Saturday, February 2, 2008

winter wonderland

ahhh...snow day...



After a spell of rather tropical weather (for Canada that is) we were hit with a snow storm today. I have a bit of an addiction to The Weather Network so after consulting the website on Thursday afternoon and reading the weather warnings, I decided to plan accordingly. When I announced to my boss and assistant that I would take some work home just in case I could not make the commute in due to the storm they both looked at me as if I had three heads. At that moment it was a spring-like afternoon in Toronto. Sunny, warm, gorgeous. All of the snow from our previous storm had long since melted away. Obviously, they hadn't heard the latest forecast. I was relieved to wake up to a fresh blanket of snow. Now they would know I wasn't just gunning for a free day off. I checked the forecast and traffic report and it didn't look good. I decided not to attempt the commute, even though the GO trains appeared to be operating on schedule. I was confident that I could get to work in good time but afraid of a 5-hour trip home. When I received the email shortly after 9:30am stating that the university would close at 11am, I was very happy to have not made the trek into Toronto. And since we were closing, I felt no need to dig into the knapsack full of work that I had brought home. So what did I do? First, I finished the birthday blanket that I had been knitting for my mother-in-law. And I think it turned out pretty well.


This is the Glowing Colours Afghan made from Lion Brand Jiffy yarn. I only recently began attempting patterns that call for sewing pieces together. My sewing skills are rather limited. But I picked up a fantastic book that has given me the confidence to attempt some knitting patterns that have scared the hell out of me in the past. Check it out! I sewed three separate pieces together and you can't even see the seams!


After that was done, Steve and I ventured outside to clear the snow from the driveway. Thankfully, one of our kind neighbours had plowed the sidewalk with his snowblower, giving us a clear path to start from. It didn't take us long to dig out, but I did think back to our December storm when Samantha and Corey were visiting from Regina. That storm had delayed their trip home by more than a day. We were happy to have our guests stay for an extra day, as we don't see them very often. And as it turns out, Samantha is a fantastic snow-shoveler. Corey and I had no problem staying inside the warm house while Steve and Samantha braved the cold to clear out the driveway.


Sam, you rock! You can come back anytime. You can even bring Corey with you!

It's now late Friday night and the snow is still falling albeit slowly. There is a fresh blanket on the ground that will need clearing in the morning but that's fine by me. Winter is one of the things I love about Canada. There is something magical about this season that I can't quite put into words. But I love it!

5 comments:

Mary Lynn said...

That blanket's gorgeous! You rock!

Anonymous said...

Ah, a snowday. One can only dream. Here in Saskatchewan we simply do not have snow days. Tonnes of snow, but not the really wet heavy kind, so nothing gets cancelled. Mind you we also don't have the insane commute that you guys do either. We just have to deal with the -50C temps that have been sticking around for 2 weeks now. Its really wearing us out. Would love to shovel snow again in snowy Burlington in exchange for some warmer weather.

vivian said...

Thanks Mary Lynn! It was fun to knit.

Samantha, you can come over anytime you are sick of the cold. Honestly, the extreme cold and the giant snowbanks are one of the things I miss about the praries. All of our snow will be gone later this week. Apparently it's going up to 10C on Tuesday! I would love it to be winter for more than 5 days!

Pel said...

'And since we were closing, I felt no need to dig into the knapsack full of work that I had brought home.'

Hurruah! One of the many perks of snow days.

We got about half an hour of snow/sleet. It didn't settle, Hull's just damp now.

That blanket is simply awesome.

vivian said...

Aww, thanks Pel! I'm pretty proud of that blanket. My mother-in-law rocks and is very deserving of an awesome blanket.

I'm hoping for another snow day tomorrow. We have a storm warning tonight and a freezing rain warning for the morning. Might make my 50km commute far too difficult. *fingers crossed*