Author, Unknown

One of the things I joust with is how much of my Self to reveal here in these posts. I tend to err on the side of, ‘more is OK but not too much’, but the trick is determining where that boundary sits at any given moment.

This particular post is one I’ve started over and over and not really gotten anywhere with it that I’m satisfied with. (which is why I haven’t posted anything for a bit too long for me to be comfortable with)

Not that I didn’t want to post something but right now it’s a fragmented jumble of thoughts and impressions … each of which is probably worthy of a post in itself.

… never-the-less …

I decided just to wrestle them into some sort of coherent order and leave them as is.

-oOo-

Everywhere I look the snow is so much deeper than I ever could’ve imagined this time last year.

Oi vey! This time last year … we were up to our necks in packing … Mrs Widds had slipped in a wet wooden board and hurt her back something fierce … rain, non-stop, pretty much, since October of 2021 … all I wanted was for the packing to be over, and the rain to stop.

It did stop, but not until we left the Lower Mainland with its failing rainforest climate, speaking both latitudinally and elevation-erly, and our little cottage on an island in the middle of a lake, behind us.

-oOo-

I’m not … I was going to say, ‘I’m not myself these days’, but that’s not true. I’m myself, of course, who else would I be? But the self I am, the Self I’ve become over the last year, isn’t someone who I recognise, who I’m familiar with.

I thought that a bit odd.

Here I am, coming up on 65 this September and I have less of an idea of who I am than in any decade previously … except perhaps my first one. I was an Innocent then, and had no need of descriptors.

-oOo-

I woke up the other morning and it was March!!! When the bloody hell did that happen?

We’re still getting snow up the wazoo, it’s still in the double digits below freezing at night, and some days too, but mostly the days are longer and I feel as though I might venture out from my coocoon … any day now … perhaps.

This is a bit of a compilation of snippets I’ve taken over the last couple of weeks …

-oOo-

If you’re interested in why your weather is going bat-shit bonkers all the time, this might be the website for you. It’s called ‘Severe Weather Europe’, and they deal with the weather patterns mostly from an entire northern hemisphere perspective, with occasional forays below the equator.

I find the posts well written and well researched, (I feel smarter just mentioning them here in this post) and understandable, which is to say they’re not enamoured of the ‘sound’ of their own voices.

This is their latest post on the why’s and wherefore’s of the arctic blasts about to roll over North America and western Europe this month.

Any information we can gather to help us plan ahead in these uncertain times is useful, I think.

-oOo-

Perhaps this is what I might do for the next while. Start a post and add anything that might occur to me, and when it’s full, (whatever that means in the moment) post it.

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There’s Snow Business Like Snow Business

Everybody sing it with me now, and do your best impersonation of a drag-queen, or king, doing an impersonation of Ethel Merman singing, ‘There’s no business like show business’ …

… what’s that you say, you don’t know who Ethel Merman is?

Well, this is Ethel …

 

I don’t think there’s an entertainer in the world today who could belt out a showtune quite like she could.

-oOo-

I’ve temporarily retired the ‘The Wunder-Lusters’ category, (over there on the right of my blog) because we’re not doing anything remotely wunder-lustery at the moment … which isn’t to say we aren’t having adventures. No, certainly not … and, I’ve started a new category, here and, on The Wunder-Lusters Youtube channel, called ‘The Prince Georgian Chronicles’, which will, as the name implies, chronicle our adventures here in Prince George.

First and foremost, as you’ve probably gathered from the title of this post, I’m going to talk about snow. What a surprise, eh?

And after that, well, who knows where this new adventure will take us …

In response to a request for more ‘snow-on-trees’. Here’s a photo, and an epic wee video …

I’m pretty sure there’s a snow-dragon somewhere in this picture

I’m pretty sure there’s a snow-dragon somewhere in this picture

The last time we saw this beauty she was still in her Autumn robes. Looks like she’s wrapping up her Season with a bang …

Winter Solstice – Snow And Ice

First came the snow …

Then the sun came out and the snow turned to  …

Slushies!

Slushies!

Then the ice rain …

Eerie coating on the jasmine vines

Eerie coating on the jasmine vines

Mother Nature in Her very best ‘deep midwinter’, mode …

Icicles in the night

Icicles in the night

Now, the days grow longer, and although our troubled world continues to struggle on under the weight of almost insurmountable challenges, this window of time, between the end of the old year and the beginning of the new one, always seems to be full of … possibilities.

May you find your possibilities. May you find your Path, and may there be beloved others who will choose to walk with you on it.

Blessed Be.

The White Stuff

The view from our back door this afternoon.

SNOW!!!

SNOW!!!

Snow?

It’s cold enough to snow.

