ice it's a really excellent plan not to try any water crossings, but the season is approaching fast.

Over at Hidden Valley Ski Centre, the snowguns are running, and the hill groomer is having just too much fun creating the moguls and funky stuff for the snowboarders.

For those seeking less adrenaline, like Nancy, taking a slow ramble in the woods or the back fields to check out the animal tracks and listen to the snow crunch underfoot is a great excuse to get outdoors.

Winter's here. You should be too! all set to provide you with family winter memories that will last for generations!

Whoooooosh...

Whooooosh... That's the sound of Brian's computer getting onto the High Speed internet highway. And leaving Nancy's dial-up (what David refers to the as The Computer of Slowness) in the dust. (soon, he tells her, soon... )

That's Fred, from Avery Audio, up the tower working his magic to get the office connected. The tower was put up by Brian, Dave and Mike (with a little help from Carol and Nancy) last weekend. Jim, from Brendish Computers, tramped about in the snow figuring out what else we'd need to get the signal not just to Brian, not just to Nancy, but to the entire resort.

It cannot be any too soon for Nancy, who intrepidly produces this Blog on dial-up. Plays a lot of Solitaire and writes a lot of poetry and prose while waiting for downloads...

Late Loon

The adult loons head south long before this, as a general rule, but the juveniles stick around until late November.

This chap was fishing in front of Clover cottage this evening, in the wonderful evening light, drawing an almost perfect "V" across the mirrored water.

It's been said that during summer there are so many shades of green you cannot begin to count them. This time of year, it's the blue shades that come into their own.