Finally .... Winter!

"Snow Angel" by Maja Lindberg

Well, we finally have Winter! The snow has fallen, not a lot but at least the ground is now covered in white. And the cold has arrived. Not just colder than we've had after a very balmy Fall, but a bitter Polar experience. Tonight, it's going down to - 40's Celsius, which with the windchild, will be in the - 50's. I know many of my readers are in the U.S. so to give you some clarity of just how cold it is, that equates to around - 58 Farenheit. We closed our preschool today because the school busses for big kids were cancelled, though schools were open. Our dgs stayed home and we made some lovely chocolate chip cookies and he got to play games. Our week has been quiet with the cold but on Wednesday, we ventured in to town to pickup a week's worth of groceries before the true cold set in. I'm so glad we did this as the roads were very icy the last few days but thankfully, we were cozy and warm at home. It will start to warm up on Monday, with a high of - 10 Celsius on Tuesday. I can't wait for the warmth to return so we can get out of the cottage for a bit and fill our cupboards and fridge again. 

With the cold, we needed something to look forward to. We invited our dear neighbors over for dinner on Sunday and I'm so excited! Menu is planned, baking started today, tomorrow is more prep, a tidy of the cottage (okay, so it will be a power clean) and then I'll set the table with pretty dishes, sparkly glassware and shiny silver. We've left out tree up and we'll have a gift for each of them, as well as a couple of late birthday gifts for their little ones (late due to my November surgery). Looking forward to Sunday.

There is a lot of work that goes in to keeping the cottage warm and safe when the weather is this bad. We have to make sure the heat is just right so pipes don't freeze. We put a furnace in the garage and so that goes up a bit so the car, the motorcycle, the extra fridge and the freezer, as well as all of dh's tools are okay as well. It's watching the outside vents to make sure they don't get crusted over with ice. And during all this, trying to ensure we don't put too much stress on the community power grid with too many lights on. We've only had to shovel once because we've only had one snowfall so far. But that is often on the list too. Thankful we don't have to go out to shovel constantly, as currently with the bitter cold, skin will freeze in 2 minutes and shovelling takes way longer than that! 

I hope wherever you are, the air is warm and

the snow has stayed away or is very light!

~ Chy