It Has to End, Doesn't It?

What a winter, eh? I don't know exactly how bad it has been around the rest of the northern hemisphere. I know that England had some uncharacteristic amount of snow earlier this year. But I do know that Saskatchewan, specifically Saskatoon and Regina, has received unbelievable amounts of snow.

When my parents were up at our place in Saskatoon in December for Christmas dad blew the snow off the deck for us (more so for Kiwi) and blew a four foot swath around the perimeter of our lawn along the driveway and sidewalk onto the center of our lawn/snow pile. What we had for snow when he did that was about the same amount as we had all of last winter. That said, last winter was exceptionally easy on us. That swath has been filled up and piled more than twice as high as it was before he blew it back in December. There's little more to say so I will let today's photos do the talking.

 

In an effort to think about warm sunny places I thought I would take the palm tree-like succulents and see if I could not make a macro shot with some warm light to help us frozen Saskatchewanians think of the warmer days ahead. It wouldn't be so bad if temperatures were normal and the snow pile was reducing but here in Saskatoon we are expected to get 7-14 cm of snow by tomorrow evening. Our temperature this morning was -21. The normal is -8 with a normal high of +1. We should be having a very nice, slow, melt that would result in few to no flooded basements. But, I guess being grumpy about it does not help anything but I do not deny how it is impacting almost everyone I know.

Finally, same setup, different focal point. A number of years ago when we went to the West Edmonton Mall there was an artist there by the name of the Sandman. He did the most amazing work putting sand in jars creating pieces like the one we have had decorating our half wall since we purchased one. He uses the various colors of sand and little small funnels to create his piece one little layer at a time. Talk about the ability to imagine the completed piece in his mind before he even starts. I have been meaning to photograph it for a long time but never bothered. Perhaps in the future I will show you the silhouetted, snow-covered, mountain range and birds flying in front of the setting sun on the opposite side.

Warm thoughts. Warm thoughts. Warm thoughts.