Baby, It's Cold Outside

It's really been snowing over the past week; it snowed weekend before last, then the temp dropped and after 3 days of right around freezing the ground (mud) was frozen, and the small lake at the bottom of the hill was frozen. Over the weekend the temperature dropped some more - to minus 10 C, which is 7 degrees Fahrenheit, and we had a handful of inches of more snow. To remind those of you in moderate climes who never get to this point, freezing is 0 C and 32 F. You know how salt melts ice? I read on Wikipedia that the 0 mark for Fahrenheit was based on the point of cold where the salt doesn't melt the ice any more. So yeah, it's COLD. Luckily we have good heat, and the trams are usually heated, and we layer up a bunch and wear wool socks and cover head and face as much as possible.

Needless to day, our winter wonderland is beautiful, and we are enjoying having a taste of real winter. I'm a bit trepidatious however (and also trepidatious that's that not a real form of the word, but I like it) that lower temps are still to come over the next couple of months, like -20 C. Or, in Fahrenheit, that's Julie-does-not-leave-the-house degrees. For you east coasters, I know I'm not getting a lot of sympathy here what with the storms you've been having.

The first time it snowed though - giant, clumpy amazing snowflakes. We went for a walk and as I was madly shrieking 'they are so beautiful!' over and over and scaring the joggers on the forest road, these are the best photos I could manage of these incredible snowflakes. I mean completely, 6-pointedly, amazingly amazing! Maybe it was their extraordinary size, or maybe it's been too long since I've seen a snowflake, but I was very much awestruck.

I swung on the swings in the nearby park, which was also remarkably joy inspiring, and we walked away from town until we got quite cold, then ducked into a Chinese restaurant to warm up inside and out.

Speaking of duck... really good soup and crispy duck. The spring roll was all but a roll (it was flat and rectangular), the stir-fried dishes weren't that different from US Chinese food, and the fried bananas were yummy (this was a fixed menu for 2; we took leftovers home).