It snowed last night…..a LOT.
A lot for Vancouver anyway.
Vancouver doesn’t see much snow below the mountains, it tends to stay away from eh city, for the most part.
We do get a little bit most years, but it rarely sticks or stays around very long.
Last night it started to snow again, not much, and I was questioning the forecast. But when I woke up at around 4am I thought “gee, it’s so quiet…..” then…. “wait…it’s too quiet….” I looked over at the clock….yup….darkness….no power.
I always worry about Gizmo when he power goes out int he winter. His cage is by a window, which, under normal circumstances is fine because he has a heater that keeps the corner warm and draft free. But when the power goes out I typically put him in his little travel cage, wrap it in a blanket, and bring him into the upstairs bedroom because it tends to stay warm longer when the power goes out.
I grabbed my phone to look at the BC Hydro outage site and saw that our neighbourhood was the only one on the North Shore that was out so I figured that meant Hydro would get it up fairly quickly since there weren’t any others looking for repairs. I also saw that it had gone off only an hour or so earlier so I figured Gizmo would be fine. I rolled over and went back to sleep.
I was surprised that the power was still out when I woke up again around 6:30am, so up we got, lit the fireplace, rolled Gizmo’s cage closer to it, and pulled out the oil lamps for some light. We have a gas stove, so even in a power outage we can light that with a match and make tea and coffee.
The dump of snow was impressive, even by non-Vancouver standards, for an overnight snowfall. But for Vancouver….it was a bit of a shock. About 30cm had fallen overnight.
When Giz’ was settled, and we were caffeinated, I checked with the hatchery to see if they were on backup power or not, and if they had internet. Internet was up so I headed down….leaving Kirk behind to shovel the driveway and knock some snow off the rhododendrons and other bushes, which looked pretty weighed down; we lost one of the big rhododendrons a few years ago to heavy snow, luckily this was light…..though still weighing them down.
Too few sidewalks were shovelled, making the walk to the park entrance a slog, but whatever, it was gorgeous out. Along the way I passed a house where the owners were shovelling a steep driveway….with…..a dustpan. It was hard to not stop and take a photo…..a broom would have been easier than the dustpan since the snow was so fluffy and light.
Vancouver really doesn’t do winter well. Frankly…..it’s rather embarrassing.
I was running about an hour and a half later than usual and I assumed dog walkers would have been out already and the trails would be travelled, but that was not the case and the only tracks on the trail ahead of me were those of raccoons and a couple of coyotes.
Again, it was gorgeous.
At the hatchery, the crew was busy clearing the snow off the walkways, the tubs, and the cap troughs. Can’t feed the fish until you can find them!
It’s not going to last, that’s the sad part. I wish it would stick around for Christmas but the weather is forecast to warm up and that warmth is to bring rain….
Oh well, that’s the nature of living on the coast….It just makes it feel more like Christmas so l’ll love it while it’s available and be grateful that it came.