It was a fitful night, filled mostly with sleep, sleep interrupted frequently by the howl of the wind, and visits to the loo. When morning light arrived, it found me snuggled under my eiderdown, gazing out the window at the tortured trees, as the wind ripped across the landscape.
It was -5C outside the window when I finally arose.
We had hydro, all night, and it is still with us this morning. The weather today may change that.
The sand truck just passed, leaving a dark stain down the middle of the road. The truck returned, to plow the accumulated ice pellets to the side of the road. Transportation routes are passable again.
It isn’t over yet though! Today promises to bring more ice pellets and freezing rain, along with strong winds.
I am shut in, as is Attila, for the weekend. Yesterday was quite pleasant, allowing ample time to attend to reorganizing the domestic space here. There were two large unpacked heavy totes in the basement, containing my text books. Attila carried them to the main floor for me. I thought I would want to get rid of them, but alas, no. Many of them were written by friends, colleagues, some of them reference my work. There is a whole world of memories in those books, good memories, so I carefully sorted through them, organized them, and placed them on the bookshelf. Two totes down in the basement, yay!
Within a few days all of this ice will be gone. Hopefully the roads will be clear by tomorrow morning, when many people need to go back to work. For my part, I am looking forward to some weather that resembles spring, so that I can sit on the back porch, and plan activities away from the house that won’t be cancelled due to weather and road conditions.
Yesterday I spent some time in the kitchen preparing Falafels. The recipe I have is low in sodium, as I only add a pinch, rather than the recommended amount, and includes grated carrots. I love it! It was created by the cook, Maya Jagger, at the day care centre at the university, when Terra was enrolled there. The woman was one of the nicest you would ever want to meet, Terra loved her. She liked Terra. Terra has a genuine appreciation for good food, so they were bound to like one another. I bought Maya’s cookbook, and the recipe for Falafels became one of my favourite meals.
Last night I shared my creation with Attila, and we enjoyed a lovely meal together.
Netflix has done a remake of Lost In Space. I liked that program as a kid, and this new rendition is very amusing, very different, and very amusing. So far there is no gratuitous violence, or extreme intrigue, just ordinary human orneriness, with the usual undetected sociopath in the mix, there is always a sociopath, in real life as in fiction.
This morning I have baked muffins while the hydro is here, and a loaf of bread is in the machine, chugging towards a loaf.
Worldly Distractions
Weather
FREEZING RAIN WARNING IN EFFECT
-4°C
Lightning
Light Freezing Rain
Date: 8:00 AM EDT Sunday 15 April 2018
Condition: Light Freezing Rain
Pressure: 102.8 kPa
Tendency: Falling
Temperature: -4.2°C
Dew point: -7.0°C
Humidity: 81%
Wind: NE 41 gust 58 km/h
Wind Chill: -13
Visibility: 16 km
Today: Periods of ice pellets or freezing drizzle changing to freezing rain near noon and ending late this afternoon then cloudy. Risk of freezing drizzle late this afternoon. Ice pellet amount 2 to 4 cm. Wind northeast 40 km/h gusting to 70. High minus 1.
Tonight Cloudy. Rain beginning late this evening. Risk of freezing drizzle this evening. Amount 15 mm. Wind northeast 40 km/h gusting to 70. Temperature rising to plus 2 by morning.
Quote
“When it is not necessary to make a decision, it is necessary not to make a decision.”
Lord Falkland (1610 – 1643)
For some reason, we have stopped making bread in the machine. It was Paul’s bread that got made in it, but the last several loaves were less than ideal… so he has resorted to buying himself a different store-bought loaf of some 9 or 10 or more grain bread each week. He seems pleased enough with them. So the machine is on hiatus for now. After making a new loaf for him every 4 days for the past 25 or more years, it’s nice not to have to do it for now.
Weather is such a funny thing. Here, it is 80F+ yesterday and today, 10F above average. Tomorrow night, it’s to be down to 37F, 10F below average.
I hope you continue to be warm and well lit.
Thanks for the link to the Falafel recipe. I’m hoping to give it a try in the near future. At our house, I’ll have to cut way back on the cumin since the spousal unit doesn’t do “hot.”
Bex, bread making waxes and wanes for me. Right now we have a plenitude of whole wheat flour which must be used in a timely fashion, so bread making it is. Waste not, want not. The flour is here, and so I am making bread. I think the whole wheat flour we have will supply Attila’s lunches with bread for another year, then who knows. Store bought bread is so very expensive! When we buy ready made bread our food bills rise signficantly. I don’t mind making bread, but it is nice to take a break from it during the summer months! Bread making is made more instrusive by the time-of-use hydro billing, which means I must bake after 7 p.m. in the evening, when the hydro is less than half price. I am usually a bit tired by that time, so it makes it more of a chore… ergo I try to bake bread on the weekends when the hydro is cheap during the day as well.
