The morning started off very cold and dreary but not too surprisingly ( for Merritt ) the sun came blazing up over the tree line at 10:25 a.m.
Overall I would say there were over 300 people in attendance- lots of families with young kids as well as the usual suspects, and around 30 fish were logged in as contenders for the prizes. Nice prizes too, from hand crafted knives to an auger ( to drill holes through lake ice for the purpose of- naturally- ice fishing! ). There was money to be won for largest fish as well, and also a 50/50 draw which netted the winner over 300 dollars- nice.
Free hot drinks and prizes for the kids too.
Bigger View- click on the picture to see.
It was a bit freaky for a first timer like me- walking on an iced-over lake. This just doesn't happen where I grew up on the coast but here it is evidently common to drive your 1 ton truck loaded with gear into the middle of it to get a good location to drill your hole and drop your line into the cold water. There were about 100 trucks and 100 cars on the lake!
I had to get used to the sounds of cracking ice as well...I should mention that this is not a deep lake and the ice was ( I believe ) 15 inches at some points. ( I parked on the shore all the same! )
Bigger View- click on the picture to see.
It was quite fun and impressive to see children bringing in large trout and coarse fish like suckers. It seems with ice fishing chances are a lot better to catch a good fish ( or any at all ) since there is no casting involved nor the need for a boat. Of course you need an auger! I took loads of photos of people with their winning fish and hope to make them available through my web site for those people who are interested in getting them as well as for an article my husband is writing for the paper.
On that note I should mention that I'm entering some photos and art into our local art exhibition at the end of the month and today will finish with the framing. It's nice to finally see some of my best stuff printed out and ready to hang on the wall! I will post pictures of this later on.
On a different subject I want to share what I got for Christmas from my sister: the series Deep Space 9 seasons 1-7 on DVD ( a phenomenal gift in itself that is going to cost me dearly next Christmas! lol ) and as an amazing bonus, she off-loaded almost her entire VHS collection on me which I pounced on! She is moving house and had been collecting for 2 decades but now only buys DVDs so wanted to give her collection to a good home- ME!!! I have never bought a VHS cassette in my life- all the ones I ever had were gifts so you can imagine what a huge bonus this in itself was!
I also want to share a picture I took on the last day of 2008: the planet Venus in line with the moon which was taken with a tripod and my little Olympus camera:
as well as Rekar, a Romulan who I was interested in drawing ( from a u-tube screen cap ). Yes, I obviously still enjoy drawing the aliens! Hope everyone is doing as well as I feel these days!
