I joined a challenge called Holidailies... to blog every day from December 1st until January 1st.
Northern Maine truly is the Great White North right now--we got 17.5 inches of snow from the last really huge storm. This time last year we had five inches of snow and we had a green Christmas, something I had never seen in my whole life.
The comparison from last year to this is almost unbelievable in the literal sense. More than three times the amount of snow at this same time of the year.
It is weird to imagine living someplace that doesn't get snow at Christmas. I really can't picture what it would be like to decorate but have the lights not twinkle off the snow. Last year was weird. Eerily weird. Lights at night just don't look the same.
I suppose that people who live in year-round warmth can't imagine how 17.5 inches of snow didn't cripple us. But the roads were perfectly clear and all the sidewalks were plowed so everyone could go about their business. I should take my camera to the snow removal places to show what the mounds and piles of snow look like, where they get dumped after being plowed off the streets.
If it wasn't quite so cold it wouldn't be so bad... but the below zero is way too early!
Have mercy!!
3 comments:
I'm a native New Englander, and I'm having trouble with this. This is a lot of snow for so early in the season - and we've still got all of January and February to go (not to mention the fact that we usually get snow into April). It seems like a lot to have to go through, though the lights ARE pretty in the snow...
Ooooo, please do take some pictures. I haven't seen snow in years. The last time it snowed here, I was actually loading my car to go to Wendy's for Christmas. It wasn't fair. :P
We live in and love our Valley here and we agree that we have too much snow already. I spent today watching a contactor tearing out walls at my mom's house, working to thaw out a huge ice dam. All will be ok, just stressful for mom.
We've been fortunate to have spent several Christmas seasons in New Zealand with our family there. The carols are about picnics at the beach, sand in the sandwiches and the reindeer not trampling the garden. They are also about the joys of living in a part of the world that has green and growth and as part of the religious promise. It isn't about the promise of growth, it is growth. (Disclaimer here, I personally don't believe any of the religious stuff. This IS heaven. 'Scuse me, anybody paying attention? don't wait for the next life! But the Cuz there is clergy so I sometimes do suck it up and go to one of her services)
It is strange though, to see American style Christmas decorations bungee'd to the top of a bus, on an 80 degree day.
If anybody has an option in life for a sabbatical, take it in New Zealand. Really. We'd be happy to help you with info and suggestions.
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