Nap time

Not only is it interesting that Shelby likes to sleep with her feet tucked under her chin (something not everyone can do!) but also that she likes to gather up her toys and sleep with them too. She loves her toys but they have to be tough to survive all that lovin'. lol 10/20/19

Hints of blue sky after the storm

Deep snow & autumn colours. Not something you see very often. Hopefully, never again! Our Burr Oaks weathered the storm without damage, unlike most trees in Manitoba. The city of Winnipeg announced today that there are more than 50,000 trees damaged and the cleanup could take a year. There are still several thousand homes without power & it’s now 7 days since the storm began. Difficult to imagine the extent of this storm. Many thanks for your comments & support, so very appreciated! :)) 10/19/19

Delicious Autumn

"Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns." - George Eliot 10/18/19

Autumn

Let’s get back to autumn & how it looked around here only a week ago…. Added a painterly touch in Topaz Textures to brighten it up a bit. 10/17/19

One last wintery photo

That’s enough snow for now! Hopefully it will be another month or two before we see snow again. It’s gradually melting & should be gone by the end of the week. Our ‘state of emergency’ in Winnipeg & Southern Manitoba is now over but there are still hundreds without power. It’s difficult to get stats about the storm because the cleanup is ongoing but I heard yesterday that more than 3000 hydro poles & 50 towers were downed and many more damaged. Manitoba Hydro announced it would be at least 3 more weeks before power is fully restored. They are still calling in more help from Saskatchewan, Ontario & Minnesota. We are so blessed, here in our little community, to have power. Funny how often we forget to be grateful for the things we take for granted the most. Flip a light switch today! And if you get light… consider yourself lucky! 10/16/19

Snow & autumn colours

At the beginning of the storm, the trees looked lovely. Snow and autumn leaves are not something we often see and now that the storm is over, I can say that I hope to never see it again … even if it was a photo op. Thanks for all your thoughts on the storm and the pics, very much appreciated, as always….. :) 10/15/19

No matter what the weather ....

the walk must go on! Nothing gets in the way of Shelby’s walk. Ever! Happy Thanksgiving to all our Canadian friends! It will not be as planned here, our family gathering has been cancelled. Even though the temps have risen above freezing & the melt has begun, there is slush everywhere which makes driving difficult & so much clean up to do. We are lucky though, everyone in my family & our communities have power, there are still many communities without power and some will be waiting for days yet. In the country, it may be weeks... so many poles & towers came down, it will be a long time before everything is repaired. 10/14/19

This was shot only an hour into the storm - the trees will suffer....

It’s clean up time after the storm and the damage to trees has been horrific. The numbers have not been added up yet, but already Winnipeg has recognized that they have never lost as many trees at one time. A total of 150,000 homes were without power at one point, a record for any previous storm, and several thousand are still waiting for restoration. Apparently, most of the power outages were caused by falling trees. The reason the trees have been so devastated is that because the storm happened so early, they still had all their leaves and the weight of the heavy wet snow, then the ice combined with extreme winds, made their branches bend with the weight until they broke. Even the trees that didn’t fall are left bending at strange angles. There isn’t a tree that hasn’t been affected by the storm…. it’s a very sad sight to look around the neighbourhood. I hope by tomorrow, now that the snow and ice are melting, that many will recover. We will have to wait and see… 10/13/19

Midway through the storm

Our back deck, yesterday afternoon. The snow continued overnight and we were without power last night for quite some time. I haven’t ventured outside yet this morning for more photos. Later today, I hope. Our power is on this morning so I am posting this quickly as I don’t know how long I will have it. Our neighbours and their street to the north have been without power since 4pm yesterday. Winds should abate today sometime, the snow will continue off & on. I will comment on your pics when I can… :) 10/12/19

What a difference a day makes

The path yesterday morning…. and it’s has been snowing ever since, so there’s about a foot more snow there by now. We are now in the midst of what’s being called a ‘historic 3 day blizzard’ with extreme weather conditions. I’m not sure how much snow we’ve had, but I’m guessing around 12 inches, hard to say because the wind is unbelievable - we are expecting gusts of over 100 kph later today and more snow still coming. Conditions are not expected to improve at all until tomorrow morning. So far, I am one of the lucky ones - still have power & internet, trees & power lines are down everywhere, so I am prepared to loose both at any time. No photos to share after yesterday morning as I didn’t have time yesterday & today it’s too extreme to be outside for longer than it takes to feed the birds and bring in wood for the fire. Difficult days, can’t wait for this to be over! 10/11/19

First storm of the year

& it’s a whopper. Took this shot this morning, only about 15 minutes after the snow started, and of course, it doesn’t show the wind, which is brutal. This is a second post for this morning, I may loose internet & power over the next few days. Hopefully not, but I am trying to prepare. Not fun as I am here alone... :( (I think some of you may be enduring the same storm??) 10/10/19

Our morning walk

It’s now 2 days after I took this shot & we are deep in our first blizzard of the year, and it’s promising to sit here until Sunday. So this image is long gone, sadly. Very early for snow, let alone a storm of this magnitude. I have the feeling it’s time to hunker down, this could be a very long hard winter & it's off to a very nasty beginning. (added a second post for today - a quick iphone shot of our back deck taken this morning as the storm began) 10/10/19

Glory days

After endless days of heavy dark clouds & rain, finally the skies cleared yesterday & we had a day of brilliant sunshine - just in time to catch the autumn colours at their peak. Many thanks for all your comments & critiques, I appreciate them all so very much…. :) 10/09/19

Autumn sunrise

Now that the sun rises at a more reasonable hour, I can actually enjoy it….without having to leave the house…. :-) 10/08/19