All is calm...

Well, the New Year has seen quite a bit of snow and tomorrow, we are expecting severe cold with a risk of frostbite (minus 28 C wind chill is forecast).  Yet another winter storm is on its way on Sunday, so it will be a good day to stay indoors and keep warm...except for the fact that someone has to do the snow clearing and Mr C is still not mobile after his surgery in November.  Now where did I leave the snow shovel?

Winter Storm

The winter storm started on Wednesday night and continued throughout Thursday.  The snow amounted to about 25 centimetres and the winds reached 100 km/hour, bringing down power lines and resulting in the entire island being without power. 

Our power went off shortly after 6 a.m. and we were without power for fourteen plus hours.  The house got very cold and we were not adequately prepared for such an emergency, but at least we had storm chips!

Thought For The Day - Part IV

‘When snow falls, nature listens.’

Antoinette van Kleef

Boardwalk

A sunny morning on the boardwalk earlier in the week.  Now that the weather has become so cold further exercise is likely to be indoors, at least until it warms up a bit.

The View From Here

Some snow last week has left us with a wintry landscape.  This was the view from my kitchen window on Saturday.  

And this was the view early this morning after last night’s winter storm.  Thankfully, the ploughs were out early so we were able to get out and about without any problems.

This is the view looking out from our front window.  Now that we have the snow the cold temperatures are arriving overnight, so we are expecting a severe wind chill tomorrow.

Snowscape

Yesterday dawned sunny and cold.  We braved the chill and headed out for a walk.  We had snow last week and the temperatures have been so low that it is still on the ground with more forecast for tomorrow.  It seems that winter has arrived early this year.

Spring

It may have been the equinox on Tuesday, but there is still no sign of spring around here.  Yesterday saw the arrival of our fourth winter storm in less than three weeks.  This was the scene at dusk.

And this was the scene this morning.  The wind howled all night and created drifts of snow from the surrounding fields.  The light is actually a reflection from the camera flash, but it was the best that I could do in the circumstances.  The weather forecast mentioned more snow on Saturday...

   

Be Prepared

We seem to have been having storm after storm lately.   I’ve been stuck indoors because I strained my back and I’ve got cabin fever.  I’ve hardly been out in a week and a half, as it is so icy and I don’t want to aggravate my back further by slipping and/or falling.

Yesterday was Groundhog Day - marked both here and in the United States with a ‘weather prediction’ based on whether the groundhog sees its shadow.  According to legend, if the groundhog emerges from its den and sees its shadow, we can expect another six weeks of winter.

Nova Scotia’s Schubenacadie Sam predicted a faster onset of spring than his ‘cousin’ Wiarton Willie, in Wiarton, Ontario, who saw his shadow.  This agreed with Punxsutawney Phil of Pennsylvania when he saw his shadow.

When you think about it, it isn’t much of a prediction, as we are actually at the mid-point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox.  I’d be happy if winter could be over in six weeks, but I suspect that it will be longer than this.

And in case you are wondering about the relevance of the photo, Storm Chips have become the phenomenon of the Maritime provinces.  It seems that Maritimers are huge consumers of potato chips/crisps and they like to stockpile their supplies whenever bad weather is forecast.  We hadn’t come across these before so, purely in the interest of research, I bought a bag and I have to admit that they are really rather good.

After The Storm

We woke to another 20-30 cm of snow yesterday.  It already seems like a long winter.

This was our car on the drive.  Just in case you wondered, there are no front number plates here in PEI.

 

Digging out actually wasn’t that difficult because the snow was the light, fluffy (though slightly wet) sort, as opposed to that heavy lead-like stuff we got last time.

The day was extremely overcast, verging on misty, so not ideal for photos.

But it still looked pretty on the trees. 

 This is me, outdoors in waterproof trousers and boots, all ready to start digging.

And finally, the view from our back deck.  I know that it looks pretty, but I would be quite happy if it all melted overnight (not that that is going to happen, as there is more forecast for tomorrow).

Fallout

The heavy wet snow brought down the top of the Scot's Pine in our garden, as well as many of the lower branches.  We heard loud cracks as they gave way due to the weight of snow and ice.

