Winter either bites with its teeth or lashes with its tail.

It got cold… Not just that barely above freezing - cold to the bone dampness created by a perpetual drizzle soaked mist that edges on downright flood of cold water.  But the deep freeze temperatures where the snow is like sparkling fairy dust that twinkles in the air and you don’t even consider dragging your garbage can to the curb without down jacket, mitts and toque.  (no more of the “ I’ll just run out in my nightgown and hope no one notices”).  As the temperatures plummeted and wrapping a baby in enough layers to triple his size made leaving the house an onerous task - the community carried out it’s cold business as usual.   

But now it’s warmed up.  With the warming of temperatures business as usual seems to have become more difficult.  We are back to that not quite above freezing but still melting, although not melting fast enough, muddy slush filled nastiness that no one can even pretend to like.  

The drains are plugged and so the waters pool brown and slushy in the low points, the ensuing lakes spray grime and salt far and wide and unwary pedestrians beware!  Washer fluid just smears the grime on your windshield, and big clods of snow gather behind the tires and on inner wheel wells on vehicles.  (Urban dictionary refers to these as Snowberries) The little sporty cars slide around in that rock salt and road grime slipping and swerving dangerously in the sludge only to hit one of those muddy lakes and hydroplane alongside melting lumps of dirty slush like icebergs in a tsunami.  Yuck.

But if dangerous road conditions, and nasty sludge (which makes me cringe thinking about my next dog walking endeavour)  were not enough  half of town it seems is suffering from burst pipes.  The bank, the grocery store, homes, and businesses alike all drowning in more water.  As if life up here were not wet enough.  (Home maintenance is really all about keeping water in or out of where it should and should not be.)  

We did turn off the water to the outdoor taps. But the question remains… when I go to turn them on again…. Will I fill the wall up with water?  Or will all work as it’s supposed to?  And will I have a filthy wet dog covered in all the muck and grime of every puddle along the way to wash off when I find out? 

And just in case you are wondering… this is what I pulled off the easel this week: 

“When Snow Came Falling”

Original Watercolour

© RiverWalker Arts