Still Sunday 22 December

STOP PRESS: Special request from Ontario Canadians - please stop praying for my white Christmas! they said it's enough now and they want some warmer weather back!!

Sunday 22 December

The first time I've celebrated my birthday in the northern hemisphere in 62 years! When I was called for breakfast, there were three helium balloons tied to my chair. J

We woke to an icy (as opposed to snowy) wonderland. Everything is either thickly coated with ice or has icicles hanging off it. Even low ground cover and weeds, all coated with ice and everything looks like it’s made of glass. Branches of trees are so heavy with ice and so brittle, being frozen, that a couple of branches have broken off Steve and Dianne’s birch out the front. This is the first view of out the front; notice the icicles on the lantern:

A frozen tree:

We heard that church was still on because the main roads have been salted this morning, so Steve salted the little path to the car and we walked out carefully. When I opened the car door it crunched and cracked; the windows were all iced up, so that required vigorous scraping by Steve.

On our way to Maccas, there were lots of huge tree branches down because of the wind and ice. Dianne opened her window to look at something; it hadn’t been scraped, so when she wound the window down, there was a solid thick sheet of ice still there, like looking through frosted glass.

We stopped for gas – icicles on everything and a car still coated with ice:

My side mirror - no, silly, it's not the driver's side in this country!

Church wasn’t too down on numbers, about 40-50 people?? However, at the end of music practice, as the service started, the power went down. So out came the baby grand piano and we all gathered around that for a worship time. Then a few reflections on Christmas, followed by the Christmas story from Luke. I was sitting near one of the only two windows in the auditorium which aren’t coloured, frosted glass, listening to the time-old verses: straight through the window was a winter wonderland – so pretty. God said “it’s just for you!” What a lovely birthday gift! J

This church doesn’t have a Christmas Day service, so with the advent wreath, having lit four candles last Sunday, they lit the four again today and then the four people each took their candle from the wreath and lit the “Jesus” candle together. They then relit their four candles and passed through the church with each of our candles being lit by them – very similar to the Easter candle ceremony on Holy Saturday.

Walking to and from the car had to be done carefully: very slippery in parts. Notice the branch down on the pathway:

The trip home was a scene of huge storm damage: the frozen branches, some very large and heavy have been devastated on trees everywhere by the strong wind. Branches are down on streets, some closed off; branches are down on power lines, cutting power to many parts of the area. Malls are in darkness, parking lots empty. Cafes and restaurants are dark and empty - a major tragedy for all retail and food service on the Sunday before Christmas. Many homes have no power for heating or cooking.

We have everything working here; at lunchtime Steve and Dianne gave me a birthday present – Steve had gone out and chosen fabric himself and made me an Amish style apron; there’s a matching pot holder in each pocket. You can see why he chose the pattern:

Frozen tree in the backyard over the frozen clothesline (sorry, it's through a flyscreen).

Dianne and Steve wanted to take me to a museum after lunch but when we arrived there, not only had the police cordoned off that section of road because of fallen branches but the place was in darkness – no power. We heard there are 17000 homes without power tonight: in sub-zero weather, that's not good. 

So we went to Coffee Culture, quite similar to the Cheesecake Factory in style but without the opulence in decor and food. Great cuppa and they actually froth the milk manually, rather than machined milk and froth that most specialist coffee places serve. While we sat there, chunks of ice fell from overhead deposits onto the street – quite enthralling to watch.

Toboggans were out there on the toboggan hill we passed: very cold and damp up there (although it was about 1º degree – a sweltering day!).

When we got home after being shocked at all the damage along the way, we found out that the restaurant that was supposed to provide my birthday dinner was also shut down, without power. However, phone calls revealed another source, so we headed out Del Dente, an Italian restaurant. There were quite a few tables filled when we got there but we got fancy armchairs at a table right in the middle of the dining floor (everyone else had normal straight-back chairs). By the end of the evening (about 9.00) there were only a handful of people left. On a night just before Christmas they should have been very busy but the weather has caused many people to stay home.

The meal was wonderful – bruschetta to die for; bread made in flower pots with herb butter and cinnamon butter; Caesar salad for entrees for Steve and Dianne. Steve had lasagne; Dianne had an amazing eggplant stack; I had a chicken futtucini with wonderful  stuff and was grateful I only ordered a small. We took away 6 little doggy bag boxes. Then out came the “birthday cake” – a flourless chocolate cake slice with cherry port sorbet: squisito!

