It is still snowing!

 It is a cold one this morning. I had trouble thinking about getting out of bed. Cinnamon snuggled beside me over night. Predawn he gets up and gets ready for the birds to wake up.

By Tuesday, our trees weren't any worse, but they weren't any better, either. It has snowed since the Monday/Tuesday rain, ice rain, and then 8 cm snow. In fact, it has been snowing for days. Not a lot, but, as AC said, it wasn't the day we'd hoped for. They are threatening rain on the weekend. It'll be a mess.

I wandered out, after I'd had my coffee and filled the feeders. The colours were interesting.

It was lovely, but I am still worried about the trees. 

after the storm from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

King Charles IV is a frequent flyer. 

From the bird feeders, he went over to the dried goldenrod and at a bit of food. They fill their bellies with any flora they can find. 

After my morning work, I spent hours cleaning the grout. A brush, and Vim seemed to work. I cramped up more quickly the longer I worked on it over the two days, and took breaks from sitting on my foot stool. You can compare the ↙before and after ↘. My body is sore, but it is done.

Wednesday morning it wasn't any worse, the ice. Mind you, the wind had started up, and the clacking of the icy branches reminded me of Ice Storm '98. I've had the hee bee jeebies all week, after last winter's storm damage. 

We are lucky we have Internet! The TV satellite has been iffy, as well! 

Wednesday we had COVID/flu shots. Then, we went to the Telus store. I'd tried to transfer my Christmas music to iTunes and I ended up killing my phone! I had a message that there wasn't room for all my music. Next the phone ended up in a loop and wouldn't start or shut off. I Googled it and found what to do, but it didn't work. 

The wonderful young lady at the store rebooted it, transferred my data from iCloud, and all was well. WHEW!!! JB had gone next door and grabbed us Subway sandwiches for lunch. We went home and put up our feet.

Book Review: The 18th Abduction

The Women's Murder Club novel series

I've been reading this series in order. I began with book #10. I am not interested in going back in time too far. Our library didn't have book #13. I bought it, read it, and donated it to them! 

It only occured to me, reading book #17, that they don't mention our hero's daughter in the book. I must admit, I missed that detail. Lindsay Boxer is the detective with an infant, and I just kept reading. Having finished it, I looked it up. I missed the detail: that this book's events take place 5 years prior, and the two-year-old wasn't born yet. Apparently, I am not the only one who missed that detail in the beginning of the book! 

It's a tricky part of the series. I remember juggling motherhood and work. I find it hard to believe the overtime Detective Boxer works. She has an elderly neighbour who minds her kid, but her husband is a part time stay-at-home dad. 

Finally, someone returned book #23 to the library. I read that, and then they returned #23 1/2 Lies. JB hustled in to pick it up for me. 

Imagine my shock when I gazed through the book, and found out it contains three novellas. It seems to finish off the Women's Murder Club story, then two more new books. I had questions! Did she keep on working, how did she juggle being a detective, with her and her husband's job? I appears as if there is a book 24 in 2024, which seems fitting.

I have 19, 20, 21, 22 and 23 in our local library. I finished #21 early November.

❄️ A Sunday storm ☃️

❄️ SUNDAY☃️  First, there was 9mm of rain, then it began to get colder. Ice accretion was the difficulty Monday. It is now buried under several cm of snow. And it kept snowing.

Our power flickered off and then on. There was a small outage, quickly fixed.

The icicles on the feeders looked pretty. The tree branches, not so much.

Then the snow began... They just kept drooping more and more.

❄️ Monday morning ☃️ 

We had some snow. It weighed down the branches, sticking to the ice coated branches. I do have my spiffy red boots with cleats, but the ground was warmer than the trees and it was just sludge. 

First I shoveled the sidewalk. It wasn't slippery, but the snow stuck to slush and it was heavy. Next, using the snowblower on the driveway to clear a path to haul out the garbage all was good. Next, I put out garbage. It was coffee and breakfast and I tackled the rest of the driveway.

The oak trees still have leaves, and they are weighed down with ice and sticky snow.

All the bushes lean heavily.

And those beautiful white pines... Cross your fingers for us. We spent several thousand dollars having them cleaned up with breakage from last December's storm. Then another ice storm happened in April – three days after that mess was cleaned up. I worked on it cleaning it up myself, from December to about February, when I gave up and we called in the professionals. There were broken branches high up.

The bird bath is hanging in, icicles dripping and frozen.

Joseph Brian went out for a walk. It was getting worse. 

There he is in the back 40, doing his morning walk. He took photos for me.

It snowed all day. It's 6 a.m., and I can't see any more damage in the dark. I'd love a sunny day. We need to burn off the snow and ice.