here in newfoundland everyone always says that the weather people have no idea what they are talking about. part of me thought they were just being overly critical, until i moved here. then i realised that the weather changes so quickly that the weather people really don't have a hope in hell of making an accurate prediction. and then there was this weekend. on friday they were predicting between 5-10cm for today. by saturday night they were making announcements that the winds had shifted (that would be the winds of change i believe) and that st john's would only receive a light dusting. this morning we woke up to a weather alert of high winds and lots of snow (i believe they used the word "severe"....but since we pay little attention to the weather people....). they were still only predicting about 5-10cm though. so when it started snowing in the early afternoon we figured it would blow around a lot but not really accumulate much (or at least not more than 10cm). well. how wrong were we?
the wind is blowing fairly hard. we've got your nice standard sideways snow happening. and that's fine. already i'm being desensitized and thinking "whatever" at the sideways weather. but we are at 10cm at least already and it is not letting up. it's not even looking like it might let up. i just drove over to vernon's for dinner. my shiny new studded winter tires worked phenomenally. there were a lot of people stuck and i sailed right on past (after stopping to make sure they had phones/had a plan - the plan being getting the guy who happened to be walking by to push them out of their rut). but seriously - way more than 10 cm. i shoveled close to 15cm off my driveway before i left. and did i mention it's still snowing?
here's vernon's street, right after i arrived.
if any of you have been to my home over the past 8 years or so you may remember seeing these mittens hanging on my wall. they were bought in newfoundland in 1998 and they were WAY too warm for vancouver or even kamloops. i did attempt to wear them on a walk once at christmas with mom and i remember my hands completely overheated. today, i wore them to shovel my deck (which is my landlord's living room roof and i was concerned about the potential for too much weight - actually she was concerned so i shovelled). i've been having trouble keeping my hands warm when i'm outside for more than 15 minutes - my mittens don't really do it and my gloves don't really do it. so i dug these out thinking that the person who knit them knew cold and holy cow - my hands were so warm! i could have shoveled all day. :)
part of me feels bad actually wearing them because i think they are so beautiful. but that's what they were made for - so that's what i'll use them for.
here's the second part of my warm hand strategy. i knit these back in november and they have a lot of flaws. one of the thumbs is inside out, the cables don't match perfectly between the gloves, i used cheap yarn. they are actually "wrist warmers" which explains why i think the hands are thumbs are too short - i'd rather they came further past my knuckles. this photo doesn't show it well - but they actually cover more of my wrist and less of my hand than shown)... but if you throw them on under your mittens you eliminate that irritating cold bit of exposed skin that happens when you're outside and actually using your arms. yay! warm wrists! pattern is fetching from knitty - found here.
**update added 8:30pm - it's still snowing. hard. there are 6 people out shoveling right now. which is a high ratio for a street with 14 houses. weeee! my first newfoundland snow storm!
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