January…the first month if the year. So full of promises and wonder. On the South Shore of NS, this is when the temperatures usually get cold. The colder mornings, we huddle by the fire wrapped in blankets to warm ourselves. For some reason my nose always seems to take forever to warm up. It’s on these days I wish I could stay snuggled under my blankets just a little bit longer. However, promises of a hot cup of coffee makes it a little bit easier to brave the chilly mornings.

Our mornings are so different now that Pete has an “office” job. Up till now he had primarily worked in the truck driving field. His mornings were always so early. Now, we all have time to wake up and have breakfast together. Slow mornings are my happy place. Feeling rushed to get out of bed and run out the door is definitely not my cup of tea.

January came and went. It was the usual south shore winter… snow, ice and rain coupled with days of sunshine and the feelings of spring. We had settled into a routine of bringing in wood for the fireplace, waking up in the middle of the night to stoke it, and keeping it going during the day. Most evenings up to this point were not lower than -5°C (the odd -10°), and days usually stayed above freezing. However, we were in for a doozy com February!

February came in with a drop I’ve never seen before. We prepared as best we could at the time and prayed really hard that it wouldn’t be as bad as they were predicting. Guys it was cold! We kept the fire as hot as we could, waking up a few times through the night to keep the fire going. If it was just -20°C without the windchill it wouldn’t have been so crazy, but the wind made it that much harder to keep the yurt warm.

Thankfully, after such a crazy cold snap, the only nuisance was a frozen water pipe. And as you can see by the weather report, we had that sorted out by Sunday. We also had some ideas about how we can make sure that the waterline doesn’t freeze again. Unfortunately those adjustments would have to wait for the mail man to deliver them. Lol! Good old Amazon…

I’ll have to say one of the most amazing things living close to a lake in the winter is hearing the sound of it freezing. It’s a sounds like no other… If you have never heard this sound before check out this LINK. This YouTuber has other videos that are hours long of the sound recordings she has collected. It’s beautifully paired with her amazing videography.

We are approaching the end of February now. March is around the corner and I’m getting the itch for spring! Most of March will likely be a mix of snow, ice, rain and sunny days. Much like December and January, but unlike December and January in that there are longer days that are generally more sunny than cloudy. The sun starts to feel warm again… and you can feel the forest start to wake up from its slumber. Soon we will have the song birds retuning and the bullfrogs will wake up. The quiet stillness of winter will be over and the beautiful songs of spring will be sung.

Alas, I must be patient and wait. And as I wait for spring to come, I’ll be as snug as a bug in a rug, in my yurt on a hill, with a view of the river…. Hibernating just a little bit longer.

‘Till next time. ☺️