Winter is here!

This is what the weather forecast looked like a week ago:

A week later it turns out that this forecast was somewhat accurate, except that it turned out to be much colder than expected! On Wednesday morning Nolan posted this picture:

The -28 came with a windchill of pretty close to -40. So yes, pretty cold! I missed out on some of the cold in Ottawa, since I was hiding in Sault Ste Marie. For you who don't know where Sault Ste Marie is, it's about 800 km Northwest of Ottawa. And it was almost colder than Ottawa! I was visiting colleagues at the Great Lakes Forestry Centre and attended a seminar of Enhanced Forest Inventory at Sault College. The hotel I was staying at was a good half hour walk from GLFC and I managed to walk in every morning, even in -28 temperatures (and wind chill of -35). As long as you dress for it, it's definitely bearable. The week itself was very good as well, and made me realize again how valuable some face2face time can be, and how much I like spending time in the regions. Not that Ottawa is bad, but still...

The canal is now officially open for skating, so I might just have to bring my skates to work for a quick skate at lunch time!

44 cm and counting

Of snow that is. Finally a bit of winter :) A great day to go snow-shoeing, even though is was a bit chilly (-7 and super windy!).

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!! 

See you in 2013...

For better or for worse...

The start of the new year has been pretty good, until I got sick on Tuesday. Normally when people in the office are starting to cough and show runny noses, I just keep doing my thing and avoid any of those symptoms. That was, until this year. I felt down and blah for three days, had zero energy and just felt plain miserable. Thursday night something 'broke' and I came down with a full blown cold, which for some reason made me feel better! Well, to some extent...

On top of not feeling fit, we finally got hit by a hint of winter this week. Thursday we were treated to an extended period of freezing rain, which switched to snow Friday morning. After all said and done, we received about 20cm of snow on top of a layer of ice. Falling snow always has something romantic. Until the snow plough comes by and it takes about two hours to shovel the end of the driveway. The driveway itself is not a problem. In less than half an hour, everything is clean. But since we're on a corner lot, we get snow from two streets which simply amounts to a lot. And we haven't even had a real serious snow dump yet!  The mess we faced on Friday was about 3 ft high and 4ft wide (~0.9m and 1.2m). Not fun!
We're now seriously considering buying a snow blower. Not so much for the driveway, as just for the snow dump from the street ploughs. Maybe lazy, but if you're stuck it's nice knowing you can get out in a hurry if need be, without having to spend hours clearing a path...

Nolan taking a break in the snow bank after shovelling

Nice view from our living room

Kids playing hockey on the street

After the nice dump on Friday, temperatures dropped significantly on Friday night, with a high of -18 degrees on Saturday... Even though I still didn't feel great, we decided to get out on the snowshoes anyway, and I think that 'fresh' air has actually done me well.

We walked to the Greenbelt (literally 10 minutes away), put on our snowshoes and went! We both love getting out there, watching the sun through the trees, making our own paths in the freshly fallen snow (we stay off the regular paths so not to hinder cross country skiers), and just enjoy being out there. And even though it's 'chilly', as long as you keep moving it's really nice!

Sunday morning, our typical running morning, was even colder. I wasn't sure if I'd be up for a run, but I felt much better, and decided to try at least 6 k. We dressed warmly (almost overdressed!), and we ended up doing just under 10k. Not bad considering I hadn't done anything for a week!

And just in case you're curious, your lungs won't freeze when you run in -23 weather! We cover our nose and mouth, but once you're going, that comes off as well. You should try it!

And this one just because I'm a crazy cat lady :)

Winter??

This past week was has been slightly busy at work, but I survived! Unfortunately not everything got done, just not enough hours in a day, but I will have a few more days this week to finish it all. Or at least most of it before I sign off Friday afternoon and take a break.

I spent Thursday at the PRF for a meeting discussing long term research sites, and we spent most of the day outside. The weather forecast called for rain all day, but what we got instead was a bit of a surprise. Sure, the odd shower, but it went up to 12 degrees!! Hello!!! It's mid-December, we should be freezing our feet off! It felt really weird, but admittedly made for a great day in the bush.
Friday it started to turn around a bit, and Saturday was officially chill, which continued Sunday morning with a low of -17. Of course, great weather for running!  We ran a 16.5 km in the sun. It was a tad chilly, but besides that perfect running weather. It's amazing how quickly you warm up! Not sure what the rest of the week will hold, but a dump of snow would be nice, especially if it stays for Christmas. It's been hard getting into the Christmas spirit without snow.
We did manage to put more lights on our tree, and it actually looks really nice now. I know, next time pictures :)

And some exciting news: We won our curling game on Friday evening! So we really ended this part of the season with a bang. We'll get back on the ice again in the New Year, so hopefully we can continue our winning 'streak'.

