We've just come out of one of the coldest weeks in a long time.
Winter in Minnesota is not for the faint of heart - it lasts
longer than it should and sometimes gets so cold one
wonders if one will ever again feel one's fingers and toes.
Still, the folks here don't complain - and for good reason:
there are real winter sports to be had and all the summer bugs
are well and truly wiped out. I personally haven't lived here
long enough to dislike the winter - when one has lived more
than 3 decades on a tropical island whose only two seasons
are Humid and Humider, change is wonderful.
Then there is the snow, of course, which (when freshly fallen,
at any rate) transforms the outside world into scenes so
gorgeous they literally take one's breath away. And what snow!
I hadn't realized before living here how many different
consistencies it has, the conditions under which snowmen,
snowballs and snowforts can be successfully constructed,
when it is especially hard and compacted and unpleasant
to shovel and how (if we are unlucky) it can turn the entire
street into a skating rink. It sparkles in the sun and makes
the nights bright, quiet and still.
Here are some pictures Dave took over
the winters we've lived here.
The three evergreens in our front yard - we lost the
leftmost one in a summer storm in 2007-
when the sun is out
and in the middle of a snowstorm.
The view up our street before the snowplough
has been to clear the road.
Yes, I quite like the winter. Last week the temperatures fell
to 30 below (-34 C) with windchill. But this week,
while still below freezing point, it's positively balmy!
Winter in Minnesota is not for the faint of heart - it lasts
longer than it should and sometimes gets so cold one
wonders if one will ever again feel one's fingers and toes.
Still, the folks here don't complain - and for good reason:
there are real winter sports to be had and all the summer bugs
are well and truly wiped out. I personally haven't lived here
long enough to dislike the winter - when one has lived more
than 3 decades on a tropical island whose only two seasons
are Humid and Humider, change is wonderful.
Then there is the snow, of course, which (when freshly fallen,
at any rate) transforms the outside world into scenes so
gorgeous they literally take one's breath away. And what snow!
I hadn't realized before living here how many different
consistencies it has, the conditions under which snowmen,
snowballs and snowforts can be successfully constructed,
when it is especially hard and compacted and unpleasant
to shovel and how (if we are unlucky) it can turn the entire
street into a skating rink. It sparkles in the sun and makes
the nights bright, quiet and still.
Here are some pictures Dave took over
the winters we've lived here.
The three evergreens in our front yard - we lost theleftmost one in a summer storm in 2007-
when the sun is out
and in the middle of a snowstorm.
The view up our street before the snowploughhas been to clear the road.
Yes, I quite like the winter. Last week the temperatures fell
to 30 below (-34 C) with windchill. But this week,
while still below freezing point, it's positively balmy!
6 comments:
OMG!! You live inside a postcard??!! Beautiful, L.
Not really postcard. But D takes some nice pics.
he sure does! i love the pics! how do u guys drive out before the snow plow comes? impoosible to see where the road starts & kerb ends! A
Snow's great when it's pretty. :) But here's what I remember about Buffalo winters: Digging my car out of snow everyday, frost in the keyhole of the car door, de-icing the windscreen and windows, mushy brown-black dirty snow when it starts to melt, state of emergency when the snow's too crazy, and bits of yourself (wet hair, muscus in the nose, etc) turning icy when you walk outside, slipping and sliding. Hmmm... Maybe that's why I moved to San Fran! Kekeke!
The photos are v nice! I love reading your blog - nice pics and fun stories about the kiddos.
I hear you, Eileen. The people freezing to death here and falling through the ice alone is enough to make a person pack up and migrate. Those Canadian geese have sure got it right. And it is a bit of a circus leaving the house with three small people, one of whom is in a carseat (most unergonomic thing ever invented). Still, I have to think on the positive otherwise, given that winter is 6 months of the year, I'd be on Zoloft half my life! Ick.
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