Sunday 23 November 2014

Talking about the weather...

I've heard it said that Canadians love to talk about the weather. It's really the only conversation I've been having with people for the past few days. Living in the Grey/Bruce area now for 25 years, we are used to weather extremes. We get what is called "Lake Effect" snow, coming off Lake Huron. As well, I've heard that if the lake is still open (i.e. not frozen over yet), you will get a lot more snow. This is again the case. As it was last year.


A general rule of thumb for us is to use the screens on our windows as indicators of how bloody awful it is out there. If the snow sticks to the screens, stay put. It means we are experiencing a snow squall with next to no visibility and it will continue until is just runs out of steam. Could be a few hours, could be days, could mean road closures. So... on Thursday of this week, the snow stuck to the screens. In all directions. The snow just did not let up. All. Day. Long. Surprisingly we did not have road closures to the extent that I thought we would.
Hmmmm, I guess I better move the bistro set soon.


I do not know how much of this snow we will keep. There has been talk of freezing rain. That ought to be interesting.  Kids got a few days away from school. My teenager slept in like it was an Olympic sporting event. (How do they not have to get up to go to the bathroom???) The cat tries one door, then decides perhaps a different door would have less snow in front of it, and on it goes. Husband has been burning a lot of wood in the woodstove because it is "cozier" that way. (We don't actually heat with it, apart from just that room that it is in. The heat doesn't travel well to the nether reaches of our old house). But I must admit it makes me feel Christmasy. It makes me think 'gingerbread'. I had a dream last night about not getting a Christmas tree and it was Christmas Eve. In the dream my husband was convinced that a piece of turkey could be propped up and used as a tree. Good lord.


And now for true confession time, there are still pumpkins and potted mums sitting on my porch and by the carport door. They are now covered in snow. I had full intentions of composting the mums and tossing the pumpkins into the old chicken run that is fenced in, in hopes that they would start to rot and self-seed, thereby giving me a separate pumpkin garden so I wouldn't have to provide space for pumpkins in my regular garden.So... snow or no snow, that is on my "to do" list for this weekend.

Spot the mum and the pumpkin. (I know, I can't see the pumpkin either).


One more note... the alpaca mittens are cozy cozy cozy. They also shed like a bugger and my black coat looks like I own a large fluffy light-coloured dog who loves me a lot.