The streets were much clearer on the way home and some of the ice had melted from parts of the trees. The paths are still icy; it’s -1º at the moment but expected to drop tonight to about -1º I think.

So ended an amazing birthday!

Saturday 21 December

First task this morning was to build a snowman.  The benefit of the rain was that it made the snow wet and so it’s much easier to pack into shape now. Dry snow is useless for building snowmen.

Then we went back to Chikopee ski hill to have coffee in the restaurant overlooking the slopes. It was very quiet today – not so good for the staff. They had lots of staff on in the cafeteria and restaurant, expecting a big Saturday crowd, but very few people were out. Two reasons for this: it’s raining and miserable and it’s the last shopping weekend before Christmas. Staff were looking rather bored, texting, making paper planes! Many looked young, so probably college students earning a dollar. Our waitress was Brandy, only her second day on the job - a lovely girl, who had spent a holiday in Australia, so she enjoyed chatting with us.

We’ll spend the rest of the day indoors because it’s grey and miserable outside. It’s already icy on driveways, so you have to be careful walking. The freezing rain is expected around 4.00pm and will continue till noon tomorrow.

Still Friday 20 December

We left for Sarnia at 1.00pm and arrived about 3.30pm. There was no freezing rain, fog most of the way, some rain but the temp stayed between 1º  and 3º , which meant it didn’t freeze on the road.

We drove around the town, having a look at the areas where Steve grew up, went to school, worked, played, down to the lake, although we couldn’t see much it because of the misty conditions, just the edges which were already icing over. Over to the other side to the edge of Lake Huron.  Already “icebergs” are forming at the edge where the lake begins to freeze.  We could see over to the US side, which looked very close.

We went to the two bridges that connect to the US, one for each direction – very impressive structures. Most pictures are from inside the car because it was too cold and wet to get out! Boats are lifted out of the water and shrink wrapped for the winter – stored in multi level frames; otherwise the freezing lake would crush them.

After a light meal at Tim Horton’s, we drove along the park to see their beautiful display of lights and then went to the Mall, just to do some walking because we’d been sitting so long in the car.

We arrived at Steve’s brother and sister-in-law’s place, Cec and Vera, and soon others began to arrive. Vera decorates almost every square inch of their home with Christmas and they have two magnificently adorned Christmas trees. Very Dutch-style decorating and a lovely, cosy house; entertaining was down in the basement and the room was soon full of people.

It was great fun talking with all the lovely men and women and partners who make up Steve’s family. His eldest sister, Margaret, turns 80 next year. It was Vera’s 70th birthday, so the Dutch tradition is for the family to all gather at the birthday person’s home; she had to provide all the food and even her cake. However, I’ve just realised there was no singing of Happy Birthday or candles etc.

We left by 9.15; it was pretty dry for a while; the rain started a little way into the trip and followed us to about 10 mins out from home, when the temperature dropped to 0º  and the road started to ice. By the time we were home at almost 11.30, we had to be careful walking from the car because it was very icy already. 

Thank God for a safe trip!

Friday 20 December

It’s wet this morning, only 1º  but when it’s wet it feels colder. The rain is very light but enough to start to melt the snow. Up till now the snow has been too light and dry and fluffy to make a snowman but if there’s time, we’re going to try to make one in a little while; then we plan to have lunch and head off on our trip. 

In this country in winter, people carry a survival kit in their trunk (sorry, boot!). Weather can move in or change quickly and highways can be shut. If you’re out there, you need to be able to keep warm, watered and if necessary fed. We will also take an overnight bag in case the roads are iced over when it’s time to leave Sarnia tonight.

Thursday 19 December

Happy Birthday, Matt! 12 years old today and finished with Junior School forever! Well done, Matt – hope your birthday was special.

Today it’s really warm. Overnight minimum was -6º; when we went out for our walk, it was up to -2º. At the hockey rink it’s like walking in a freezer room; this morning there was a hockey game on: no spectators but the game itself is noisy with banging on the walls of the rink, etc.

Coffee at Macca’s afterwards. When my coffee came, it was a small and I’d ordered a large. So the guy was going to throw it out, when Dianne said she’d like it, so she got a free latte! It’s much more pleasant walking around the car park without the snow and salt.

A quiet day – a trip to the mall for groceries and then to another mall for a browse through a department store. After dinner, we went to Ray and Cathy’s, friends of Steve and Dianne’s, about 15 minutes away. It was 1º when we were there around 7pm. Now it’s back to 0º.

