Winter Comes Early to the Mississippi

As readers of any duration know, we live by the Mississippi River, the little one that flows through Eastern Ontario into the Ottawa River which, in turn, flows into the St Lawrence River.

This Mississippi is different in different places. There are falls and rapids but also shallow areas that are relatively calm. For example: just before the river gets to our town, it becomes wide enough to call a lake. But then there is a little waterfall right in town.

On Sunday afternoon, I took a short drive to a little hamlet called Appleton. It is just a few miles from here, but the river is a little wider and shallower there — at least for the most part although there is a bit of a waterfall and power plant just beyond the photos that I am going to show you. As I said, the river changes a lot.

I thought I might get reflections, but for the most part the water was a little too choppy and also too icy. What I didn't expect yet — because it is just mid-November — was the ice that I found. But find it, I did. In fact it was was even more iced over beyond the bridge in the photo.

That house on the right always intrigues me (above). Apparently, it was once a store, and there remains an old decaying Pepsi sign.

They are getting some roof work done in the snow and cold, but they were resting on this Sunday. The thought of working on that roof in winter gives me the heebie-jeebies although to be truthful contemplating doing that at any time of year would be too much for me. Sidenote: judging by the icicles ↓ the a/c really works well.

One more photo of more of the building from the bridge (or causeway that you can see if you go back to the first photo). The fact that its foundation abuts the river directly always intrigues me.