Thursday 22 January 2009

I've taken up ice ballet

We had a warm spell. The temperature actually climbed up to nearly 4 degrees C -- that's PLUS 4 degrees, not minus 4 degrees which would be considered quite balmy for this part of the world in January. The first problem with an unexpected warm spell in January is the YUCKY result ...... of melting snow. What was once all white and pristine becomes dark and dirty. White snowbanks become SCHMUTZY snow banks (that's LD language for brownish-dirty-blackish-looking). The second problem with an unexpected warm spell in January is the fact that IT DOESN'T LAST very long, and then all that melted snow turns into ... ice. This is my driveway:Ice from one end to the other. The street at the end of my driveway isn't any better. Ice is ... in case you don't get to experience this weather phenomena in your part of the world ... VERY SLIPPERY. The king-sized bruises on my hiney will attest to that fact! This is inside the bus shelter at my bus stop:More ice. If you don't want to navigate your way into and out of the bus shelter, you can wait at this bench beside the bus shelter. Oh, wait ...... more ice! An entire sidewalk of ice! Entire sidewalks of ice everywhere in this city! I managed to do the most spectacularly graceful ice ballet in my driveway ... resulting in black and blue hiney on the left side ... on my way to the bus stop. Then I managed to do an even more spendidly graceful ice ballet ... resulting in further black and blue hiney on the right side ... on the sidewalk on my way home at the end of the day. Fortunately no broken bones. Since then, I've been very conscientious about putting my ...... Yak Trax on over my boots! They may look like putzy truck chains for feet, but I swear you could walk up a perpendicular glacier in them things! Now if the bruises would just hurry up and heal and disappear.

Despite my complaints about dirty snow and hazardous ice, the return of sub-zero temperatures brought great beauty to the city in the form of ...... hoar frost. The arctic air rolled in quite foggy, and the moisture from the fog froze and formed the most AMAZING ice crystals on exposed surfaces. I love hoar frost! It's got to be one of the Creator's most artistic gifts to humanity. So here for your viewing pleasure, hoar frost on northern Canadian shrubs and trees:


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sorry to hear about your tender tush. L.

Anonymous said...

Nice ice crystals. Why is it called hor frost? {o!

Anonymous said...

Hm. New look? L.