Snow, freezing rain, friends, and feasts

On Friday morning I got up to do my hour walk before work and saw this when I opened the door:

I had to walk in snow boots! I broke trail for the first 35 minutes or so. It was about 3 inches of thick heavy snow, which is the type of snow we don’t usually see here, in the winter anyway. We’re used to light and dry snow.

There were cars spinning their tires around town, stuck at stop signs. The sidewalk cleaning contractors were trying to blow it with leaf blowers and the general store staff were trying to use brooms. Neither of which work on this snow! As more and more tire tracks appeared on the streets, it started to get super slippery. So I still did an hour walk, but walked less distance.

The talk of the day in town was whether the snow was going to stay and if it came early this year or if this is normal. It hasn’t been that cold. I think -7C has been the coldest morning walk so far? Maybe -10C? No colder than that.

We were ready, just in time for snow. I put all my flower pots away the night before. Jeff’s got the boat in the garage and off the trailer, cleaning it up, ready to deflate and fold it up for winter.

We *finally* got our camping trailer back after getting its axles replaced. It’s been in the shop since the beginning of July. We got it back just in time to winterize and get it parked in our generous friend’s lot for the winter. Jeff’s truck is parked behind the house, tucked away with a battery tender, until the parts come in to get the engine fixed (finally).

Thanksgiving

We invited a few friends over for a Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday afternoon – an early Thanksgiving because some of them were heading out of town on Sunday.

First thing on Saturday, I made a couple of pumpkin pies.

If your filling isn’t higher than the pie crust, are you even trying?? 😁

Then I made some buns.

I made some cranberry sauce with some local wild cranberries we had in the freezer, and I also sliced up a can of jellied cranberries too because I recognize most people don’t like unsweetened cranberry sauce.

Jeff was in charge the turkey and decided to make a ham too, stuffed with some cloves on the outside and covered in a honey sauce.

Jeff made the dressing too, and carrots and potatoes. We put the middle board in our table again and gathered ’round!

Alex brought some roasted Brussels sprouts and Ags made some out of this world desserts. WOW was I full!

On Sunday it continued to snow, some more heavy wet snow. I got the deck and front sidewalk shovelled. It was that heavy wet snow that sticks on your shovel and you have to bang it off. Yuck!

On Sunday night we were invited to dine at the Eldorado with Tarie and Mark, and Janet and Jim! Jeff and I must have lost our turkey muscles – remember when we could do multiple turkey dinners in one weekend? No longer are we able to. While everyone else ordered the turkey dinner with pie, Jeff and I did burgers – him the Eldo burger with mushrooms and bacon (that he couldn’t even finish!) and I went for the pulled pork.

It was a great night with friends and I think I could have sat there for many more hours chattin’ away!

Today, Monday, our holiday from work, the snow turned to freezing rain for hours. Here’s the view from our bedroom:

Look at this nonsense!

The highway south is closed because of the freezing rain, and I think even the plane didn’t land this afternoon? (sorry Janet!!)

It’s supposed to turn to rain, but it seems to be snowing now, so Jeff spread some salt so we can still walk across the back deck.

I’m thinking the snow is here to stay. There isn’t any cold weather in the forecast, but nothing that warm either. This is going to make my morning walks before work really interesting!