The tree was not the only victim of the conditions, as my car is no more - it was written off in an accident at the weekend.  I was not driving it at the time - thankfully, no serious injuries resulted from a head-on crash on the highway.

A Sense of Snow

If you live in a climate where snow is a normal winter event, I think that you develop 'a sense of snow'.  There was a time in my life when I never considered that there are different and varying types of snow, from the light powder to the heavy wet snow which fell on Friday night.

It started as rain and as the temperature fell, large heavy flakes started to fall.  The first ploughing occurred around 8 pm, but it appeared to have little impact on the amount on the ground when we awoke on Saturday morning.

Everything was covered in a heavy wet blanket and we had listened to creaking and groaning during the night as the trees were bending under the weight.

The clear-up was a huge and lengthy job: much harder than shovelling that powdery snow of the last storm.  Little moved aside from the neighbours as we were all too busy digging out to venture far from home.

It looked pristine and white, but was a challenge to clear and it was more than three hours before I managed to get the front and side decks of the house cleared.

It is difficult to give a sense of perspective when everything is a blanket of white.  This is the view from the front of our house.

Another view of the maple tree in our front garden.  The heavy frosting of icy snow is clearly visitble.

Looking down our street after the plough has been through.  Big banks of snow are left at the side of the road.

My car, buried yet again.  I seem to spend my life digging out at the moment.

There is a heavy ridge of snow on our roof, but we are not planning on venturing up there to clear it.  We have seen some of our neighbours on their roof-tops, busy snow clearing, but we have a very steep roof.  We are hoping that the arrival of some milder days during the coming week will do the job for us.  

The Day After

It was Monday before the remainder of the huge bank of snow at the front of our drive was finally cleared.  The task of digging out took at least eight hours in total and that was a combination of manual digging and ploughing.

We have enormous piles of snow at the side of the drive and on the garden.  They have reached such a height that I don't know how we will be able to add any more to them.  The bad news is that another winter storm is forecast for this coming weekend.....

Snow

We awoke to a heavy overnight snowfall.  This is the view from our kitchen window.

There was far more than forecast and it has been a major operation trying to dig ourselves out.  That bump is my car!  You can just make out the mirror and the aerial.

Beneath this mound of snow is a minivan.  The main problem with trying to dig out is that there is nowhere to put all of the snow until the road has been ploughed.

The snow on the drive was almost knee deep.  Just trying to walk was a challenge.

The back garden covered with a heavy blanket of snow.

The view of our street from the verandah of our house.  A neighbour was snow blowing in the distance.

The front garden with the maple tree deep in snow.  

The digging has continued for much of the day.  The hardest bit is digging by hand, but much of the area around the vehicles and the entrances to the house is inaccessible with our little plough.

A Radox bath was much needed after all of this effort.  I'm just hoping that there will not be another significant snowfall any time soon.

The Days Between

A winter storm arrived on Sunday morning.  In less than three hours, there was already a significant accumulation of snow, which continued to fall on Monday.  We set about digging ourselves out.

The snow on our side deck was quite deep.

Although this photo does not give a good perspective, it took about twenty minutes just to clear my car of the accumulated snow.

The house looks lie it did when we first viewed it last winter, although there is a lot more snow in the garden.

The plough had been down our street a couple of times, so the road was fairly clear and we were surprised when they came round to empty the green bins!

I love the beauty of the trees in winter, devoid of leave and dusted with snow.  After an hour of digging, I was ready to head indoors to dry out.  Thankfully, we have a small plough to tackle the larger part of the drive and only have to dig out the entrances and less accessible areas.

There is more snow in the forecast during the next few days, so we may not be finished yet.

Snow

Do you notice a theme here?  All I seem to be able to blog about at the moment is the endless snow.  Last Wednesday, it looked like this (above) and it seemed like a thaw had set in.  It really felt like spring was in the air.

On Sunday morning, we awoke to this.  Is there no end to it?  I don't think that I can dig any more this year.  My back feels like it is about to break.