icy continuation

The snowy excitement and novelty continues for the third day.

It snowed all night Saturday, and so we were greeted with a great blanket of snow Sunday morning. Alex and Olivia were extremely eager to go play in it, but just as we began contemplating going out, some friends phoned to say they would be over to play. It proved too cold for the native Canadians who were either unphased about it or genuinely cold, so we ended having lunch together and afterwards spending another 2 hours outside playing.

It snowed all day, very heavily -almost white-out, and we now have about 45 cms of snow on the ground. Overnight the air got drier and drier and the ground froze solid leaving a powdery fresh lot of snow on the ground and ice underneath.

There was chaos last night with cars spinning out everywhere and then our large tree next to the car park cracked and spit in two, spilling a huge limb into the car park and taking some smaller ones with it. We had to ring emergency services because we thought the tree might topple entirely and fall on the house. The council came and assessed things and put a barricade up so no curious people would wander and end up with a tree on top of them.

This morning the roads were shut down and pre-school was cancelled, Ashley didn’t go to work today either. The Mustang he drives is apparently notorious as a bad icy conditions vehicle - and we aren't exactly seasoned pros when it comes to driving in such conditions. Instead we spent the entire morning, and half the afternoon shopping for proper winter clothes. The kids were ok, I managed to buy them some snow boots on Friday before the rush, and they still fit into the snow suits I got them last year. But Ashley and I had nothing, and after spending the entire day playing out there yesterday my regular shoes were soaked and my yard boot were frozen solid. My fleece jacket and gloves were still wet from the day before too. So we both got waterproof warm winter boots and waterproof gloves, and I got a proper warm water resistant jacket. It was so much better.

The shoes were the most difficult to find as most of the stores in town were sold out. I got the last pair of winter boots in the store, so it was somewhat miraculous hat they happened to be in my size!

Since we have been home today, I have been shovelling the frozen driveway and Ashley has been trying to chop down the suspect limbs hanging on the tree. It is suppose to get colder tomorrow, even as low as -5 during the day and -9 at night.

It only snowed sporadically and lightly today, with moments of blue sky. We really feel that we have had a real Canadian experience now– even though the locals tell me that this weather is not normal for Ladner. The streets were disgusting when we did venture out today – like a bomb had gone off. It was interesting watching everyone stagger out, stunned and amazed by the landscape - it was so excellent. They were also fascinated by the tree and a couple of neighbours had ben standing outside talking when it came down right before their eyes.

The snow seemed to bring people out to chat. They shared their surprise about the snow; wanted to know what WE thought of it, since we were from Australia. They talked about their snow experiences from the day and past snows and how this snow and the conditions compared to other parts of Canada where they had been or had lived. The town was abuzz, I think that is the most enjoyable aspect of it! It is nice to have something that draws people out of their houses to socialise in the cold months. I hope we gat another good bout of snow - preferably on the weekend again, so all can enjoy it.