Outside temperature -14C. (7F)
Soon I’d bundle up in as many layers as I could wear and still be able to move, and head outside to clear pathways through the 40cm (15”) of snow that fell last week.
Mittens from 2010 when Vancouver hosted the Winter Olympics. Never really had an opportunity to wear them … until now, when they are a necessity
I suspect I may have found the Winter I’ve been searching for all my life. It certainly is a tad different than the fantasma I created in my imaginasium when I lived in Australia, or even back on Widder Island.
Normally I’m outside shouting, “SNOW!!!”, as loud as possible but when this lot started to fall, I timidly peeked through the curtains and whispered, ‘snow’ – just in case someone heard me and decided I needed an extra three meters of the stuff. One can never be too careful with the Weather Deities these days.
This is what I call, COLD
In all fairness, those temperatures were, according to, Environment Canada, a bit of an anomaly brought about partly by La Nina’s third winter in office. The ones at the end of the 7 day forecast are the averages for this time of the year. That being said, nothing about any weather forecasting is ‘average’ in these interesting times.
However, I’m getting ahead of myself again. The tale continues …
-oOo-
Part 1 HERE … In which we have arrived at our new ‘sticks-and-bricks’, home after living in our RV for months …
Every major joint in my body seemed to be letting it be known that they never EVER wanted to set foot on an uneven, or unstable, surface, again.
It took several weeks for me to stop expecting the floor to sway with every movement. I suspect it’s the same for anyone who spends any length of time on board a boat, of any size. Even now I occasionally catch myself bracing for something that never comes. A bit rough on the joints, that too.
-oOo-
But, I had come to terms with the fact that our Great Adventure, might well and truly end in Prince George. (which, all things considered, isn’t a bad place to end up)
For all the years we’d been planning and preparing for, (and the actual doing of) this, relinquishing the wider possibilities was turning out to be more of a challenge than I anticipated. It was all tied in with my self-image of a foot-loose and fancy-free vagabond, out to see what the world had to offer, rather than the reality imposed by my physical limitations which, scarily, appeared to be on the increase.
…… but that was the emotional, physical, and spiritual place I ended up at, and I’m getting ahead of myself again …
-oOo-
So, this happened …
Driving through the Fraser Canyon
The quickest route from Prince George to Agassiz, where our storage unit was, is through the Fraser Canyon. It’s usually a spectacular drive along a pretty decent 2-lane highway winding up and down and around and through the canyons carved out of the mountains by the Fraser River, and ending up on the Fraser Plateau.
Still driving through the canyon
It was still a spectacular drive, but it was also very smoky from wildfires burning in Washington state (in the U.S.) and others much closer here in British Columbia.
Repairs, necessitated by the damage from last November’s disastrous floods to the highway, were still going on, and we had several occasions to sit and enjoy the scenery as we waited for the road ahead to clear…. a road that narrowed down to a single lane emergency bridge thrown across a washout, bookended by torn asphalt and concrete barriers.
(this video is a bit long, but if you can watch on as big a screen as possible, I think you’ll get a feel for the road as we traveled through the canyon and out onto the plateau on our way home)
The saddest thing I think, were the closed shopfronts in the tiny villages we drove through. Covid-19 had devastated these communities long before the flood damage closed the highway.
We took it, relatively, easy, driving the 700 kilometers over two days … Met up with Sir L, and proceeded to empty out our rather well stuffed storage unit, ably assisted by son-in-law and twin grandsons.
The next day was a little different. We’d decided, in the interests of getting the damn job over and done with, to do the return trip in one day. With a 4am start and switching drivers regularly, we managed to get back home with a decent bit of daylight to spare. Which isn’t to say we weren’t absolutely knackered the next day – we were, but the deed was done. (luckily I was passerger-ing when we drove through the canyon and was able to point the camera on my phone at the windscreen and hope for the best)
However, where was our stuff, I hear you ask. It remained in the back of Sir L’s very large truck until he drove up a week later.
Not having grandsons up here was a tad inconvenient so we hired a bloke to help with the heavy lifting, and to our surprise son-in-law turned up with Sir L, so the unloading went just as efficiently as effectively as the loading had.
We had our stuff … boxes and boxes, of stuff … everywhere.
Just as well we had lots of rooms to put it all in.
Mrs Widds downstairs study – one day
One side of our craft room. There’s a worktable somewhere underneath all that
But then, sometimes rainbows happen just when you need them the most …
A bit of rainbow in our back yard
Widdershins Worlds 
Beautiful photos!
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😀
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So you’re settled for a while? Otherwise, why bother with the boxes.
You have hit the place where the body and the mind have to reach a compromise – not that easy. You need things to live comfortably – and comfort becomes necessity.
Once you’re over the move-in part, it could be extraordinarily productive artistically. I hope so!
Take your time.
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Thanks, Alicia, I hope so too. 😀
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The damage to the highway sounds dreadful. You guys have had your share of weather.
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I read the other day that the last highway that got washed away had finally reopened to ‘essential traffic’ … apart from flying, these roads are the only way in and out of some remote communities.
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It must be devastating for all involved
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Glad to hear you are both settled for the winter, like a pair of hibernating bears…
Loving those trees!
