Wednesday, November 29, 2006

BRRRRRRRRRRRR!!


Hoo, boy. Winter has definitely arrived in Portland. Snow. Temps in the low 20's. Black ice. All of the above.

The little pond in our back yard was frozen over this morning, and the bucket I use to carry weeds up to the green waste container (filled with water by last week's rains) is now a bucket of ice. We're working to keep the bird feeders filled with black sunflower seeds, so the birds have enough food to keep them going until it warms up a bit.

I feel little abashed when I write this, but I am almost completely unused to this kind of cold weather. Even after fifteen years in New England, where winter started at the end of October and didn't end until May some years, my body acclimated itself to Northern California about five years after I moved out there, and it hasn't gotten used to this cold weather yet - not by a long shot. Luckily, I saved a bunch of sweaters and gloves and wool scarves, even after the move to California, so I have a decent supply of those garments, but I no longer have a really warm jacket. I'm not going anywhere near stores or malls until after the holidays, so I hope the temperatures moderate enough that I won't be in desperate need until early in January.

In the meantime, I'm sure grateful for central heat!



2 comments:

mdmhvonpa said...

I'm writing now from the Suburbs of Philly and the weather here is absolutely BALMY. I'm sure we will pay for this respite with a fierce lashing of ice storms soon enough though.

Revalani said...

You post for me, Lib. Both the birdbath in the backyard and Stella's water bowl on the kitchen deck were frozen solid the last couple of days. Looks like we're in for a warming trend, though, at least for the next few days. I'm glad; I'm really not all that enamored of the scarf-over-face look.