The view this morning from my deck — a surprise snowfall during the night. I was so hopeful when I opened my eyes at 5, saw the thick dusting of white on the fir branches just outside the window. But no, not a snow day. Business as usual, except that my commute just got tougher. . .
Amazing how much light the snow throws, though — the photo above is deceptive, looking almost day-bright yet taken with no flash, available light only, in the just-breaking dawn. The one below gets a bit closer to reality
In the backyard as well, the bright snow fooled the camera so this looks like daytime. . . fuzzy daytime, admittedly, the slow shutter speed and all . . .
And if we needed any evidence of the raccoons’ making themselves at home here . . . .
Speaking of making tracks, that’s what I’d better do soon. It’s going to take me considerably longer to walk to the ferry through the snow than it usually does to bike there on a clear road. . .
But at least I got a good long run (27 kilometres) on Saturday, so that I’m okay to wait out this weekend’s slippery conditions (I generally follow up an extra-long run with a slide back in mileage for recovery). . .
So that’s good.
And with the sunshine amplifying the snow’s brightness, spirits should be high once the grumbling about complicated commutes stops.
Mine’s going to stop soon. Promise.
The first photo is just so beautiful.
Looks so pretty….it is sunny down here so it might have melted by now.
It was running rivers by noon, but there's still some on the ground, and now it's freezing up fast, of course. . . .it was very pretty though.
Hey…grumble away. You wouldn't be Canadian without a snow-day grumble. And your snow looks like the almost melted, slushy, boot-ruining kind. Double grumble!
I did indulge in some grumbling — and thanks for humouring it rather than doing that sneering thing Easterners so often do at us West Coasters. . . 😉
A friend in Minnesota just wrote me that she thought they were "turning the corner on winter". Talk about optimism! It is fully, frozenly winter in Montréal and there is nothing for it but to drink real hot chocolate. Worse luck!
I know! Wouldn't you think that staying warm would at least burn off the hot chocolate calories? And yet it never seems to!
Thank you for these beautiful photos. Today it's cold here, but SUNNY! (And not even that cold, in the scheme of things). The light is changing angles and I feel ever so slightly hopeful that one day the world will warm up. But I agree, that layer of snow makes a messy commute that much more miserable. Especially on the way home!
Another Easterner being so generous and patient with my complaints. Turns out that the walk home was lovely, if cold — things had frozen up again so they weren't soggy, but there was enough unmarked snow to make walking safe enough — and I remembered all those good sounds of walking in/on snow. And the dark night, the stars, the bright snow. . .
Very beautiful pictures!! Of course it is the most beautiful place in the world 🙂
It's pretty great, isn't it?!
I don't envy your commute but the pictures are beautiful!
😉
Oh, those are such lovely photos! We've had such warm weather that it has turned what snow we have left all gross and grey.
I know you define warm differently than I do! But we both agree that slushy grey snow is no fun — I'm hoping ours will get melted by the sun tomorrow, but we're dropping below freezing at night, so we'll see. . .
What beautiful photos. If only the realities of snow were as lovely. Over the weekend, we encountered snow roughly knee high in Minneapolis. It was a relief to return to our light coating, but it sounds like we have more on the way.
We've escaped any serious snowfalls this winter so far. I hope you're not in for too much more.
Fresh snow is magical. Old snow is not. Love the photos of your little island. No snow down here.
A friend drove down to Duncan today — she said there was no snow at all by the time she got to Ladysmith, so the fall must have been quite localized.
This comment has been removed by the author.
Great to hear that your running is going so well. It sounds like you are planning a marathon this year? (I may have missed posts about your running plans for 2014) I'll be turning 60 in a few months and looking forward to being in the next age group. Strength training is critical as I found out the hard way. Ended up with a tibial stress fracture after Victoria marathon. Just starting back up again now. Sounds like your training is balanced and sensible.
The idea of a stress fracture is horrifying. I'm already 60, doing a first-ever marathon in Vancouver in May, I hope. I'd registered last year but pulled back a couple of months before for fear of injury. I've changed from 4 days weekly running to 3, with a longer LSD than many might do. And I'm trying to be quite strict about keeping up the cross-training — yoga once a week, Pilates once a week — so that I get the strength and the flexibility. Next up is to focus more on the speedwork and the hills on the shorter running days. And I probably want to pay more attention to fuelling. But so far, so good, she says, 15 kilometres short and a few months away . . . 😉 Hope your return to the road goes well!
So lovely! And you are lucky it is temporary out there!
Lucky indeed — I know it!