First Rule for surviving the inevitable miserable portion of a BC Coast winter: don’t look out of the window. Seriously, anywhere else but. Or you might see this:
..or this:
You are probably saying to yourself, Oh look, Snow – how pretty! Just what I said… for five minutes. This is not that pretty kind of snow – this snow is wet and slushy and heavy and brings down the tree limbs onto power lines so that you are stoking the woodfire all night long to keep the deep, damp chill at bay. Very Icky. No ShopRider is going down the ramp, and a wobbly person like me is definitely not going to try to maneuver in the frozen muck. A soaking wet ass is not good for a person’s dignity, best to avoid the extremely high probability in this weather.
So, once the blankets are hung over the draughty windows, (you think I’m exaggerating, don’t you?) I find it best to turn my gaze to faraway places. Luckily, I have friends who Travel. For instance, Lisa at sell your tv and come to the cinema has just spent a marvellous two months in India, and I could not resist sketching the most beautiful moth she saw on the wall where she was teaching. The exotic sights of Ahmedabad will sooth a shivery soul.
And Julie, over at Kitchen Culinaire is gearing up for her yearly trip to Paris, so pictures of Madelines and markets and the Eiffel Tower are gracing my laptop monitor… dreamy! A lucky group of people are in for a tour of great deliciousness, and I will be following along every step of the way. She might even spy another stamp shop while she is there and think, “I know someone who would want these..”
Speaking of postal inspiration, I have even received a postcard from Myanmar this winter – I’m pretty sure this cancelled stamp is as close as I will ever be to this enigmatic country. Though never say never…
I affix these happy bits of travel to the board in my thinking room. A nice warm fire cheers up the house, and colour fills my grateful eyes.
In fact, last night when I was absentmindedly staring up from a drawing, my eye caught a corner of vintage pale blue… but I couldn’t think who had sent me this bit of Florida sunshine.
I flipped it over, and was reminded of a particularly difficult birthday, and the warmth of many friends who made it completely better.
Winter? What winter… in fact did you know the light is already coming back??
Dear Sheryl…i have just touched down after going with you on your mind travels!! Thank you for the reprieve from what the winter brings to us…Spring is around the corner…bundle up with your puppy and believe there will be patches of blue soon!!
Love, m
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…I can feel it, almost here! Love..
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i love your posts. they leave a mark on my soul.
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Thank you Laurie – xo
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Hi Sheryl…yes this was a tough winter on Gabriola too…I’ve had my share of power outages but last week it was 2 days with a neighbour here needing shelter (sort of). Long story. I nearly went batty shut in one room (for warmth…no woodstove) with the 2 parrots (one of which attacks) and the rabbit who has a fur coat and didn’t seem to mind the power outage….and her. Agghhh!!! Rodney left on Tuesday am so I still had a day to go with her alone. I’ll fill in the details later but it was definitely one of my least favorite power outages. It snowed today and I cringed thinking we could be in for it again and knowing she would come a knocking once more. It will be nipped in the bud. We are not the ideal warmth destination. That’s for sure. Not meaning to sound unhelpful but we just aren’t set up for that sort of add on. We had no drinking water, propane, over flowing toilets and little wood…the weather report missed the mark on that snow storm big time. Anyway, we survived but I needed a trip to the chiropractor after that. My shoulders were up around my ears. LOL
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Oh, no – Shoulder earrings – I hit the chiro too, so much shivering and alot of woodstove slavery..!! And when I saw some slush blobs today I was not impressed – so far nothing has come of it. I thought of you, over on Gabriola, I had a feeling it wasn’t fun, but it sounds a kind of irritating wretched!! Let’s hope that is that!! And as soon as it feels like real spring, I’ll be coming over! Oh, and your blog is great, btw – tons of great info!
Keep warm!
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great post bella! yesterday it was -18 celcius HERE if that makes you feel any better? 🙂 hope you guys get your legendary early spring weather SOON!
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Massive rain this morning, then a crack of sunlight… maybe!! Keep your Parka on… xo
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Beautiful post… It makes me love my family even more… a family of which you are a very dear part… Sending warm, green thoughts of Spring…
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Always…xox
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