We tend, sensibly, to consider our daily menus from the perspective of the seasons. Lighter fare in hot weather, and during the deeply cold days of winter meals a bit on the more robust end of cuisine. So yesterday's spaghetti and meatballs along with green beans pleased our taste buds and stoked our energy furnace nicely. Into the tomato sauce went thinly sliced leeks, garlic cloves in olive oil, chopped tomatoes and bell peppers and enoki mushrooms. They give some needed heft to the tomato sauce and a little bit of hot pepper flakes provided some extra spice of dietary heat. Brimming with vitamin C.

 

 

Irving tends to be far more judiciously moderate about his food intake than I am. But he overate last night and decided to forego eggs for breakfast this morning. Not as penance, but because after last night's repast he just wasn't very hungry this morning. A morning when he had resolved to clear the snow off the metal canopy of the deck's covering. The product manufacturer cautions that when over six inches of snow accumulates it's best to clear the snow off the canopy to avoid risking a collapse.

There's been so many snowfalls in the past several weeks, we just let the snow pile up. We were busy shovelling it elsewhere, day after day. The accumulation on the canopy by the last of a number of snowstorms was considerable, at least over a foot in depth. Bearing in mind that we'd also had freezing rain events between the snowfalls, adding to the weight of the snow.

 

We both agreed Irving should try to clear the canopy without the use of a ladder, this time. Balance on top of a latter while wielding a clumsy ten-foot long roof rake that can extend twice that length to unburden a surface from layers of snow and ice is tetchy and potentially dangerous work. So, rake extended to about a 20-ft. reach, Irving manipulated the awkward contraption as best he could standing variously on the ground beneath the deck and alternatively on the deck to reach two of the sides of the four-sided canopy.

 

After an hour of work the job was creditably done, and the snow that once crowned the canopy then had to be shovelled off the deck floor and the pathways below the deck, and, thank heavens, what we had both dreaded, was done. Now, more snow can fall and we won't worry about the accumulated depth and the possibility of a collapse.

It's been a relatively mild day, hovering just above freezing but an assertively icy wind made it seem much colder. Walking up the street to reach the ravine entrance the wind whipped a light snowfall directly into our faces. Once we were in the forest interior  the wind at ground level was reduced, and we could hear it roaring above, the tree canopy swaying, tree masts clacking together with the force of the wind.

 

The creek that yesterday had reached the point of freezing over, was now free again. Tomorrow may be another picture altogether. Environment Canada warned of a flash freeze with temperatures plunging to give us a daytime low of -30C, but adjusted for the wind, it would seem more like -40C. Now that is extraordinarily cold even by Ottawa standards. And if that really is what we'll be facing tomorrow, it's doubtful that we'll want to take Jackie and Jillie out in such weather conditions.