Snow, I just LOVE it..

Nothing new to report apart from it's been snowing here and about 7 cms was said to have fallen. I just love the white stuff. I love it because I get to walk in it, play in it and not drive in it! LOL. Snow is wonderful until you have to get somewhere and the roads are all snowy, slushy and you haven't got snow tires.

Yucky slush

We've had about 3-4 snowfalls since the fall and it's not snowed that much really. Today was the most at 7 cms. The snow has stayed though as temperatures are not rising above 0C. The kids love the snow too, Mitch terrorising Jasmine with humongous snowballs every time we we have to walk somewhere.

The trail I made walking back from yoga to the condo

My walk to yoga has been difficult, my snow boots completely submerged in the snow, so I guess there's about 5-7 inches of snow on the ground, and I sink right in, my weight and gravity making me sink deep in the snow...I guess I am using more calories walking in boot depth snow, it is hard work!  Must check out snow shoes, see if it's worth me getting some especially for the walks to school, but I hope the pavements will be ploughed by Wednesday.

where have my feet gone

There are different sizes of snow ploughs here, there are small ones that are pavement width, they are cute, like a mini toy bulldozer, their wheels make track marks in the snow on the pavements when they've been. Then there are SUV type ploughs, that plough the plaza parking lots and residential drives, they are like small trucks with a plough attached to the front of the truck, some spread salt too, and it's green salt here, large crystals bigger than marble size, they look quite attractive, and best of all, they do the job, snow melts. The slush is pretty horrible on the roads, dirty looking and just yucky, some got splashed onto my coat as I waited by Highway 7 to cross the other side on my way back from yoga, horrid car, splashing me with dirty slush, how very dare you. The last kind of plough I have seen are huge things that clear the highway roads, they have flashing lights, spread salt and are the bees knees.  Once the ploughs have been though, there are banks of snow everywhere, and this is where Mitch gets his huge snowballs from.

Highway 7, between Bayview and Leslie

Despite all these ploughs,  they get overwhelmed sometimes and so the roads remain treacherous for a few hours before the ploughs get to work. Last Wednesday, there was an unexpected fall of snow and so, the roads in the morning were crawling with traffic, and Dave's journey to work after dropping me off at school took him 1.5 hours, for a 15km journey. Usually, it takes him 20 minutes.  School buses and teachers were late to school too, so attendence was not taken until the last school bus arrived.

Roads before they get ploughed

It has not been too cold either, been around -8C to -3C with wind chill making it slightly colder. Was talking to a friend in Calgary and she said it was -33C! So, we're pretty lucky. It's really strange, even at -4C, it doesn't really feel all that cold. I remember being absolutely frozen in England at temperatures above 0C. Weird, perhaps because it's really dry cold here. The snow is all powdery and dry and you could not have a snow ball fight or build a snowman, can't get the snow to roll into a big ball. Odd huh? I have only seen 1 snowman so far, and have not been able to build any ourselves.

the snow angel I made, I got up as I had a wet bum!

I love how pretty snow makes everything, the snow on bare trees, on the fir trees  and bushes. I have taken several photos whilst I have been walking to places and just wanted to post them on here...the snow angel I made above on Boxing Day, it was getting dark, and I asked Dave to take the photo as I have always wanted to make a snow angel and never have, I wasn't appropriately dressed, had jeans on, and he took so long taking the photo, my ass got soaked and it was freezing, hence I got up and it's just the impression I made.

conservation area next to the school

Iced bushes with non fat frosting

Iced bushes

Owner of tree was shovelling snow when I asked his permission to photograph it

Virgin snow

On my walk to yoga

Our condo

back of condo, leading to back door

Plants by the back door

No dog pee as yet!

Sunset as snow was falling and settling

PS.  We went to a dance performance by the Shen Yun performing arts group today at the Sony Centre for Performing Arts.  We had reasonably good seats. The show was ok, but I had a strange feeling it was a vehicle of the Fa Lun Da Fa movement, and it's oppression in mainland china was mentioned several times.  When I was sold the tickets, I was not made aware of this, it was sold as a spectacular show, telling the history of China through the centuries, through dance and amazing back drops, usage of projected scenes and animation which then became part of the performance. To then have the Fa Lun Da Fa story Incorporated seemed odd. They did touch a bit on the terracotta army, but that really was about it.

The costumes were colourful and made of materials that made the dancers looked like they were floating on air in some of the dances set in heaven.  The dancing was of great quality and even Mitch was impressed by some of the moves the male dancers did.  There was a live orchestra, but I find some Chinese music too grating to my ears. The Chinese opera singers were powerful, not really needing the micophone they had.  Overall, it was a very good performance if a tad too long. There was also a solo er hu performance, the chinese 2 string violin, this was excellent.

This was the soloist, but I can't remember her name

A traditional Chinese dance troupe that was founded in New York City, USA, how sad is that??? The emcees said that these performances would not be possible in China today, but I suspect that is because quite a bit of content was given to the struggle of the Falun Dafa in China.... What a difficult world we live in.