Our 30 cm snowfall

Here is our 30 cm snowfall as seen this morning, several days after it fell. Soon the city workers will be out there plouging and trucking away the snow; it's been worse than this, one year we had so much snow that it was difficult for the city to find a place to dump the snow. It's also getting colder over the next few days, perhaps -20 C cold. Still, there is only seven weeks of winter left, the end is in sight, and it hasn't been all that bad a winter so far.

"The Snow Man" by Wallace Stevens

 

One must have a mind of winter

To regard the frost and the boughs

Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;

And have been cold a long time

To behold the junipers shagged with ice,

The spruces rough in the distant glitter

Of the January sun; and not to think

Of any misery in the sound of the wind,

In the sound of a few leaves,

Which is the sound of the land

Full of the same wind

That is blowing in the same bare place

For the listener, who listens in the snow,

And, nothing himself, beholds

Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.

The garden under snow

Yesterday's snow will probably melt, it's 0 C., moving between +1 and -1; just think, ten days ago it was +20 C. No wonder we're obsessed with the weather; before bed we listen to the weather report, then we'll know what kind of day tomorrow will be; upon waking we listen to the weather report, has it changed since last night? Where I live, so much of daily life depends on the weather.

You ask if I like snow and winter? No, I don't. But we are stoics here in Canada, we live with it, we say "You get what you get."

Here is the garden under snow.

Last snowfall of winter 2020

It is not unusual to have snow in April, as we did this year on April 21. It is even possible to have snow in May which is why garden planting day is May 24, Victoria Day, the last day for frost.

Snowy March Day at Vincelli's Garden Centre

I took these photos of Vincelli's Garden Centre from Westminster Avenue on 23 March 2020 around 4 p.m..

First there was snow and then, in mid-December, there was no snow

First it was green and lovely and we were all happy, and then there was snow and we weren't as happy, but then there was no snow and it was green and we were happy until there was snow again and we weren't as happy as before and then, today, there is no snow and some of us are happy and don't miss the snow and we're hoping for a green Christmas... well, in fact, we're hoping for either a green winter which won't happen or an early spring, like in January...

December 14 (today)

December 14

December 12



December 12

                                                                                December 10

December 10

December 6

                                   

December 6


And back to snow on December 18th followed by -22 C cold, wind chill feels like -33 C.

Farewell Fall of 2019, today is the Winter Solstice, December 21, and winter it will be...

Mid-November, Snow

This year the snow came early, 20 cm. of snow on Remembrance Day and it's unlikely to melt until next spring... five months of cold weather is not something we look forward to...

November 9

November 9

November 11

November 11

November 12

November 12