Two days ago it snowed enough just as it was getting dark for me to go outside and make a teeny wet snowball. By morning it had melted. A decent Victoria winter, I thought.
Today it SNOWED. It is still windy and wild and the snow is blowing around so much it looks like it is coming from the sky. Sigh.
Here is the deck before the first of – oh, four or maybe six shovellings – to put out seeds for the birds.
By noon hour it was serious winter and the car was certainly not going out on those roads – I used to drive Ontario storms but twenty years here on the west coast has me increasingly reluctant to repeat the experience. This is what it looked like from the bus stop. The bus came after about ten minutes and there were other people also waiting so it was still an adventure with the thought of warm bus, warm restaurant, warm library, warm grocery store, warm post office waiting. The usual.
This is where it got unpleasant and rather silly; waiting at the next bus stop to transfer to the bus that would take me to warm restaurant, warm etc.
I was still in that optimistic "it has got to come soon ….. " phase when I noted the apple cores stuck in the wall by the bus stop. The bus did not come. Several buses of the same number, seemingly one right after each other, passed going the opposite way. Finally cold feet and cold hands and common sense had me trotting back a block to a convenience store where they called me a cab (finally finding a company still answering their phones) and the wait was expected to be ten minutes to an hour. At least I was out of the cold and wind.
Ten or so minutes later I saw the bus coming so I shouted my thanks to the kind people and asked them to cancel the cab and took off running the block or so to the bus stop. I got on the bus and could not find my transfer. The driver smiled and nodded me back.
This is what it looked like when I got off the bus five minutes later, completing a trip that normally takes six or seven minutes in the car, but it was now forty or so minutes since I had left home.
Usually the street is full of people; usually there are displays of fruit and vegetables and buckets of flowers; usually …… well, you get the idea.
The restaurant was open with four people in it. The library was open but closing at three. The seniors centre was open but there were no cars in the parking lot; several people were in the cafe and as soon as I walked in a woman came up and asked me if I wanted a coffee; I told her I wanted the washroom.
And I wanted to get home so the first bus I saw – going the opposite direction but which I knew would eventually be going my way – I got on.
A bit of mis-information had me going right down town but I could wait for the transfer bus in a book store. Downtown it was rather festive: everything seemed open and there was a young person juggling on the street and lots of people about.
The transfer bus was double decker. Yippee. Here is what it looks like upstairs. Those roads are not plowed – I don't think we have snow plows – but packed by traffic and people and lavishly salted.
This is the bus shelter where I started the adventure; I could not resist taking a photo of the cyclist, one of many I saw.
Almost home. That's a wooden toboggan – have not seen one of those in years.
The pile of boots and coat and scarves and hat and gloves and mitts looked impressive but – it did not keep me warm. Minus three with a windchill factor of, oh, forty seven below (I'm guessing) is a challenge, I admit. But since it does occur here, even rarely, I want to be more prepared. The photo is blurry – I think my eyeballs were frosty when I took it.
It is still blowing and howling as I write so as soon as tomorrow might mean being prepared would be a good idea for venturing out again.
Do light, warm, waterproof, skidproof boots exist?
I think I can come up with proper mitts and hat etc. but I don't recall ever being satisfied with boots, not even back in Ontario. ????
The deck got shoveled again and I found that the humming bird feeder was frozen so I brought it in to thaw and then anguished over the hummer showing up and looking for its food. No time to thaw: nectar got replaced.
And this is the wind blowing the burlap high and also blowing the birds about as they came to the feeders. Snow piled from the shoveling.
Hummer came and spent a long time feeding.
It has been quite the day.