Spring Inspiration in the Midst of a Deep Freeze.

I was supposed to drive the bus for the first time this afternoon and I have to admit, I've been rather anxious about it.

Although I've driven bits and pieces of the route before, a lot of the surrounding landscape has changed, making parts of it unfamiliar. Most of the kids are unknown to me which makes figuring out who is or isn't on the bus difficult. Some of my route, while in my neighborhood, has me dropping off new kids at unfamiliar houses. All in all? A little nerve wracking. Two weeks from now I'll likely wonder what I had to be nervous about, but today it's the first day of a new job.

That makes everyone nervous, right?   

However . . . while on Facebook early this morning, I saw status updates from two of my sisters-in-law. "No school today. -43 with windchill at the International Airport."

Whaaaat?! Alright! Except . . . . it's minus 43 Celsius at the International Airport!

Arghh!  I'm knee deep in growing and planning for the Spring Plant Sale as well as a big Mother's day sale. . . Will winter never end??!

I found something else on Facebook this morning and, if you're as sick of winter as I am, you might enjoy this Spring Fever blog hop. It's a lot more fun than looking out the window at the moment. . .

Click to visit the Spring Fever blog hop with 10 Garden Charmers

 Here's my contribution to the cause. . .

A few garden pictures to remind me that winter doesn't last forever. . .         

  

Now I'm off with map and student list in hand to drive out my new bus  route in the truck . . .

I'll be glad when it's two weeks from now.

  

What The Beginning Of March Looks Like In Edmonton

For me March is the hardest month of the year.
Not because it is physically difficult, January and February have that distinction.
No, March is mentally my most annoying month.
Every year I think that by the beginning of March I should be seeing real signs of spring. I mean, I know that we will likely get a bit more snow or a short cool spell but overall I'm always positive that spring is right around the corner.
Going back through my blog today to confirm that, yes indeed, spring is in the wings, I discovered that I am totally out to lunch! I have been blogging since January 2008 and spring was never just around the corner in any of those past Marches!
For crying out loud!
I've decided to chronicle what March looks like every year.
 I'm hoping this will lessen my self delusion. (I hold out very little hope for that, but, hey, it's worth a try!)
This year I've made a short movie.

It's Cold!!

I got a call just after 6 am this morning.
School's cancelled!
It was -37C (-34.6F) at the international airport. In March!
Whoo Hoo!!!
To bad Jesse has a dentist apointment this morning. . .

Hunkering Down

It was -25C (-13F) this morning when I left for the bus. With the wind chill it got as cold as -43C. (-45F)
It's warmed up a bit today and tomorrow is supposed to get up to -4C. (24F)
But, come Sunday. . .
Well. . . we're plunging back down into the deep freeze!
It's expected to stay at about -20C or so through the first two weeks in March.
Spring seems very, very far away.
It's been hard to get to excited about any new projects at the moment, so I've decided to hunker down, bask in the bright sunshine that showed up with the cold and  read, bake and dream until spring decides to make an appearance.

This Is How We Shovel Snow On The Canadian Prairies

 

No piddly little snow shovels for us! 

Google Is Playing Around With Cloud Picker Again!

I had a fun post for this morning but when I went to load the pictures I got, Server rejected, o,r sign in to Cloud Picker, or, this service is unavailable.
This has happened to me before. Google Is trialing a new service and sometimes it interrupts my ability to load pictures.
As soon as I can I will be back with my original post.
From the freezing North. . . .

I Didn't Want To Get On The Plane!

(Sorry Tam. The first day and I've already messed up, so I'm doing Tuesday instead. . .)
Henry and I got home from B.C. yesterday afternoon.
It rained while we were in B.C. (it always does) but a good part of the time I didn't even need a coat!
In January!!
It was -22C when the plane landed in Edmonton.
This is what greeted us as we pulled into the driveway. . .

Except  the driveway was  full of snow, as was the sidewalk, so we all spent a good bit of time shovelling last night. I'm shorter than the guys so I had a really hard time throwing the snow up high enough and it kept sliding back down the hill.

My friend Marlene phoned me this morning to tell me the roof on her commercial hoop house collapsed this week end so she won't be selling plants this spring. (I'm so sorry Marlene!)
I immediately went out to check on my greenhouse.
Good grief , there was a ton of  heavy snow on the roof!
I tried to convince Henry to take care of it when he came home for lunch, but he told me it would have to wait until later.
As I was worried that later would be too late, I jumped into my snow boots and headed out armed with a broom and a shovel.
Thankfully Jesse came out to help because some of it was just beyond me. . .