Wendy, that is quite the swing in temperature! The weather is consistent if you look at it the right way, it is consistently inconsistent! 🙂
The Falafels are a real treat for us, I don’t find them at all hot, except for the hot sauce I sprinkle on them after I add them to the pita bread, it adds quite a zing! I wonder if the tahini mediates potential heat in the Falafels. Honestly, I don’t find the falafels to have any heat at all on their own. The recipe was devised for preschoolers, so it is relatively bland.
I would love the falafels, too, with the sauce but minus the pita! I heard an ad on the radio for that Netflix program. I’m glad to hear you found something you like there.
Joan, the Falafels are a real treat around here! I really enjoy the fresh chopped cucumber and tomato with them, the tahini sauce brings it all together.
I have watched two episodes, and so far have not had to watch any gory violence, a real plus. Lots of danger and suspence, moreso than the original show of 1965, which relfects the technology available today for creating images.
Spring can’t come soon enough.
I was talking to my therapist about sociopaths. They don’t make good family members.
Birdie, spring can arrive any time now!
Dr. Smith, the character on Lost In Space is a sociopath, and not an asset to human survival. Sociopaths never are.
I can’t imagine the – what to me would be the horror – of being ‘imprisoned’ in your home because of the weather.
I complain when it’s…..to me…too hot to go out or too wet to be out or too cold to be out…..but have never physically been unable to leave the house.
How do you cope when that happens?
Cathy
Cathy, it is an odd feeling, that of being cut off completely from leaving the premises. I take comfort in looking out the window at the neighbouring homes, seeing that they too are housebound, their cars covered with thick coats of ice, no signs of any movement, on the road or anywhere else. Knowing this will last only for 24 hours, or 48 hours as it turned out, that it will end, makes a big difference.
In Canada this is something that people have always had to cope with, as it can happen anytime during the winter months. I am prepared for it, here at Mist Cottage. Drinking water is stored in containters, a portable toilet stands at the ready, a propane stove and fuel is always there, warm clothing always sitting in the closet in case it is needed, battery operated lights and a good supply of candles sit in a drawer…
When we lived in the country house we experienced being housebound every winter, for varying lengths of time, and lost hydro frequently during the winter months. That is why we installed the masonry heater there, to provide warmth off-grid, and it was necessary. During the first winter at the country house we larned a lot of lessons about preparedness, and those strategies have become habitual.
This morning the road in front of our house is almost impassable, and freezing rain is falling out of the sky for the third day in a row. The temperature is supposed to rise to 6C, which will melt all of this away in the next 24 to 48 hours, and it will seem as if it never happened at all, at least for those of us lucky enough to have been able to stay comfortably housebound, with no transporation or medical issues to contend with.
Being housebound is so much easier with hydro!!! This bout of bad weather took out the power the first night, Friday night, during the night, but it was back on by the time I woke up Saturday morning, and has been on ever since. Heat, cooking, lights, all working!
Ah, the joys of country living. Been there, done that. To this day, we keep a large supply of water handy, just in case. It has been 22 years since Hurricane Fran, but we remember!
Frost warning tonight and then back to 80F on Wednesday here. What a winter/spring for all of us.
Cold is dominating the weather picture right across Canada, and this time we here in BC are experiencing a very cold and wet spring! But thankfully no snow, I spoke with my sister in Lethbridge this morning, and she was commenting on new flakes of snow coming down! Glad that you are ready for anything!
Wendy, that is a real mind bender, frost to 80F! Extreme weather everywhere.
Country living does offer a few tough but handy lessons. Water is something we can’t do without, food is much less important. The Ontario government recommends people be prepared for a certain number of days with no services, stocking enough water, food, clothing, light etc. to get through without public services. We even have our composting toilet supplies here at Mist Cottage for the winter, so that without water we would still be able to handle human waste without difficulty, or even in a flood situation, as the buckets and supplies could be kept well above water level until the flood receded and normal waste disposal resumed. Compost toilets are something even apartment dwellers could have on hand in case of water supply disruptions. I wouldn’t want to use any prescious water on waste disposal! My how I can digress! 🙂
Diane, what a cold, cold spring! Snow in Lethbridge too! I think there will be a lot of joyful people when the temperature rises above 10C!!!