On Saturday, I wrote about my peaceful mornings.  Filled with tea, knitting, scents and animals. Winter is so unpredictable in Eastern Canada that I feel like we see the moon more than the sun.

And then there are winter storm mornings that stay for days and nights. There is something about blizzards and winter storms that I find really exciting (as long as you can stay home – there is nothing exciting about having to go out in a storm).  I can probably partly attribute this feeling to my childhood and snowdays.  However, now as an adult, I love the energy of the storm and my very legitimate excuse to just knit all day by the fire!  I started the body of my latest Lopapeysa which I am either going to name “Celtic Garden” or “Folklore” because of the pattern I have in mind for the yoke.  If you’re curious about our last 2 days staying in doors while harsh wind and snow drove at us, please continue on!

M O N D A Y

On Monday morning we awaited a blizzard – impending sense of wild, lashing doom that rips across the province.  I definitely received a not so peaceful omen during the early hours of Monday.  When I woke to bring Henry outside, I could just hear the wind was beginning to pick up.  I walked downstairs and in the dark I could see something not right sitting on the kitchen floor with cats padding about.  Lovely! A very inverted mouse, thank you so much Petey.  We always know that Petey is responsible for the crime – he just sits and watches too when I clean up his work.  Afterwards, I took Henry outside in the wind and the misty rain while a small murder of crows flew directly over us, swaying in the wind, caw – cawing.

I decided to just sit, knit and drink tea and fill the house with some warming, calming scents. I sat by the window to watch – but nothing happened really until around noon. The wind and snow began to pick up.  The chickens were out during the morning but we closed them back in around noon when the storm really was upon us.

Our main task during storms is to make sure we are prepared if the power goes out, that the animals are taken care of and that the house is heated.  The previous evening we made a double batch of chili so food would not be a problem.  I collected all of our candles to make sure we could turn darkness into light (luckily it never went out!). But otherwise, I spent most of the day knitting!

When I slept, the house shook. I imagined the roof tearing off and somehow fell asleep after that thought.  How calming?

T U E S D A Y

The province was shut down yesterday.  The blizzard statement was lifted around noon or so.  We were greeted by very large snow drifts throughout the yard. Shoveling to be done in the chicken run (it had about a 3 foot drift which was preventing us from even opening the door to it) and the front walk way  –  no where near as exciting as the previous day.

Since the power stayed on, our only real challenge was shoveling, etc and dealing with the stress that can accompany staying in doors for too long.

I still had a lot of time to knit.  I have put away the shawl that I have been working on and have been knitting a new lopapeysa for the shop.  I made huge progress this past week since the weather has been a bit mad.  Finishing both sleeves and making very good progress during the blizzard.  I decided to make a little border of thistles along the bottom of the sweater.  When it’s complete, I will make a post just about this particular sweater 🙂 But for now, I will just share the progress photographs ❤

For Valentines Day, Jamie and I hopped in the car when our driveway had been plowed at around 4 30 and drove very, very slowly to town for the sole reason to pick up pizza. Usually we make our own, but time was of the essence!  We had pizza by the fire and watched a murder mystery show with all the animals.  It was perfect.

 

Today, My body is aching from shoveling (in a good way).  I have been so off-kilter from my regular schedule since last Friday (we had a storm as well) and since Jamie has been home due to the storm that I hope to grasp some sense of normalcy today.  There are orders to be packaged up and shipped out, a lot of laundry and general cleaning up, a dog that can actually walk down the street rather than jumping in the snow.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my progress over the storm and a couple of photographs.  I didn’t manage to take too many of the storm because it was basically impossible.  I couldn’t really go outside and from the window it just looked like a white blur.  The weather is around 0 today, and the landscape is a host of white, grey and black (until of course you look a little closer).

I hope everyone on the East Coast of Canada/United States stayed safe and indoors and enjoyed time as much as we did ❤

Julia

xo

P.S.  I will soon have the most awkward vlog!  I bought some ‘equipment’ (I don’t know why I put that in single quotation..) and although I have much planned for the next couple of weeks, I will try to squeeze a video in there (how hard can it be….right? :|)