poplar road

The first part of this morning's venture out in the snow was in the Mog. Richard is practicing manouevering with the plow (as opposed to the blower, in the last picture) and hopes during this weather that many of the road maintenance companies will be interested in a demonstration. Today I got to see what he's been up to, as we drove down our country road clearing a path through the drifts. If the windshield had been a little clearer and the day a little brighter, I would have taken endless photos – the evergreen forest on the hill to our left, meadows blanketed with white on our right, and then the corridors of snow-covered trees arching over on either side.

When we got back from our drive, Richard cleared three neighbours' driveways, and I made a quick visit to the goats and sheep the easy way round from the street because that wind is cold. It's the first day we've felt a real chill outdoors. I took this shot of the front of the house and then headed around back, hoping the wind would be less brisk. Hah.

Here is Daisy, the 4H sheep, and a few of the goats remaining after Jonathan sold several yesterday morning. One of them saw me pull my camera from my pocket and assumed I was bringing more apples. She put her hooves right up on the fence to look me in the eye. She's probably the one who impatiently nipped my leg yesterday when I didn't produce more apples fast enough. Note, this is how the inhabitants of Poplar Road recycle our Christmas trees….

I re-made all my trails through the back yard, Richard following (and threatening to dump me in the snow if I didn't do them all!), and he managed to loosen our back gate enough for us to get through. That is, if the wind and further snowfall doesn't bury it before I get home. The drifts are well above Richard's knees, and this loose powder doesn't pack. I attempted a snowman yesterday, but this stuff won't even make snowballs the size of walnuts. It sure sticks to the trees though – these pictures are after the wind has taken half the snow off.

By the time I got to the back corner of the yard to take this photo, I was regretting not buying a pair of waterproof pants. There's a little series of humps in this corner – irregular piles of clippings, manure from the barn, all grown over with grassy thickets, now two feet deep in drifts – where I managed to carve a trail to the highest spot. Perfect for photo ops… and a sled, if I had one. Just seeing this cottage in the neighbour's yard makes me feel like a child in a fairytale.

One last photo taken this afternoon. More than half of what's left on the railing fell in the past three days. Tonight there's more and it's thicker on top, curling inward, and the deck which Richard swept yesterday morning is a foot deep again. And it's still coming down lightly.

I'm a little nervous about taking the bus to Vancouver tomorrow with the weather still treacherous (and yes, I did see the news report of the bus rolling over near Chilliwack), but glad I'm not driving in it myself. I'm very proud of my little sister, learning to drive in this weather in Vancouver! One of these days Richard is going to introduce me to winter driving, but for now, he's in the Mog and I'm on a bus.

Wonder what transformations winter will have made by the time I get back?