Commercial Fishing Harbour

 One of the things I enjoy about Port Dover is, that, as well as being a viable small town it is also a tourist town with a "seaside" vibe and a commercial fishing town. Just up river from the lighthouse, pier and breakwater is the commercial fishing harbour. Nicola and I went for a walk, stopped at Tim's for a latte and drove over to the harbour rather than drinking it while parked at the pier (my usual ritual)

We happened to catch the fleet coming in to unload their Smelt catch for the day.

One boat had just finished unloading, one was in process and one waiting to get to the dock. Sky full of wheeling gulls.

This is why, Smelt spillage.

They cleaned that up in no time

and sat patiently waiting for another spill.

 According to a recent article in the Port Dover Maple Leaf, Rainbow Smelt are native to the North Atlantic coastal regions but were introduced into the Great Lakes in the early 1900s. By the late 1950s they became a viable catch commercially. They are unloaded and trucked, on ice, to Chatham for processing by the Great Lakes Food Company then shipped to markets in Canada, California, Chile, China and Japan.

Erie Explorer looked as if she had been painted over the winter.

A few others were also looking pretty spiffy

while others looked like

there were more important things to do than paint the boat.

These are working,

not pleasure boats, after all.

This makes me want to sing "... children at her feet..."

A few pictures

from

last weeks

snow

fall.

This was the other reason it felt like Christmas: my wool order arrived from Martina Lesar.

I finished the Geometric Mountain Lansdcape that I designed for Susan Clarke's Geometric Workshop and made it into a pillow.

 

Finally Birds and baby:

The Killdeer defending

her nest with it's 3 stone-like eggs.

Chris and Jason sat out on the porch and talked through the open window but Cigi came inside for her first visit with Auntie Nicky.

She has graduated to a big bottle. Nearly as big as her. Photo by Chris.

Baby yoga. Photo by Chris.