The deck at 8 a.m. I had shovelled it an hour or so earlier while still dark because I noticed bird marks in the snow and wanted to gete seeds down. Seriously snowing.
I have a genuine snow shovel. A lot of Victoria residents don't - I didn't for many years - and rely on garden shovels, rakes, brooms, a real estate for- sale sign, cardboard, foot action, ....
Yesterday I saw a man come out of the hardware store carrying a real snow shovel; he was wearing shorts; it was in one of the twenty minutes of sun.
Today even I, the eternal optimist, do not think we are going to be having a period of sun in which anyone would wear shorts. Even the posties. Well, maybe the posties. The one I saw yesterday was wearing shorts - not in a sunny session - but he was sprinting along his route.
I went for the morning walk. Owl was not in her usual perch.
I wondered what animal had made these prints; they started and stopped at a tree; I could not tell which direction they were going.
Only two other people and I passed each other; she told me she was on her way to work; he was on a cell phone and his greeting to me was a nod.
Three people were waiting at the bus stop around the corner.
Schools are closed. The LIBRARIES are closed!!!! I don't want to know if the Wednesday church thrift store is open: I could likely get my car out of the courtyard and down the hill and onto the road which was plowed earlier and onto the main road which looks slushy and navigate the route to the store .... but I walked around the car and looked at all the snow on it and the snow still falling ... BC Transit will likely be my mode of transportation today. The grocery stores will be open ... but the libraries are closed; I do not recall them ever closing due to snow. Selective memory, likely.
The deck got shovelled - again.
I came indoors, kicking the snow from my boots automatically against the door frame and thinking how I had spent forty-four years in Ontario winters from St. Thomas to North Bay with Gravenhurst and Toronto in between. And how these few days of snow were nothing compared to that. And how I had acquired 'snow smarts' across all those years, like getting rid of snow on boots. And how it was going up to eight degrees on Friday. And how the birds were singing. And I had library books to last me several days. And how I had finally prepared myself for these mini-winters with snowmobile boots and a boot-taker-off'er and warm puffy mitts.
Then I noticed my shoulders were up around my ears. And as I relaxed my shudders (I really did type that!) - I mean shoulders - I smiled and sighed.
Oh my, you are getting an Ontario winter in Victoria. Daughter said they have so much snow in Sooke her road is not passable. She told me about the school closures but didn't mention the library. Hang in there, the weather will change soon and all will be melted. Enjoy it while it is there. We actually don't have any snow in my part of Ontario.
Posted by: Crafty Gardener | January 18, 2012 at 11:26 AM