An appropriately wintry scene.
Appropriately wintry.
An appropriately wintry scene.
Tag: cold
Jammed.
The St. Clair River is jammed with ice, as this image looking all the way across the river reveals.
Cold?
It is a bitter cold time in our part of the world. The temperature has not risen above -5C for twelve days, which is unusual. Though today was sunny it was especially bitter: -11C with a brisk wind blowing.
I visited our local organic farm to pick up a friends’ biweekly winter vegetable box. It was not too cold to prevent these shaggy cattle from interrupting their play to investigate my arrival.
Acceptance
Winter, true winter, the real thing, puts in a brief appearance this weekend. Tomorrow will be breezy, accentuating the chill of the predicted high of somewhere between -10C and -13C. I do not exactly want or welcome such chill. Yet I accept the reality that it’s winter, it gets cold, and I cannot change those facts. Cold snaps like this help me appreciate our snug little home all the more.
Cold
As is much of eastern Canada and the US, it’s very cold here. The porch thermometer reads -20C. Going outside for more than a few minutes means the cold bites fingers, toes, nose, ears. The dogs, even outdoorsman Achilles, spend very little time out. The furnace is doing yeoman work keeping the living room not-cold. I once thought of traveling to Churchill or Yellowknife during a winter, to experience true cold. That’s no longer necessary.
Yet we are blessed. We do have a working furnace, food in the cupboard, our pipes are not frozen, we have reliable electricity. I do appreciate all of these blessings and the many more we have.
Bite
I stopped at a favourite spot to take a few photos, snapping away until the bitter cold bit my fingertips. I could return to my warm car. What I saw and what you see sleeps outdoors, awaiting spring.
Art, underfoot
Snow, collecting on the deck boards.
It’s bitterly cold. About minus 13 Celsius, wind chill minus 25. Winter brings different rhythms, different harmonies, different melodies to the ear and eye. Difficult though it may be, and is, to appreciate the music, it’s important to be open, to accept, the different tune.
Ice and water
Ipperwash Beach, Lake Huron. No swimming on this day.
Turning
Another sign that the season is turning, the first significant snow. It’s beautiful to see, though the cold – minus 14 wind chill – is unseasonable and biting. It’s good to experience such cold. Makes me feel more alive and much more grateful to have a snug home.
Cold
Bitter, unrelenting, dangerous, life-threatening. Without the unseasonably warm spell earlier this month, January 2014 would be one for the record books. It probably already is for snowfall – as of Sunday I had recorded 51cm, more than double the 1971-2000 average of 23 cm.
We walked the dogs this morning, down to the end of the street, over to the next one, and back home. It was damned cold, wind chill of -30C, my cheeks were cold, my fingers were complaining. The dogs tripod-ed at least once.
We reconsidered the wisdom of snowshoeing today.
It’s a remarkable spell, one I experienced only once before, my first winter in Canada in Goderich. This is awful. But I’m inside now, on a comfortable couch, heater going. I’m very very fortunate. Very poor people, folks living in a badly insulated house, are much worse off. And the wildlife, they are hard put. I’m going through more than a pound of sunflower seed a day keeping the songbirds fed. We have kitty kibble out for one (or more) stray cats. We are not bringing them in but can provide food and we have provided shelter. It’s the right thing to do.
I’m fortunate, not complaining about the cold. The Maker does not give a damn whether I like it or not, whether I complain or not. It’s more to the point to me, for me, to accept the cold, not fight it, not wish I was elsewhere, to appreciate it as a kind of blessing and years from now an event to look back on, to talk about. This kind of cold does not happen often in the banana belt. Twenty years from now Faye and I will look at one another and ask ‘Remember January 2014?’
It is an awesome experience, using the word awesome in the sense of inspiring feelings of wonder, awe, and fear, according to Merriam-Webster Online. Wonder that such amazing cold seems to alter the very nature of life and light. Awe that animals are surviving outside. Fear that a seemingly small error or accident – dead car battery, twisted ankle while snowshoeing, skidding into a ditch – can very quickly put my life, Fayes’, the dogs – at risk.
It’s good to be periodically reminded that we are not All-Powerful.
previouslytexan 