Active and fun weekend

This past weekend was one of fun, friends, activities and fresh air! On Friday we met up with Denise and Dimitri to catch a glimpse of the opening of Winterlude. D&D are a Dutch couple that moved to Toronto last year, and we'd met them before in Ottawa a couple of years ago. We decided not to go to the Quebec side to actually participate in the opening activities, but we were able to watch the fireworks from Parliament Hill. And admittedly so, we were are very impressed with the quality and the duration of the fireworks.  It seems like they wanted to make up for not having any for New Year's eve... After the fireworks we went for a stroll through Confederation Park, where the ice carvers were in full swing creating the most beautiful ice sculptures. We'll have to go back soon to admire the results. There were some smaller sculptures ready, and they were truly impressive! Dimitri took several pictures, maybe I can see if I can post some of his pictures.
The next morning we all slept in (so deserved!), and D&D were impressed with how quiet our neighbourhood is. Nice to hear! After some blueberry pancakes (homemade!), we headed to the canal to go skating. The ice was absolutely amazing and the weather could not have been better with temperatures around freezing and lots of sunshine. A real pleasure! By the time we left around 3pm, the canal was over-crowded with people, but it was really nice to see so many people out there enjoying the ice.
Afterwards we went for a bowl of soup at Pub Italia. Next time we'll have to try some of the beers there as well :) Denise and Dimitri left for Kingston at the end of the afternoon, and we took it easy for the rest of the evening and called it an early night, since we'd have to get up early the next day to go running.

It was just the three of us this time, since Ann is still on her cruise... So JoAnn, Nolan and I set off, but unfortunately JoAnn had to cut her run short due to some rib pains. Nolan and I kept running, and did our loop around the Government General office, a favourite, although it's even nicer in the summer when everything is green. But nonetheless we had a great run and I manage to get over 18km in, which gave me a much-needed confidence boost for the half marathon, which is only in three weeks!

That afternoon we had more friends coming, Scott and Bonnie, who are friends from Nolan from university. It was really nice to see them and their two kids and to spend time with them and catch up. So overall it was a great weekend, it just went by so quickly!

Downhill skiing

Last Friday it winter seemed to have made a comeback. We finally got treated to some fresh snow, and by the time it stopped snowing on Saturday, it had probably accumulated to about 20 cm of fresh snow. Finally! Our friend Kristina had asked earlier in the week if we were interested in going skiing with her on Saturday afternoon/evening. Nolan has saying for many weeks that he is going to take me skiing – something I had never done before. And so it actually happened! On a snowy Saturday afternoon we made our way up to Edelweiss, on the Quebec side. The drive itself was beautiful and helped with my slightly elevated levels of anxiety… When we arrived at Edelweiss, it turned out that we were not the only ones who had thought that going skiing on the first day of acceptable snowfall was a good idea. Deep down, or maybe not that deep at all, I just wanted to turn around after I saw the line up. However, we stuck to it (thanks guys!), and after about 45 minutes we had our passes, and another 10 minutes later I was fitted with skis. My boots were a tad too large, but I didn’t think that would be a problem, and would me keep my toes warm (or, better said: help them warm up again since waiting for 45 minutes with your feet in the snow makes for some very cold toes).

Kris and Nolan helped me getting started and the three of us ventured up the bunny hill. ‘All you do is make sure you slow yourself down and stay in control,’ said Nolan, while Kris demonstrated how you would do that.  Sure, no problem, I though while setting off to go down the hill. But as it turned out, I was unable to slow myself down, or stop for that matter, and it didn’t take long before I had a close-up with the snow. After some struggles to get up, I tried again, and same story. I started to get a little nervous, which is really not helpful and thought that I would never learn! However, during the third attempt something seemed to click, and I was actually able to go down the hill without falling. And I kept going down the hill over and over again, and felt better and better. In the meantime Nolan and Kris decided to tackle the big hill, which was fine. The last thing I wanted was for them to babysit me! Although before he left, Nolan did help me out a lot and had some really good advice. He’s a good skier, but also knows how to pass on words of wisdom. Much appreciated!
I felt quite confident at the end, and would have gone down the bigger hill, but by that time it was dark, and that last thing I wanted to do was lose my confidence.  The only thing I would do differently next time is the boots... They are a little bit on the large size, and to compensate that we tightened them too much, with the result that my lower legs were a little sore at the end and I have swollen ankles. However, they don't hurt and I didn't notice the swelling until after running.
So long story short, I actually really enjoyed it! I have to admit I was a little apprehensive at first, but was glad that they made me do it, and am happy to report that I found a new winter activity that I can see myself doing more often!

I was told I would probably be sore the next day… However, that was not even that bad. My calves were a bit tight, but nothing too crazy and we were able to go running Sunday morning, which felt good. However, today I can really feel my legs and my back is a bit tight as well, so I’ll have to stretch those out tonight. But it was worth it!