Wednesday, March 03, 2021

The Melt Is Beginning or Was

This (below) is the trail bridge (former railway bridge). The pedestrian side was melting on Sunday, and the snowmobile side was mushy. At the time, a number of days had risen to above freezing. While that trend has abated so far this week, it felt very positive on Sunday. In another week or two the warming and melting pace should resume and even accelerate. I hope and trust.


I then took a photo looking upriver toward downtown and town hall. It wasn't a good one, but it's a record shot. Part of the reason that I include it is that the building on the left is a former mill, and mills will be a bit of a theme for the next few photos.


The pics looking from the other, downstream side (below) are somewhat better. That is the little Gillies Bridge in the centre with another former industrial building, a machine works, on the left. Unlike the Boulton Brown Mill above, it stands derelict as it awaits redevelopment.


On the right (below) is yet another old mill, this one the MacArthur Woolen Mill. It is being used to a small degree for offices, but it also mostly waits for redevelopment. It actually sits on an island with the main river running off to the left. The distributary on the right rejoins the main river later.


We walked around to Gillies Bridge with the Baines building behind Sue. She didn't need this warm coat on this day. While it has since gotten colder for a few days, it will soon enough be time to put the coat away until next winter. Or maybe not soon enough, but it will happen.


Looking back toward the railway bridge as we continued our walk.


I took some videos, mostly so readers could hear the rushing water. I don't how much the flow will increase this year when the snow in the watershed melts, but it won't be as great as it was a few years ago as seen in this post from April 2019.

In fact, before we get to the video, here is a photo from 2019.


Now for the video. Is is composed of four short clips that start from the railway bridge, first looking upstream and then downstream. Then I went to Gillies Bridge to do the same thing. I have annotated the clips to help keep everyone oriented.



17 comments:

  1. Your have such a pretty place to walk. Sue's coat does look warm.

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  2. What beautiful scenes of water. I especially like the one with just snowy banks and the river. Tee hee, that's all of them. Next to last I guess was my fav. Thanks for video...it sure is loud!

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  3. We are seeing some gravel now in our driveway as we too have had some warm up temps. Yesterday though never got above freezing. My daughter tells us not to expect spring any time soon. Leaves won't appear on trees until May she says. Is that what you expect up in Ontario?

    Those are some lovely scenes to walk through.

    Distributary? I had to look that word up.

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  4. Marcia. Yes, May. Bulbs like daffodils will come earlier.

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  5. Although I have lived near or in river towns most of my life, I have never had a residence that had visibility of the river. Someday I would love to have a place where I could see the river out a nice sized window... up out of the flood plain of course.

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  6. The sound of the running water is wonderful. Love the photos too.

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  7. Such a 'quaint' area in which to live. I like that you know the history so well. It gives the photos depth.

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  8. Love Sue's coat and the warming weather! I heard birds chirping outside my bedroom this morning. Old mills are very photogenic, especially since they're usually next to water.

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  9. Beautiful day today, one of the first of many I hope. Lovely to see running water again.

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  10. Yes, spring is showing itself even up there in snowy Canada. :-)

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  11. The sounds of the river is a comforting one. I hope the melt, when it comes, is an orderly one.

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  12. We should get a fair run, but I don't think we should be at flood level. Not sure about the Ottawa River though.

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  13. You passed some lovely snowy sites along your walk. Nice snaps and good video. I enjoyed the sound of the water.

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  14. It is happening here as well!

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  15. Good that the old mills/buildings can be rehabbed.

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  16. I didn't realize the bridge was open! I'd be afraid of the snow machines zipping by! I'm not good with loud noises.

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  17. It is starting to melt here too. Signs of spring are popping up. We had our first red-winged Blackbird in the backyard yesterday.

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