Bone-chilling cold and a sun free to roam the wide ocean of blue sky was yesterday. Today the sun is in retirement, taking a break from its hard work. And it is hard work burning all that solar hydrogen apologetically attempting to warm the winter atmosphere. We don't give that golden orb enough credit in the winter; it deserves a day off, and today was one of those days.

At long last we were treated to a serious snowstorm. At 6:30 am this morning, the snowfall didn't look all that impressive. We judged it must have begun sometime around 4:00 am. But from 6:30 until 8:30 an awful lot of twinkling white fluff had fallen; suddenly, it seemed, there was a comforter in place of a thin blanket. And Jackie and Jillie, confronted with that much snow, weren't certain they liked it at all.

They seemed nonplussed; snow up to their little bellies? Wot iz thiss? So Irving went out before breakfast and shovelled their pathways in the backyard and suddenly everything returned to normal for them and they now relished the new snow, romping happily in it. It didn't take long after they returned to the warm indoors for the wind to continue blasting snow in thick showers that took no time filling in the pathways that had just been freed. That's when the puppies took shelter under the deck. On the plus side, -7C of today isn't -17C of yesterday.

Before we even thought of doing any shovelling our neighbour Dan beat us to it. When he was shovelling out his porch and walkway he sauntered over to ours and did ours as well. No matter, the snow was coming down hard and there would be ample opportunity to shovel, again and again. On the news people were asked to stay at home, all the highways were blocked and municipal crews would only be able to do major roadways, planning on  plowing out neighbourhood streets some time tomorrow.

The snow removal company we contract with had their equipment out early and cleared our driveway four times up to four o'clock. The wind came up and blew snow about in whiteouts. Children would be blissed-out. Irving took that extendable long-handled shovel meant for roofs and cleared a foot of snow off the deck canopy. He'd been out several times shovelling, did the vacuuming while I cleaned the house and washed the floors, and did some work on his stained glass.

 

I was out there with him, shovelling the mountains of snow that tumbled off the canopy onto the deck and the deck stairs, and it felt really lovely. Finally, he fired up the snow thrower and cleared out all the backyard pathways again that had grown considerably in volume from the morning, and did the same with the pathway at the side of the house and the front of the house. He came in looking like a snowman, effusive in praise of the snowthrower that had chugged to life with the first try.

The ravine would look ethereally beautiful, completely wrapped in glistening new snow, but we'll have to wait for tomorrow. The plush thickness of the snow will leave us with a considerable pack that we've missed so far this year, quite unusually. But when it comes to breaking trail with a foot or more of snow down, it takes more energy than 85-year-olds can muster for a prolonged period. There will have been people out on skies making the most of the new snow, tracking through the forest trails. We'll see it all tomorrow.

And it's still snowing...