I remember years when the snow swallowed cars and sheds. I remember one year when it swallowed single-storey houses. I remember years where there was almost no snow and I remember the Ice Storm of ’98 that shut down half of Ontario and Quebec for up to a month and killed 35 people.

In more recent years, we’ve had less ‘wintery’ weather. Last year, we got far more rain than snow and the driveway never really froze the whole winter. This year, while we have definitely had colder weather and the driveway has been more frozen than not, we havent had a lot of snow (so far). This does not make me sad. I hate driving in snow, hate shovelling snow, hate having to walk through snow. But at the same time, snow is necessary in the Canadian water cycle and helps insulate plants and trees against winter kill. Given I planted over 100 of the latter in the summer and fall, I’d rather not lose them. However, while most of North America is in the DeepFreeze this week, we’re only a few degrees below zero. Maybe as much as low double digits at night. The windchills, though, are far colder.

It has been windy. Very windy.

Wind is not and has never been my friend. It makes me antsy. I don’t sleep well. I am always expecting to get up in the morning and find extreme damage of some form. So far, that hasnt happened. We lose a tree now and then, but nothing has been lost that we can’t easily replace. Someday, I’m sure that will change.

I am very grateful that we arent in the bus this year. It bucked and rocked like a fairground ride in the wind. In comparison, the steel building is merely noisy. Very noisy.