The snow behind the greenhouse has gotten so deep, the one wall is buried up to the start of the roof!
Jesse dug that away as best he could and I`ve got my fingers crossed that my greenhouse won`t be flooded too badly when things start to melt.
Sigh. . .
Winter in Alberta. . .
Some times it's hard.
Jada likes it though. . .

A Wintery Day

A quick peek at how my day started:

Frigid Temperatures

How do frigid temperatures affect your life? I start to get rather uptight when the thermometer falls below -25C.
Last night they were calling for -31C and I jumped into action.
I laid out my knee high ski socks and an extra pair of warm fuzzy socks to go over them.
I set out my white Sorrels (Rated to -40C)  and extra warm green turtle neck.
In the kitchen I got my travel mug ready to fill with piping hot hot chocolate just before I had to leave in the morning. I also set out my wheat bag hoping it would stay warm enough to keep my hands warm while the bus warmed up. ( that doesn't happen at these temps until I'm be driving for about an hour.)
Fleece lined jeans?
Check.
Long johns?
Check.
Toque?
Check.
Tow pairs of gloves
Check.
School is cancelled when it drops below -37C or -41 with the wind chill out at the International Airport.
I just checked.
It's -27C and -33C with wind chill  over there.
So I had better bundle up and get going.
Stay warm every one!

Frosty Days

Does anyone here know what happens when you stick a wet tongue to a frosty metal post  16 degrees below Celsius?
A nine year old boy on my bus does. . .
And right about know he's probably wishing he didn't have an enquiring mind!

Living In The Greenhouse

I know, I know, I have been doing a terrible job of posting regularly!

Winter was very long and very cold this year causing one of the worst cases of the winter blues I've had in ages.

Spring sprang suddenly and beautifully which lead me to live in the greenhouse for the last little while.

However. . .

Winter is making a last gasp it seems, as we are now under a heavy snowfall warning for tonight and since the temperatures may possibly go down to -8C, I brought all my plants back inside for the next few days.

One step forward, one step back.

Ah well, we do live on the prairies and no one really thought winter was totally finished with us yet.

We will have to wait and see what the rest of the week will bring

Snow in March

Some of us enjoy March snow storms!

Check out Jada's video. . .

Respite

After six weeks or frigid temperatures we have been blessed with a short respite.

The last few days have seen the temperatures climb above freezing.

Today was especially lovely as the sun shone and the thermometer hovered around 9C.

I've spent the day puttering around the house and stopping often to just sit in my sunny living room and drink in the peace and warmth of the day while I admired the beautiful pink gerbera daisies I bought to decorate for my seed party last night.

Of course part of the reason that it was so peaceful had to do with the fact that Henry and Morgan went ice fishing with Russ out at his cabin, taking Jada with them.

Since nothing wakes Jesse up before early afternoon and he then had to go to work, I spent the day on my own.

Bliss.

I read, tidied after last night's party, did some laundry, bought a new purse to replace my broken one, bought a few packages of perennial seeds and picked up fresh bread and a lemon meringue pie. (I don't bake pie.)

All in all a wonderful day.

And yesterday was Henry's 49Th birthday.

Happy birthday honey. . .

Snow

The snow is blowing down on a slant.
Large fluffy flakes are piling up on the bird bath.
Sedum peek from under their little snow caps.
And it's cold.
Very cold!
You would think I would be moping around the house just waiting for spring, filled with gloom at the thought of many more winter days ahead.
And yet, you would be wrong.
I know, I'm surprising myself!
I have been immersing myself in all things gardening.
Books, magazines, blogs, DVDs, the works!
I've been inspired. It has given me a few project ideas, one of them big.
I promised Henry there would be no more projects for a while but I just can't help myself.
After all. . .
Projects are the spice of life!
Look on the bright side Honey,
most of theses projects I can do by myself. . .