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They’re all naked and shivering now, but snow-covered bare branches are a different sort of stunning visual. 🙂
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I love trees whatever the season, they always inspire…
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Got a pretty good bunch of ’em around here. 🙂
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Apologies but I couldn’t watch the video all the way through. Every time you approached a tunnel I was bracing for a head-on collision! Driving on the right hand side of the road just ‘feels’ so wrong! The landscape is lovely though. Commiserations on the…unpacking?
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Hah! 😀 … Wuss! … it took me months to relax when I was even walking on sidewalks and crossing streets could be a bit fraught, to say nothing of the sphincter pucker effect when either driving or passengering! 😀
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lmao – yes! The ex lives in the US now and on a visit some years ago, he took the Offspring and I in his rented car to a restaurant…and drove on the right side of the road until I shrieked at him to get back in the correct lane. I think I turned grey that evening. 😦
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There was this one time when we were picking up the RV from the storage place and I blithely pulled out onto the wrong side of the road (from a Canadian perspective) and Mrs Widds started squeaking until I realised what I was doing and got back to where I was supposed to be. Thankfully the usually busy road I’d pulled out into was free of traffic at that moment. 😀
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Oh!!!! I’m laughing, but I know exactly how Mrs Widds must have felt. Tell her I empathize. 😀
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Magnificent scenery – and a sense of scale that we just never get here in Ingerlund. All driven on the wrong side of the road, too… 😉
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It took me quite a few months to relax all relevant road-travelling sphincters after I first got here. 😀
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The snow is beautiful, but I prefer to shiver in Florida with it being a cool 61 degrees 😊
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Glad you liked it … it’s about ten degrees warmer here today – just minus one, with a bit of sunshine. 😀
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🥶
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Hahahahaha, yep! 😀
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So very well done
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Quite the finish to the whole year-long saga, I think. 🙂
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Whew! That was wonderful! It takes me back to my childhood in Northern Ontario. Our mountains weren’t as high as yours nor the vistas quite so spectacular but on the smaller scale just as intriguing. I did notice that you have mesh over your mountains faces so the falling the rock doesn’t land on the road. I remember we had signs that said “Watch for Falling Rock”. Somebody made it into a legend about a young Indian woman called Falling Rock being lost. Was that a cable car I saw? That was great! Thank you for sharing.
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No cable cars. 😦 … I had great fun filming the really curvy bits of the road – t’were like a rollercoaster. 🙂
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I dislike moving, but it sounds like you took it in stride. Beautiful landscapes. Now time to settle in and enjoy the (whispered) snow.
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Mostly, but I did leave out the really personal struggly bits, but ‘t’is done, and done well’, as they say. 🙂
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I’m so glad I caught up, and watched all the videos! Driving on the ‘wrong’ side of the road was delightful for this Aussie, and the scenery is spectacular, if a little scary, esp seeing all the damage from the weather events. I’m glad you have been blessed by finding a new home, although I was surprised to read about that, and the storage retrieval, as I thought you were wandering forever… May you settle in easily, have lovely neighbours, make new friends and find some queer folk, and enjoy a cosy winter. I’m looking forward to more ‘snow on trees’ photos too 🙂 Blessings from the humid rainforest, G 🙂
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If you go back a few posts, it’s all there in the ‘The Wunder-Lusters Origin series of posts that might fill in the gaps … there’s 3 parts and an epilogue – of course there’s an epilogue! 😀 I’m a writer, we love our epilogues – most of us anyway. 😀
Don’t worry, there’ll be lots of ‘snow on trees’ photos over the next 3 or 4 months. 🙂
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Right, I’m making a cuppa & searching back 👍🏿❤️
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Well, that was great, tunnels and all. The tunnels were my favourite part of that trip. Thanks for taking us along. Now I want to go on a road trip!
Good to hear you’re getting settled. Don’t rush things, though!
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I rather liked the double one myself. 😀
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“It took several weeks for me to stop expecting the floor to sway with every movement. I suspect it’s the same for anyone who spends any length of time on board a boat” – had the same experience when I spent two nights on sleeper trains, I swear Cologne station was moving while I brushed my teeth.
Makes me appreciate just how awful the Atlantic crossing must have been in the days of sailing ships, for paying passengers as well as the trafficked ones…
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I missed this earlier in the week. I’m glad you got your belongings back and have a great place to live. It seems adventures on the open road are not the way we are meant to go at present. Many people left this area during the pandemic but they are finding the rising cost of everything is making life on the road difficult. Many are returning. As for finding a place to live- well that’s another story over here in Oz. I’m here for 12 months but will be moving somewhere else after that.
Good luck with the unpacking. I’ve decided to leave some of my stuff in boxes and am beginning to sell off surplus craft items to get some cash. I’m finding my priorities are changing quickly at present.
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We’re truly being forced to pay attention to what’s important to us, aren’t we?
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Absolutely. BTW – in case you don’t see it. I have put a post on my blog explaining that it’s going private over the weekend. I’m not planning to be around WP much longer either so best of luck with your endeavours up there in Canada. I hope your health gets better and better.
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I did, but I haven’t read it yet. I hope you drop by and visit occasionally. 🙂
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I’ll take some time off and do some stuff I need to do in the world first. Big plans for creative endeavours in 2023 but I need space to put them into action. I’ll come back when I’ve sorted out where I’m going with it all. 🙂
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Excellent. 🙂
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So glad you had several Knights come to your rescue. I agree – it’s best to get that drive over with! I drove out to Ontario this year to drop my daughter at university. Did it in three days! First day was epic – Okotoks to North Dakoda!
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