There’s enough moisture in the air to snow.

The forecast is for snow.

I look out my window and the Winter tree is covered in … raindrops.

This wee duckling is a lot happier about the rain than I am, but thanks Clip-art for the cute image 😊

This wee duckling is a lot happier about the rain than I am, but thanks Clip-art for the cute image 😊

I’m sure I have some pictures from the Snows-of-Winter’s-Past (2017, I think) around here somewhere to console myself with …

Ahh, that’s better

Ahh, that’s better

 

SNOW!!!

SNOW!!!

Meltdown

On Winter Solstice Eve (20th December) I had a meltdown.

It had rained all morning, a deluge, heavy enough to swamp the driveway and footpath in front of our cottage. The gutters overflowed and cascaded a wall of water in front of my eyes as I peered out through the front window, trying to pierce the gloom.

A task I had been putting off, for months really, came back to haunt my vision. I needed to cut a drainage gutter across the driveway to divert the stormwater away from the front yard, and now, yet again, my procrastination was laid bare.

Not to Self: Don’t put off yard/cottage maintenance stuff, because you might have to do it in a deluge.

I decided to wait until the rain at least eased off, and turned away to do other things, when I suddenly started crying, for no apparent (at that moment) reason. Not the sort of crying where your eyes leak a little, no these were deep sobs that felt as though they might crack my ribs on their way out of my body.

I’ve had quite a few crying jags over the past year, (who among us hasn’t?) but this one laid me low.

Incoherent words of grief and rage spewed forth from my mouth and mingled with my tears, and I couldn’t stop.

I quite literally couldn’t stop. Every time I drew a breath in more sobs and roars of pain came back out.

I dragged myself into the bathroom, (the only room in the house without windows) hoping the darkness would help me find some anchor to stem the tide.

Didn’t work. I was going to have to ride this tsunami to its end.

Letting go, is never an easy thing to do for us humans. We’re conditioned from cradle to grave, to strive for control, of everything, over everything. Our bodies, our families/friends, our environment, and we equate taking action, any action, with control. Needless to say, we don’t succeed all that often. A conclusion that is almost always obscured by all that action-ing we’re so busy doing.

Anyway, I stopped actioning and returned to the window and the pouring rain, and fully released the wave.

Nothing lasts forever, (although it was beginning to feel like it) not even rib-cracking emotional meltdowns, and at last I could draw a breath and release it without sobbing.

And then, as though someone turned off a tap, the heavy rain stopped … and it started to snow. Big fat splats of snow that very quickly covered the draining stormwater in a scum of ice, then layers of snow.

Those who know me know that snow is my thing … it lasted through Winter Solstice day, through Christmas and Boxing Day, and only finished melting the day before yesterday.

It was the most perfect timing of any snowfall, ever.

My snow, my footsteps, my farewell to 2020

My snow, my footsteps, my farewell to 2020

Having My Head Examined – Part 2

Part 1 – HERE

Pumpkin pie notwithstanding, the actual visit was … an experience.

Have you ever seen the poster by Gottfried Heinwein, called ‘The Boulevard of Broken Dreams’, wherein he reworked Edward Hopper’s ‘Nighthawks at the Diner’ with Humphrey Bogart, Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, and Elvis Presley, instead of the original characters?

Boulevard of Broken Dreams

Boulevard of Broken Dreams

I’ve been in and out of hospital, (takes off shoes and socks to count) somewhere in the order of fifteen times in my adult life. All of those visits have been for surgeries to my knee with a few tagged on the end there for my thyroid cancer.

Almost every hospital, (on two continents) had a large entrance or atrium, where there’s usually a coffee shop, a directory, the elevators, a few clusters of faux-comfy chairs, that sort of thing … I’ve always thought of these areas as a sort of ‘boulevard of broken bodies’, because inevitably there would be a smattering of all sorts of body’s, in all sorts of stages of repair and disrepair scattered throughout.

The energy of broken and mending people is hard to be around sometimes. When I think of the thousands of people who have moved through those halls and rooms, all with their fears and pain and terror, it’s almost possible the hear the walls themselves screaming to be released from it all.

This miasma isn’t noticeable to the casual observer, and if loins are suitably girded, one simply feels a sense of relief when one leaves.

My loins were not sufficiently girded. I was already emotionally off-balance. (for reasons mentioned in Part 1)

Throw into the mix, having to wear a mask, (being mid-range-deaf and everyone else is wearing masks too so I can’t lip-read as I usually do and I certainly can’t decode their mufflings without a universal translator) the whole ‘boulevard’ thing, and add an eerie dose of those halls of medicament being damn-near deserted just to top it all off.

