This is some little toes peeking out of baby legwarmers snuggled inside my sling. Emma is not a huge fan of the sling, but she does like to sleep in it in the afternoon -- once she falls asleep in my arms. She would prefer for me to just carry her for her two hour nap, but I do have a few other things to do.

We made it through February and the dark is receding. This afternoon the light was warmer and less harsh, which is a first sign of spring around here. The weather has been extra warm, and there are signs of grass, but I'm trying not to take it to heart, since we don't usually melt until mid-April.

Now the goal is to make it through March. March is always hard for me, since everywhere else I've lived it is turning warm and melting, but here we have another month of winter ahead. I think the key is to find a warm hat that Emma is comfortable in (she's not fond of hats -- finniky little thing) so I can take everyone outside.

Our other computer died a few months ago, and Dave is needing quite a bit of computer time these days, so forgive my long absences. I have things to say, and photos to show, but no time for either.

Snow Day

Outside:
The digging out was taking place, so we could stock up on groceries before Dave left.

For reference, Dave is 6'3".

The snow fort building started.

Inside:
I took advantage of this

to do this.

I must say, I haven't done strip piecing since my very first quilt. It is very satisfying.

Oh, Saskatechewan weather, how you mock me.

For three weeks now, it has been warm and there hasn't been any major snow. It has been amazing. Dave is going away to a conference tomorrow, for a whole week, so my friend Kym and her three year old were going to drive up and visit / help for the week. They were planning to drive today.

And so, of course, this happened last night:




Sigh. Its going to be a LONG week. With my luck, one of Andrew's two days of school this week is going to be cancelled tomorrow, too.

Still Snowing . . .

I know, this is starting to sound like a weather blog. But I'm Canadian; not much else happens in our peace loving country. Its either complain about the coalition government still not getting anything done, or complain about the weather. I choose the weather.
And really, when you're getting this kind of snow on Oct. 11, I think you have the right to get excited. We are going into our third day of snow on the ground and scraping windshields around here. The boys are pretty excited, and despite their lack of winter clothes (trying to find some used MEC jackets rather than shell out the money for new ones), are enjoying the new precipitation.

Here they are clearing away the snow. This is the third winter when those red snow shovels have been the toy of choice around here. Best $10 I ever spent, I tell you.

I had to convince them to clear off the walkway, rather than the grass (I suppose since they play mostly on the grass, it would make sense to them to clear it first), but once I did the walkway got cleared pretty fast. I suppose there was almost enough snow to make a snowman, but I didn't feel like hauling my 33 week pregnant body out there and rolling snowballs, so I left them to their own devices. They decided to make:

a snow pile. The pile is about twice this big now. I think they're hoping it will be big enough to make a snow fort soon.

Already?

Yes, that's right. We had our first snow yesterday. This required an early morning foray into the first snow . . .

Until Aaron found out it was cold and went running back in.
Later in the day we went for a walk and a stick hunt. I don't know why the trees seem to be shedding branches as well as leaves this time of year, but there are sticks everywhere:

Since we don't have winter coats and boots that fit yet, we had to make due with lots of layers, which looked ridiculously cute. As you can see, Aaron was checking out the mud puddles, as always.


Unrelated, but this was our other antic yesterday. Our library recently got this set of cool graphic novel versions of old myths, and one of them is Hercules. This is Andrew's hercules costume. Complete with cape, sword, shield and . . . lion's skin. Yes, indeed. A lionskin sweater vest. Who knew. I'm not sure when Hercules started wearing a superhero mask, though.

Guess What We Got Yesterday?

Frost.

Last Thursday, it was 34 degrees. Yesterday, the high was 11. Hello, fall.

Dear God:

Overall, your design concept "summer" is perfect. Watermelon must have been thought of on a particularly brilliant day. But mosquitos? Have you fired the guy that came up with mosquitos yet?

We have had a couple of brilliant days here: hot and sunny. Full of watermelon and waterguns and wading pools. Its been a two-bath-a-day kind of week so far. Perfect. Flawless. After such a long wait, I am loving the heat. Although cooking roast beef yesterday was not one of my brightest plans, it has otherwise been great. Hooray for summer!