Deep Freeze

Well by this time tomorrow we will be in the deep freeze.
The weather's been lovely up until now, but starting tomorrow. . .
Shudder!
Asthma and frigid temperatures don't go well together so I've been running around like mad trying to get most of my shopping done so I won't be running from store to store in -25C ( -13F)temps. (Down to -32C or -25F overnight)
A day or two is hard, but I can manage, although driving the bus is about all I manage to get done in a day.
At the moment however, the long range forecast shows this cold Arctic high settling in for at least two weeks!
So. I'll be working very hard, remembering my blessings (warm home, hot showers, good food, big stack of books, etc.) rather than dwelling on the difficulties.
I will likely take Tamara's advice and blog about warm things.
Have a great weekend.
And stay warm!

A Glorious Morning

I am so sorry that I didn't have my camera with me on my walk with Jada this morning!

It was a glorious morning and desperately needed after yesterday.

Bundled up for our walk yesterday, we (okay I!) struggled against 30-50km (18-31 miles) per hour winds and a - 9C (15.8F) temperature.

Ugh! That was a very short walk.

This morning was a total flip. The air was still and the temperature hovered around 0C.

It snowed overnight, blanketing the ground and it lay glittering in the pale winter sun.

Oh to be a photographer!

We had such a long, peaceful walk this morning, Jada and I. . .

Mind you the huge moose we saw in some one's back yard kind of threw me. . .

Especially when we got closer and saw that it wasn't real!

Of course peaceful doesn't really cut it with Jada, so we had a rousing game of Frisbee before we went in for breakfast.

What a lovely way to start the weekend.

Change Of Plans

As you can see, it snowed last night.

Somehow the sight of snow has rekindled my desire to get the big Christmas Clean done.

So. . .no shopping for Operation Christmas Child today.

Today will be all about scrubbing , sorting, organizing and laundry. Lots and lots of laundry!

Now, I'm off to finish my tea and toast.Don't forget. . . today is Remembrance Day, if you can't visit your local cenotaph, observe the two minute silence at 11:00 am.

It's the least we can do.

Contest winner

I was going to post a picture of me drawing the winner's name out of my garden hat.

But I just had to post these pictures instead.

Can you believe it?

These were taken yesterday afternoon.

The snow has doubled since then and we are under a winter storm warning.

This morning's bus run was pretty nerve wracking once I got to the highway, as it was sheer ice.

There were cars in the ditch and a small bus had rolled over.

Thankfully the Lord was watching over us and we all made it to school safely.

We will leave an hour early this afternoon to avoid traffic.

And now. . .

The winner of the 100Th post contest is. . .

Brenda of thebrendablog http://thebrendablog.typepad.com/!

Congratulations Brenda!

Make your selections from 'rubitin' http://rubitin.etsy.com/and e-mail me ( middleagedgardener@live.com ) with your choices and address and I will do my best to get it in the mail this week!

Enjoy.

It's melting!

Overheard on my school bus this morning.

Grade four student to kids around him, ( all involved in a card game at the time)

"Guys, I'm dead! You've got to operate on my brain!"

His younger brother, "Okay!"

I laughed, I chuckled, I grinned all the way to school while basking in the warm sun as it streamed through the window.

Which brings us to the topic of today's post.

For those of you still buried under snow and/or battling frigid temperatures. . .

I'm so sorry!

Please. . . just. . .look away!

Whew! Now that they are taken care of , here it is. . .

It's melting.

Yeah! I hadn't really looked at the back yard closely for a while, which you'd understand if I had taken a picture of the entire back yard.

But if I did that, you'd see that dirt is not the only thing that's being uncovered as the snow melts.

If you know what I mean.

This is the hole Jada is digging to China.

We are not quite sure why she's digging a hole to China, but we think she's hoping that Chinese dogs like to play non stop.

Unlike Canadian dogs who generally poop out long before she's finished!

We'll get back to you once the hole gets a little closer to it's destination.

A beautiful day

My front garden last July.


When I left the house at 6:40 this morning I realized that the weatherman had been right. It has finally warmed up! It was -13C (8.6F).

It was so nice to be able to breathe deeply without worrying that I would start coughing uncontrollably (asthma).

When I got to my bus, I realized that the sky was already starting to lighten.

I drove the whole trip without my toque or gloves on, and my feet were warm.

With every pick up I made, the sky lightened, and, as I headed onto the highway towards school, the sun was on the horizon, and the clouds in the sky were blushing pink.

My drive was one long thankful, joyful , prayer to God.

Winter is coming to an end!