Snowfall overnight

SNOW! SNOW! SNOW!

No driveway, no walkways, shovel duty prevails.

We continue to have snow falling daily, at times steadily all day long. The expanse of whiteness creates an internal peace, allowing for life to slow down its pace, if only for a moment. The fireplace warms our bodies, the glow of the candles around the room offers a lofty scent, the hot chocolate or something hot to sip, warms our bellies. Laughter fills the air as we observe the children’s imagination, watching them from the windows. We also continue to marvel over how light and lovely the snow appears crispy white, not an icy hard crunch as the west often offered, and such beautiful bright skies continue to be blessing our days with beauty.

This morning we woke to another snowfall overnight, almost ten inches of the stuff. The entire property was a white coated field of beauty, none of the walking paths visible anymore from yesterdays' romping. The driveway was too deep to get the van rolling out, and just as we were admiring the sun glistening and reflecting its rays off the wintry sheen, a huge snowplough drove by and blew another foot of snow banking it up against the end of the driveway, where it met the road.

Making new paths to walk in.

My favorite resource for weather reporting has been the weather network forecasting online. Each day we seek updates, and frequently throughout the day it appears to be correct at any given hour. Today the forecast is for continued “light flurries” all day long, lasting until tomorrow around lunchtime.

The sun today is incredible! As it appears we are truly snowbound for the most part, we sit with a coffee in hand watching people on snowmobiles and cross-country skis in the farmer’s fields to the north and south of us. An ATV suddenly appears to pick up a younger, tired out skier to take him home, and the rest of the family continue to make tracks around the fields, headed for the golf course down the road for some mogul fun.

These horses love to frolick in the freshly fallen snow.

The horses next door are out to their fields daily, bales of hay thrown around for them to forage for beforehand, and with the recent snowfalls they are likened to little children in a candy store, frolicking together and kicking up the snow, obviously enjoying it very much. This is the barn out daughter has been hired to assist in mucking the stalls and feeding other assorted animals on the premises, her little sister usually tagging along to groom the horses at the fence with her brush tote in hand. The continued experiences for the children are wonderful, and now the neighbor wants to have her brother bring his horse up in the spring for our daughters to ride daily next door. Wouldn’t that be just grand?

Dogs roam and love their snow runs.

Our dogs get quite a workout running in the deep snow, deeper than their backs and bellies lately, and two days ago, one of them ran right into the middle of a four feet snowdrift, rolling around and loving it to bits! Can you possibly guess which dog that could have been? They too have yet to experience the white fluffy snow suddenly appearing in their dog pen, eating it, searching for icy bits to chew, forming “nests” to huddle in, and then covering themselves with snow to make a burrow for them to keep warm. It’s quite cute to watch them outside late at night, often preferring the cooler temperatures outdoors instead of being in the barn with the heater on and toasty warm.

A chair resides in one corner of the ice rink.

As I type up the writing for today, I had to smile at the obvious most important thing the children decided upon this day – to remain diligent in shoveling out their ice arena in the back of the property, so the ice remains uncovered and exposed for more freezing, as the temperatures are to plummet to -16 again later today. At present the ice is clear, a chair rests in one corner for those requiring a seat to lace up their skates on, the garage push broom seems to be a permanent fixture, and two happy little people are now gliding across the ice.

Anytime is hockey time!

Now to get the shovels back and get out clearing the walkways and stairs around the house, then hope our phantom neighbor with a tractor appears for us again. *smile*

Smart thinking having clear lights,
as they will remain up yearlong!

Lovely!

But all that snow has to be shoveled off now!