TS Eliot was right. April is the cruelest month. Snow on April 16, just after we took out all the sand toys and patio furniture, is just cruel.

I Need to Explore the Weather.

I looked out our window at about 8am yesterday morning to find this fog had suddenly set in. Then I heard the door slam and saw this little man had got himself ready and headed outside.

"I need to explore the weather" he said. I realized he wouldn't remember fog from last year, so it was new to him. So the boys and I walked to the park in the fog, looked at it, and came home.

Andrew was trying to convince Aaron there were ghosts in the fog to scare him. Ah, older brothers.

This is today, March 11:

It is -40 with the windchill. That is frostbite to exposed skin in 10 min.

The one sign of spring is the bird tracks in the snow, although the birds are no where to be seen this morning.

Hope it is warmer wherever you are.

Dear Winter:

We all love you dearly, and we're glad that you visit yearly with a lovely blanket of snow. But overstaying your welcome can be the death of any relationship. Does "First Day of Spring" mean anything to you? How abour "Easter Weekend." Nothing? No?

Okay, maybe I should try a different tactic:

Dear Spring:
I am once again unimpressed with your attendance record. In the four years I have been in this province you have failed to arrive by "The First Day of Spring" even once. If this tardiness continues I will be forced to complain to your supervisor.

This is my car at 9:30 am on March 24.

Pre-Spring

Right now we are in the season I like to call Pre-Spring. Depending on the weather and how fast everything melts, we may have a few days or up to a month of pre-spring. This is the time of year when the snow melts a little bit every day, the concrete and lawns become more visible and the mud starts to appear. But at night, it is cold enough that everything freezes over again, causing all kinds of fun variations on ice and puddles.

When I was little I remember this being one of my favorite seasons. When I was in kindergarten, my friend Colleen and I spent a whole week creating a small lake in her back lane by simply moving all the snow we could find in her neighbourhood into one puddle so that it melted and turned into one big sink hole. At the time it seemed enormous, although now I would guess it was maybe 8 or 10 feet across.

It is fun to introduce the boys to this season. Aaron is just excited to be outside for the first time he can remember. He points out pine cones, trees, rocks, cars, snow, fences, and houses to me. He squirms to get out of my arms and then stands there, dumbfounded by the sheer immensity of his surroundings. He demands that I come down to his level, then points at everything and says "eh" until I give it a name. Then he walks around for a little while, takes his mitts off and pokes at things, and tries to run away.

Andrew is having a lot of fun exploring all the different kinds of ice. We walk down our back lane and he kicks the snowbanks, stomps through patches of mud and smashes thin layers of ice, soaking his boots in the water below. He slips and slides over the thick, slick ice where the gutters usually are in front of our house. He cracks pieces of thin, icy-snow that melted to slush yesterday and then refroze and delights in the crunching sound his boots make. He trekks out the the sandbox and attempts to dig in the frozen sand, and examines the melting water in his plastic house. He is a scientist, examining and cataloging and experimenting with these variations on the theme of ice.

Finally -- Fun in the Snow!

Last week the temperatures finally rose to a livable temperature. At the first opportunity I, and everyone else in town, donned their lightest winter gear and headed outside. Andrew and I had shovelled off part of the deck the day before, so Aaron could finally go out an enjoy the winter. We put on our solar fleeces and snow pants and other cold weather gear and headed out. Andrew had a great time digging pathways through the snow. He made it all the way to the sandbox and dug down to the sand.

Then he continued along the fence, down the slide and over to the little climbing / slide house that I had just dug out for Aaron.

We took Aaron down the laneway and off to see a bulldozer moving snow around, and to watch some people skating. Andrew climbed a "giant" mountain of snow. On the way back to our yard Andrew was running way ahead down the laneway. It was lovely to see him so happy to be out, and finally comfortable enough in his neighbourhood and himself to run to our yard by himself. I let Aaron walk for a little bit, but he was tenative. You could see him thinking, "This is all so big. Those . . . tall things. That . . .big wide thing above us. All the stuff on the ground . . . " I decided I had to fill in a few words for him as we went.

