Drips falling off the roof, where the afternoon sun melted the morning snow.
So much for the 10cm of late snowfall we received this morning. It’s almost all gone now, thanks to the glorious strength of the spring sun.
Ah, the joys of playing with fast shutter speeds (1/3000 of a second)!
Snow is softly fallin'. (Focal length 70mm, Shutter: 1/180, Aperture: f6.7)
Or it was, yesterday.
Today it’s blowing a mad gale outside. Winds are gusting up to 110km/h and the snow is that stick-to-the-greenhouse-and-scour-your-skin kind, which is more like ice pellets than any fairytale snow. Since I feel no need for an Arctic exfoliant, we’re tucked away indoors this morning. Time to work on projects, have a second (and third) cup of coffee, read a few blogs and wait for that miraculous moment when the snow turns to rain and we are released once again into the world to wreak havoc and create mayhem.
Or visit a book store, whichever comes first.
For non-Newfoundlanders, the quote, “Snow is softly fallin’,” is a reference to a folks song that is quite well-known in these parts, written by Dermot O’Reilly and performed by many folks over the years.
This is still my favourite version, by Ryan’s Fancy (of which Dermot O’Reilly was a member, along with Denis Ryan and Fergus O’Byrne):
And to liven up your morning a smidge, I also give you Ryan’s Fancy’s version of the Rocky Road to Dublin (Enjoy!):
Okay, quit it with the snow. I mean it.
I don’t know or care who’s responsible (pick a deity, weatherman, or neighbours who buy large expensive snow-toys thus invoking some bizarre karma and you know who you are), but we’ve got plenty now you can go bother people in British Columbia thank you very much.
Seriously. Go west. Coat the prairies. They need it.
Yesterday was a snow day (as you can see above). John didn’t go to the office and quite wisely didn’t even try. The RCMP were advising people to stay off the roads and certain sections of the TCH were listed as blocked, impassable and closed. We got some obscene amount of the white stuff (reports vary from 25cm to 40cm) and the roads were non-existent. The overnight situation was sufficiently dangerous for all snowclearing machines and personnel to be pulled off the roads. Buses and taxis weren’t operating either. The scene out here in Torbay became utterly rural as a veritable hive of snowmobiles buzzed here, there and everywhere rejoicing in the lack of ploughing.
In fact, Torbay does a better-than-average job on the plough front and we’re really quite impressed. That they weren’t able to keep up with the snowfall and drifting says volumes about… well… the volume.
So we snuggled up at home and drank coffee while Katherine ricocheted off the walls. Then we suited up and shovelled the driveway. It took us about two hours working together, but we had to do it in two shifts as the wind was blinding. We are quite lucky, in many ways, as the far end of our driveway falls off in a steep slope, thus giving us a place to simply push snow. No lifting required. The photo below is taken from the bottom end of our driveway, looking towards the back yard. We shove snow off to the right.
Something to think about when you buy a house is where are you going to put the snow…….?? Unlike my poor father, who was faced with this:
Nice, eh?
So we cleared a path for the car. The drifts were high, but not insane, as we weren’t obliged to throw snow on top of them:
When afternoon came, it brought gloriously sunny weather, I’d had enough of being shut in and there was no food. We mosied about for a while, bought milk and tormented those with snowbanks by photographing their endeavours.
Some of the ramps on and off the Ring Road (major highway) weren’t cleared at 4:30pm, but we got there eventually. Plough drivers can work amazingly preciely and efficiently. The winds were still moderate and snow was still drifting. It was rather pretty:
General consensus seem to be, though, that this should about round out our quota for the season. In fact, leave this much on the ground and occasionally dust it with 2cm for cleanliness and ski-ability and we’re good for the rest of the winter.
After all was said and done, though, it didn’t turn out too badly. And we had a glorious end to the day, as you can see by this picture of the sunset, reflecting off the eastern sky (this picture looks out towards Middle Cove to the east) and casting a warm glow over a rather chilly world.
But it’s back to life as usual today. Luckily we’re due for a string of nice days this week!
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