I gotta tell you, I was so far out of my skin (read ‘comfort zone) I could’ve been orbiting Jupiter and I wouldn’t’ve been able to tell the difference.

Normally I’m easy-going, but nothing’s ‘normal’ anymore, is it?

By comparison, the CT scan itself was the epitome of horizontalised boringness.

On the way home I blathered on to Mrs Widds about all of the above, and as good listeners (and, hopefully, all spouses) are wont to do, she made supportive noises in all the right places and offered up her wisdoms when I finally ran out of steam.

12 days later, though, and the hospital STILL hasn’t sent its report to my GP. (as of today 22nd October)

Teh STAREZ of DOOM

Teh STAREZ of DOOM

On the up side, a cold front is dragging lots of chilly air down from the Arctic this weekend, so we might even see some early snow …. and we all know how I feel about snow!

SNOW!!!

SNOW!!!

Our road, January 2017 - Oh, how so long ago that seems

Our road, January 2017 – Oh, how so long ago that seems

Finally

After torturing me with well over two months of UN-RE-LENT-ING rain, the temperature finally dropped low enough for this to happen …

Our backyard - the bean pyramid, our newly enclosed patio, and falling snow

Our backyard – the bean pyramid, our newly enclosed patio, and falling snow

It’s not much, just a handful of centimeters, but there’s more in the forecast.

Will we, or nil we, the Seasons turn … The Summer Tree takes on new foliage and becomes the Winter Tree …

Wet snow drapes the windsock  low

Wet snow drapes the windsock low

Snow And Prelude

Prelude is up and running!!! Herewith be it

-oOo-

When last we hear from our intrepid SNOW!!!™ reporter she had discovered that snow really does form ‘snowflake’ shapes.

Alas, her joy was not to last.

The -20C gusty winds blew most of the fluffy snow away to parts unknown, and our sad SNOW!!!™ reporter was sad …

Sad Widder

Even the windsocks were sad

Even the windsocks were sad

But, lo and behold, the very next day …

Happy windsocks

Happy windsocks

Our SNOW!!!™ reporter and her spouse shoveled the snow off their paths and driveway and then wandered down to the lake to see what had become of it …

Frozen and covered in snow

Frozen and covered in snow

Our SNOW!!!™ reporter was last seen ambling up the road, looking for further snowy adventures.

Last seen heading north

Last seen heading north

SNOW!!! … Finally!

This week was our turn to have our very own arctic outflow. The temperature dropped from +10°C, to -10°C with a windchill of -18°C, in 24 hours. Gusts of wind added their own special flavour to the mix, and we engaged all our ‘lost power’ procedures … topped up the water dispensers, made sure the generator had enough gasoline, got a big pot of soup going in the slow cooker, that sort of thing.

Thankfully none of our measures were needed. (touch wood, because another cold and snow wave is immanent) Like most of North America, our electricity is in dire need of an upgrade, so it’s better to be prepare everything and not need them, than freeze!

Herewith be a bit of snow …

A light dusting

A light dusting

… that got a bit heavier and blew about all over the place. I tracked one poor little snowflake as it tried to get down to the ground at least three times.

I ducked out the front door and got this shot in between ginormous gusts of wind

I ducked out the front door and got this shot in between ginormous gusts of wind

By the time night fell  the air was full of snow, blown about like dust …

The white streaks are the slower moving bits of snow

The white streaks are the slower moving bits of snow

Mrs Widds and I valiantly braved the wild weather to shovel and salt our paths. Although there wasn’t much overall snow, I did my artistic duty and hastily swept a design into the driveway …

Smiley Face is looking a bit concerned

Smiley Face is looking a bit concerned

-oOo-

In other news, I finally managed to upload a print version Prelude onto KDP and order a proof copy that should arrive on our, chilly, doorstep sometime around the end of the month.

I’d put the whole process with KDP on a par with my Smashwords experience. Not overly complex, but hard work. Once I’d formatted my manuscript for a printed page, rather than a scrolling page (ebook) the rest was fairly straightforward.

So, as soon as I’ve perused the proof copy, all things being equal, it’ll be live on Amazon!

-oOo-

Now back to the snow …

As I was sweeping off the back stoop I came across the most amazing sight. Tiny star-shaped bits of snow. I dashed inside for my camera, (which I occasionally use as a phone) and tried my best to capture the wee things before they blew away.

This is the best shot …

Of all the red deck-chairs on the whole island, this little beauty fell into mine

Of all the red deck-chairs on the whole island, this little beauty fell into mine

And these lined up like a constellation in the night sky. The Mother (Nature) never wastes a pattern! …

Hello there, little stars

Hello there, little stars

-oOo-

No-one sings about the cold like Annie Lennox …