Let it snow

Apparently one Christmas, 40 years ago, there was no snow lying on the ground on Christmas Eve up here. It had snowed earlier in the season, but then it had warmed up again before the ground could freeze. And it snowed again before New Year. But the key point is that, on Christmas Eve, there was no snow. And it's been the source of hand wringing every year since.

I hear the same thing about the temperature. "It gets to -45 deg C !". What a load of crap. About 15 years ago, it reached -45 deg. For part of one day. The next day it was back up to -25 again. (back up, he says). How about keeping things in persepctive for a change.

It's the same way that a lot of English people still rant on about the "London Blitz". Despite the fact that most of those droning on about it weren't even alive during the war and, of those who were, most didn't live in London. But I guess that every society likes to feel that they have it tough. That's human nature.

Back to the topic of snow. This year, it was starting to get a little serious up here. Two weeks to Christmas and only the occassional snow flutter to show for it. Could the sky really be going to fall ? Fear not, Norrlanders. On Friday night arrived all of November and December's snow in the space of about 6 hours. Brilliant stuff. If you haven't experienced a good snow storm then you really should try one. This wasn't at blizzard level, but it was still pretty good. A couple of year back we had half a metre fall during a working afternoon. That was impressive. I stupidly had the car with me that day and I remember picking my way gingerly back home. I did have a chuckle at the sight of several Mercedes owners lying on the gound in the middle of intersection, trying to dig their cars out of the drifts. Buy Volvo.

This year it wasn't quite as exciting. I reckon it was about 30cms of powder that arrived. We happened to be at a party that night, about 20 minutes from home. When it was time to go home, we were kindly offered a ride by another couple sort of going our way. Me, being the brains of the operation, decided that a nice romantic walk home on a crisp snowy night would be just the ticket. So, we declined the invitation for a ride and headed off ourselves. Now, there's a reason why people should never ever listen to me. It's because I generally have the worst ideas in the world. Walking home after a 30 cm deep snow dumping is wonderful. If you go after the ploughs have been through. However, if you go before the ploughs have been out, it's crap. There is not a lot of romance in hauling yourself through snow drifts, trying to figure out if you're on the road, the footpath, or someone's front lawn. A quiet 20 minute stroll turned into a one hour ascent of the North Face. I was tempted to set up  a base camp for the night after 30 minutes.

Good rule of thumb: If someone suggests to do something romantic on the spur of the moment - DON'T.