The forecast for tomorrow, Saturday and some of Sunday is for warmer temperatures, hovering between about -3º  and 2º but with this will come “ice pellets” and “freezing rain”. This last term means the roads will be so icy and dangerous that it’s really foolish to drive. Snow is taken care off by salting and sanding the roads; that doesn’t work with ice. Saturday evening we could get an "ice storm" apparently.

We’re supposed to be going across to Steve’s family in Sarnia to celebrate his sister’s birthday tomorrow evening, but it’s a two-hour drive and you simply don’t take that risk in this country in this weather. So we’ll wait and see if the weather man is right: if he is, we won’t be going anywhere tomorrow! 

Wednesday 18 December

This morning was leisurely, but with a focus on making sure we had a good breakfast, packing the car and outfitting all of us in extreme gear before we checked out: the cold weather gear turned out to be more important than we expected. It took about half an hour to find our way almost to Brad’s farm (not before we encountered a flock of wild turkeys wandering on the road.

Then we encountered a couple of unexpected hiccups: we reached the bits of the icy road that were uphill. Ice on a downward grade is difficult enough to drive on; ice on the up is even more problematic. Our first run up the hill finished about three quarters of the way up; Steve allowed the car to reverse, sliding back down about 100m to a flatter surface, where he got up a bit of speed. Up the hill we went again, a fraction further than last time, then slower and slower. We didn’t get much further before we stopped again. Steve and I got out, Dianne took the driver’s seat and we started pushing – uphill on ice with slipping boots. It didn’t work! (Would have been a funny pic, I'm sure!)

So Dianne and I started walking up the hill on the ice. We had not long passed one property when we started out and were relieved to discover that Brad’s farm was only about 200m further along the road. We were very grateful that at that stage it had warmed up to -7! We met Brad, who hopped on his tractor and went down the road to locate Steve who had again tried the hill and failed. Brad wasn’t able to do any better, so Steve parked the car and walked up the hill, about 300m.  So we were all safe but a lot of our energy had been used up getting there!

So up we walked to the pens where the dogs are kept.

They have only had a few brief runs so far. The season doesn’t start until Friday and it’s earlier than they expected (because of the early snowfalls) so the dogs need to get back in condition and the tracks have to be groomed before the crowds of tourists come. Brad had told Dianne that there weren’t any mushing runs until Friday (we were trying to book two teams so we could all go) but when she mentioned the reason for their interest, Brad said he would take me out because it was the only chance I would have.

We watched him carefully select first his direction dogs (closest to the sled), then his lead dogs, then six other dogs behind the lead dogs. Every dog was jumping around on its chain, barking, “Pick me! Pick me!”

 It was fun heading off on a very spartan sled, not strapped in or anything; very bumpy in parts, with no padding because the cushion had slipped. Sometimes the speed gets pretty high and sometimes it’s a slower pace. There are branches that hit you in the face if you’re not watching for them. Even with the speed, I felt perfectly safe because Brad is a solid weight and knows exactly what he’s doing.

The whole experience was exhilarating and exciting in the most incredibly beautiful surroundings. The snow was so deep and soft, none of the icy surface that it gets later. The bush is so breathlessly quiet when you stop: and, of course, there was no other “traffic”, just our one sled. I learned a lot about dog politics and relationships with each other and with Brad, as he talked about his world. The two direction dogs, for example were one totally blind and one going blind; they’re all so intelligent that they remember every part of the track.

After an hour’s ride, 12km, we were back. We had to walk down the 300km of icy road again and this time Steve was prepared with fast runs up the icy hills. Brad was about 10 mins behind us in his truck and would have helped if we’d become stuck again, so that was a good feeling.

Huntsville Maccas was our first stop for a coffee and to get out of our ridiculous layers of extreme cold clothing, back to more basic layers. By this time, it was snowing heavily again.

We had a look around a couple of the shops Dianne was interested in and then we went to Tim Horton's for a bite to eat (it was already 2.00) before we headed home. The run back to Kitchener took close to 4 hours, without a stop and was a good run, except for getting caught behind a snow plough for many kilometres.

It was a machine we hadn’t seen before, straddling both lanes of the highway, so the only way around it was to detour via an exit. The snow stopped about half way home and the roads were very good in parts, although icy for the last half hour or so.

Unpacking the car took a little while but we were soon eating another one of Dianne’s amazing meals and then all settled into bed to read or get an early start on sleep.