baby, it's cold outside

Looking down the lane:

Looking up the lane:

On the porch:

A couple of weeks ago, we had this lovely snow fall, so wet and heavy that lots of trees and branches came down under the weight. The old lilac by the lane in front of the house was severely damaged, one of the largest trunks snapping right off about 1 m from the ground, as the snow bent it just too far.

Before all the snow had a chance to melt, another storm last weekend had everything covered in very thick freezing rain and snow.

I drove home in the blizzard on Sunday night; the trip which usually takes me about 1 hr 15 min took about 2 hours. Somehow, I floated over the drifts of snow in my laneway, drifts consisting of deep soft (ie, soapy-slippery) snow, covered with a 2 -inch thick crust of frozen snow & ice. When I landed, I had arrived miraculously right at my back door, but the car sank in a drift, to be budged no more that night!

The next day, after a lovely long lie-in, I woke to hear the growl of a tractor. My landlords have hired a fellow to clear the laneway, and his tractor alarmed my dog. ("She's a female, isn't she?" he winked. "I never alarm the females!") He kindly helped me push my car out of its icy little rut, but in the process I nearly took off my driver's side door! Yup, too lazy to scrape all the ice off the rear window, I was backing up with my door open so I could look back through the open door. The fellow yelled just in time & I yanked on my door just before it was torn off by the tractor's rear wheel.

Well, all that trauma and hard work tired me right out, so naturally I went back inside to ... lie down!