It's officially winter..

For me it always begins with cold weather and snow... and it has been snowing since Monday.  And... it is cold. ( -15C right now.)

It began innocently enough.... a few inches of heavy wet stuff ... pretty on the red branches of the barberry ... still plenty of colour on them because we have had such a nice long autumn.

I love how they droop so gracefully under the weight...

The spirea also still have plenty of colourful leaves...

I shovelled for over an hour... ooooh.... heavy and wet and it was sticking to my scoop... I almost threw my arms out of the sockets with every scoopful. We have a long expanse of city sidewalk because we live on a corner lot... and I got fed up with that half way up the side of the house.
I was resting on the shovel handle, grinning at a huge flock of geese trading places in their formation as they flew over .... ... I love the geese.  They were honking away and doing all sorts of weird maneuvers and then, all of a sudden, they were in a perfect V.
 I was thinking how clever they were.

And... all of a sudden.. I, too, had a bright idea and thought how clever was I !  Marched myself straight back to the garage and found some silicone spray.  Sprayed it all over the scoop shovel and went back out there.  It worked like a charm!  Snow slid right off every time instead of clinging to it.  Whew.... that made things a lot easier.  When it is wet like that it is the worst to shovel...it sticks in huge blobs and is just too heavy to shove or to throw.  It's also the worst to drive on.  It fills the cleats of the best winter tires and makes it like driving on slicks.... there were hundreds of driving accidents in the past few days. And..it's still snowing..... my van is sitting in the driveway covered in snow...and it can just stay there.  It doesn't get around well enough to chance it.  If I need to shop or have an appointment...I'll just wait til Greg gets home.. and use the 4 wheel drive ....

Yesterday... it was this deep.  The squirrel who buried his peanuts in this pot will be tunneling through about 8 inches of snow to find his stash..if he remembers where he put it.  Personally, I think it is just instinct for them and they immediately forget where they put things. I'll be digging up peanuts in the spring when I turn over the dirt before planting my pots.

Elmo decided we could measure .... and, apparently it's only 7 inches...

my calibrated eyeball was off by an inch...

....as soon as I finish my second coffee....I'll be out there...shovelling.

... ...... ..... Jingles Bells anyone? ..... Now I'm thinking my Christmas Cactus knew exactly what time of year it is....no wonder it bloomed.

that'll be the frosty Friday...

...and it was !!  But, it also was on Thursday and now again today!  It began a blue sky day...then some fog rolled in.  We don't get fog regularly...so it's always fun to dart from window to window and check what we can or can't see "from our house" ... we're worse than little kids.  "Oh, look...you can't even see Luisa's house'...  "aren't there big trees behind the 4 X 4 guys' house?"  "Is that old Mrs. Nick waddling along the sidewalk?'  ... What am I saying...we are kids, and sometimes rude kids too, from the sounds of it... except for the stupid chronological factor.  I'm only a few years younger than "old Mrs. Nick".

Some teensy, tiny ice crystals are floating in the air...and now..the sun is trying to poke through... it so looks like diamonds sparkling as they float.  They don't seem to just be falling from anywhere... more like floating around in circles...

The moisture content is waaay up at 86% and temperatures are down..at -13C... so even more frost is forming on the dead twigs and old unfallen flower and seed heads... even on the gas lanterns ...

This time I upped my resolution for a few shots out in the garden... and I got some great crystals ...

Remember...this is not snow..there is no snow on any of the branches ... that's been gone for several days after the sunshine.... just the deep stuff on the ground is still here... this is all just heavy frost.  Look at the delicate shapely crystals.  Amazing.

okay.... click to biggify.... this one for sure ... look at the crystals !!! amazing....such detail and such shapes....  I'm so surprised to have been able to capture them...  I have to keep going back myself..just to look at it.  It is some dried out flower bunches on a spirea.

This leaf has what looks like a microscopic snowflake on the middle of the leaf.

PS::  a few minutes after writing this...I went upstairs, the sun is now brilliant..sky blue..and a slight breeze is wafting the frost off the trees like so many tiny feathers....

I began a second doll with the proper "stuff" .... and I'm having to stitch up a second body already... blew out a neck seam.  I stuff too firmly for muslin I guess.... maybe I'll try stuffing a little leg instead....

Beeeeyoootiful day!!!

It's an absolutely gorgeous blue sky day now that the sun broke through the fog and crystals.  There is such a heavy hoary frost!  I quickly slurped a bit of coffee and dashed out without even brushing teeth or putting on eyes... a quick drive to the nearby golf course.

The snow is pretty deep in spots over there...so I was up to my knees in it most of the time.  Some cross country skiers have laid a few trails...but, I didn't want to put my boot tracks into the perfect ski sized lines... so walked beside them.  It was silent except for the happy chirping of the little sparrows and chickadees. Nobody there today but me.  Lovely.  I crunched along on a crust of snow covered with the latest soft inch of new stuff ... breaking through about every third step or so.. snowshoes would have been helpful.

Any time of year, this, ...  my favourite golf course  ... is beautiful... ...

Come along on my walk.... click on any photo to "biggify" as Daisy the Curly Cat says.... I love that word.  It gives a much better idea of the size and scope of things....

looking down the 7th....

long needles of a young pine

Walking up the 8th fairway..

an annoying spot on my lens ..  seemed to appear in several shots.... arrgghhhh...!! if I knew how to photoshop... ....or.. something.....

lots of little critters...and some fairly large ones too... call this home.  Deer and coyotes as well as plenty of bunnies and squirrels... a regular thoroughfare from the look of it.  I was the only human footprint...

I'm betting this is Cerulean Blue.... love the frosty branches against the sky...

Fence around some maintenance buildings..

amazing how the frost crystals form on anything and everything......

Standing on the tee box of the 1st fairway.... love it.  Out, out damn spot!!  I'll have to pretend it's my golf ball in flight....straight down the center...yeh...that's what I'll do....

This looks like beach grass ... it's where I got a wet bum...crouching down in snow over a foot deep ..

Honestly, snow shoes would have been good... ..the drifts got up to 2 feet deep on some hillside areas... 

..still desperately clinging by a thread..

standing near the 4th green.... it's in a bowl...

heading back up the hill from the 4th .... puff..upfh..... whew! See ...golfing is a workout if you pick the right course.  It was cool enough at -8C... but, by then.. even my hands had warmed up a bit in the lovely sun and from working at slogging through deep snow.  Although it was kind of wet and cool on my legs.  To me it is colder at -8C with dampness than it is at a dry -21C.  Today the humidity is 87%. Brrrrr....

Green ash seed pods.... lots of them never seem to fall off before winter.

Back at the parking lot... look at the 7th fairway...

Home and warm...out of the soggy things....