Saturday, January 8, 2011

A winter wallop

"Winter wallop hits Alberta" says my news website. In my Edmonton neighbourhood, it's a pretty gentle wallop... the snow is drifting down gently, with just a light breeze to stir it around. If it gets windy, it will be another story entirely.

It's been a while since we've had a good dump like this. The year my eldest was born, we got seventy cm (almost 3 feet) in the month of January, and I was back in my pre-pregnancy jeans in two weeks after all that shovelling. Today's snowstorm reminds me of that January.

I have a bad cold today, but I had to go out and enjoy the snow, snow, snow, snow, SNOW! (Sung in four parts in my head by Danny Kaye, Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney and Vera Ellen in White Christmas.) I wanted to take pictures for my warmer climate friends to enjoy.


It's not often we get so much snow that it's higher than our doorsills.


It's hard to imagine the summer garden...


Only intrepid nuthatches and chickadees have been to the feeders this morning, but they've had to shovel snow to get at the seed!


There was a bit of a drift by the gate, but otherwise it was an even snowfall, a good fifteen to twenty cm everywhere, and it's still coming down.


I'm always amazed at how a snowfall like this makes the world white and shades of grey, though you can see a bit of a brownish tinge on the clematis vine.



The snow in the park is knee deep, and the branches of the Mugo pines are loaded. The kids will have to dig out their forts under the branches.



At this point, I decided to make a good old-fashioned snow angel. I put my camera in my pocket and fell backward into the snow, pouf! It was deeper than I expected, and I had to thrash around (and fill my pockets with snow) to get up again.

A very satisfying snowfall, all in all. The world is quiet and clean, there's not a lot of traffic moving around, and it's good to have a cozy home waiting for me, once I get this all shovelled!


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