A Decent Storm

It snowed last night -- I don’t know yet the official amount from Environment Canada report and it’s hard to tell because of the drifting that happened around here -- but it did snow enough to close schools and universities, probably 20 or more cm, so it was pretty good, not a “perfect storm”, but certainly the best one we’ve had this season, a decent storm.

Here’s what the snow looks like on the deck outside our bedroom.

And here’s the little thermometer next to my desk.

It would have been a better storm if it was colder, and the snow had stayed dry and fluffy, but it didn’t, and we have slightly sticky snow, perfect for making snow people but not so great for skiing or coasting (sledding, I mean, for those unfamiliar with the term). However, it is white and beautiful and it weighs down the branches and put a nice white roof on the feeder.

And it’s sticky enough to pile high on the deck rail.

After I had done a fair bit of shovelling, something in one of the snow piles, a flash of pale blue, caught my eye. The mind, of course, is always trying to make meaning out of the world it sees, so my first quick thought was that some blue windshield washer fluid had spilled down there. This time the quick mind was wrong in the explanation it jumped to and I (or my mind) soon recognized that it was just the light inside the snow that was so blue.
It doesn’t show up so well in the image but it is there, one of the beauties that can result from a decent storm.

The forecast is not great for our winter activities, other than shovelling, because we are expecting temperatures above freezing for the next six days, and possibly rain on Saturday, but the snow did brighten our landscape.

As my Cuban friend AZ told me when I asked him how he felt about winter here, I like the way the snow transforms everything. And I have to say, So do I!