Its hard to remember, sometimes, that Aaron doesn't remember the outside, since for the last few months he's just been rushed from house to car to store or house. He loves going out and just staring at the sheer size of everything. It is all so beautiful and new for him. I love that gift that children give us -- the gift to see the world anew.

I just looked at my thermometer, and it is reading -38. That is not including the windchill. Just thought all you people in British Columbia and places like Texas and the Carolinas might like to laugh at me now. Needless to say, we are not going anywhere. And Dave is installing a block heater. Today. No more car-not-starting silliness.

I have a ridiculous Chapman adventure to post, but not right now, as Aaron just ran out of noodles and is going to start trying to climb out of his highchair any second now.

Seriously, isn't it a little early for this?

In case you're not getting a clear picture, yep, its frost. On Sept. 14. And I've had to start putting hats on the boys if we go on walks before 11 am. Pretty sad, isn't it?

April is the cruelest month . . .

It is snowing today. Also, it snowed Tuesday and Wednesday. Oh, and Saturday. It has been melting in the afternoons, though, and the slow melt is much better for the farmers and does prevent the lowlands from flooding, so I guess its all good. But seriously, can someone tell Mother Nature that it is APRIL now? I guess good old TS Eliot was right.

Signs that Spring is Almost Imanent

-- the temperature was above zero ferenheight

-- the wind was not trying to cut through to my bones, just to my sinews

-- I saw our squirrel running along the back fence

-- it is pre-dawn when we wake up around 7 and light by 8:30

The prarie dog in Medicine Hat saw its shadow, so there is supposed to be winter until mid-March. Which is pretty normal around here. But I would love it if we had spring by April . . . mid- April? . . . Okay, I will settle for any time before May.

Update on the storm

Well, with typical plucky Saskatchewan fervor, pretty much everyone is dug out already. Our neighbours had just happened to bring home their ATV from their cabin a few weeks ago, so they cleared out our driveway for us (including starting and pushing out our car and cleaning around it). I haven't been out to check, but I assume the main streets have been plowed by now, and there are enough ruts on more minor streets to make the roads passable. So, aside from there being a lot of snow everywhere and it being really really cold, the blizzard crisis is over already.

Its so funny because it is so different that B.C. Here everyone is used to snow, but there if there is a blizzard it is a major disaster and hazardous to drive until the snow melts or a week or so has gone past. I remember being out there the year that there was about a foot of snow right after Christmas, and the roads were closed, the airport shut down, schools and businesses were closed, cars were driven off the road all up and down the highway . . . Dave and I couldn't stop laughing. But then we realized that there were no snow plows, no snow tires, no one had snow shovels or proper clothes to wear, and the cities had no idea how to clear the roads, so they were slick and dangerous for a few days. And no one knew how to stop on ice, so people would swerve all over the place and just hit you because they couldn't stop. It was qute crazy.

In Saskatchewan, however, unless there's snow past your armpits, a blizzard is really just an excuse for everyone to play with their 4X4's, ATVs, snowmobiles and snowblowers and justify that new pair of Sorells they bought this fall.

All that to say that we are now good to go again should I go into labour. I just need to get rid of what has now turned into a nasty sinus infection and we will be good to go. Well, or we might be going before I get rid of it, but here's hoping and praying my antibiotics and the snatches of sleep I can manage to grab are enough to kill it in the next few days. I really would not like my new baby to be startled awake all night and day by his/her mother's horrible hacking cough.

The month of November was so cold around here that even being completely stuffed with polyester and covered in fur was not enough to keep warm. We had the most snow on record since 1943, and the average temperature must have been somewhere around - 15 or -20. It was a crazy month. Being from much warmer climes, Foundy the monkey was not thrilled with the weather.

I really don't think its supposed to be winter yet.

I am sad to say that winter is here. It snowed (for the second time, I might add) last Monday. I had this funny idea that since it was the middle of October the snow would melt away in a day or so. HA HA HA. There is less snow, but none the less we have snow and ice. The high this last week here has been +2 C. So I have to rethink Andrew's halloween costume . . . that's what I get for planning something that can't fit over a snowsuit.