the fire is so delightful

it is still bitterly cold outside, and I have spent the day drinking tea and sitting by the fire

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I found this on an impromptu stop at an antique shop where everything was on sale

and even though it is not my style of mid-century modern or art deco, 

I just had to have it

oh, the weather outside is frightful

It is frightfully cold outside.
-19C with a windchill of -29C or -2F with a windchill of -20F

Apparently it is -13 (9F) with a windchill of -16 (3F) in Edmonton which Oprah says is colder than Siberia. She wishes she had been warned that it might be cold in Alberta. In winter.
And doesn't she live in Chicago? Where it is ... 9F (at time of writing)
I was going to say something sarcastic, but having looked up the average mean temperatures in Siberia.... she is almost right. Edmonton though, actually has milder temperatures than, say, Winnipeg, which is quite a bit further south. Were she heading there next instead of Vancouver, she'd be facing a bitter
-27C/-8F with a windchill of -39C which, co-incidentally, is -38.2F

But it would still not beat this part of  Siberia

I'm not complaining, not really

The news and weather channel has been all about the flooding in Manitoba, Louisiana and Quebec. So I guess I shouldn't be whining about the seemingly endless rain we have been having and will continue to have for the next 12 days. We've already had over 56mm of rain over the weekend with around 15-20mm more for each of Tuesday and Wednesday. But that is hardly flood worthy. It has been rather damp and dreary for weeks, though. During the last 30 days there have been only five with no rain.

Can I, instead, complain about the COLD? It is 8 celcius - it should be around 20 at this time of year. I am glad I didn't pack away my fleece yet. And this weekend is the traditional planting of the garden time, when we should be safe from frost. I am in doubt. Then again, I don't have a garden so I am not personally worried. Though, I do like to eat fresh fruits and vegetables from local farms.  The apple and cherry blossoms are starting to rot and some of the grapes could get mouldy from all the rain and won't be very sweet unless we get more sunshine.

I could complain about the price of gas that skyrocketed overnight to a high of $1.419 a litre ... but has magically parachuted down to $1.285 so all those people who thought they might change their driving habits will now not bother. So while I had my 5 hour (one way) road trip when the price was high, at least my 2 hour (one way) road trip today will be with cheaper gas.

Really, I do like to see the brighter side of things. It is sometimes made difficult, though. Because, perversely, I am not looking forward to the dry, hot summer that is predicted. The dry part is fine, but the heat and humidity...

and then it snowed

Of course, it wasn't Ottawa's fault that the temperature plummeted from 27C (80F) to 4C (39F) overnight and just in time for the world renowned Tulip Festival. Or that the driest winter and spring we've ever had suddenly decided to turn wet and windy and miserable. Or that I came prepared for the weather people to be wrong about the cold. My sandals were ditched and I was awfully pleased with my gifted scarf from Paris and I knew that if I dug around in the trunk of my car I'd find a pair of dollar store one size fits all gloves.
Because by Sunday, the rain turned to snow.

The earlier warm weather of March and April brought out many of the blooms two weeks earlier than anticipated.

Then again, tulips only bloom for about a week to ten days, so there's always different varieties of early and late bloomers planted to keep the gardens full.

The raindrops made for nice photos (if you could keep the horizontal rain off the camera lens).

Too bad about the wind and rain that battered a few of the blooms ... and the spectators.

I have wanted to go to the Tulip Festival in Ottawa for several years and I thought, with this year marking the 65th anniversary of the Liberation of Holland, that this should be the year to visit. The tulips were a gift from Princess Juliana of The Netherlands for helping out her family by giving them refuge in Canada during the occupation and then liberating her country. Over 120,000 bulbs were given the first year after 1945 and they have been continuing to arrive every year since. Now there are about 3 million of them decorating the city. I didn't count them all, but that seems to be the accepted number, although maybe only 1 to 2 million were blooming at one time.

So XUP and Jazz and I ventured out into the rain and dodged the many, many Japanese tourists taking pictures of themselves tiptoeing through the tulips.

A few umbrellas got in the way of the photos.


I'm not exactly sure what I expected the tulip festival to be like. Maybe a little more festival-ish.
Though, to be fair, we missed the street party on Friday where Ottawa planned to hold its 'first-ever liberation street party ... to recreate the spontaneous party that broke out when the news of the end of World War II first hit the streets on May 7, 1945'. And there was a parade of 'vintage jeeps and vehicles and costumes' and a fly past of WWII aircraft which we didn't quite manage to see. As I recall, we were eating during those events. And we missed the vintage wine auction to be held next weekend. We didn't find the beer tent with the special brew created just for this anniversary. Considering the festival runs from May 7th to May 24, a surprising amount of preparations were still to be done.

Displays and tents were still to be put up for events held only later in the week. (why not when the festival opened?) The lacklustre food tents and crafts tent just left us wanting for a warm, dry marketplace. And with so much construction, it was difficult to get near the war memorial and the display of archival photos about the history of the tulips and Ottawa.

After a while of wandering in the cold after Jazz went home and XUP was being feted by XUP Jr for Mother's Day, I sought refuge in the National Art Gallery just in time for a Bach Choir to perform in the Rideau Chapel (click on link to see pictures the restored and reconstructed chapel, because I followed the rules and did not take any illegal photographs).

But the weekend wasn't only about tulips.

Jazz and I had the opportunity to break burnt toast bread with some of the many bloggers in Ottawa. There are an awful lot of people in Ottawa who just can't keep their thoughts to themselves and they are an organized, fun bunch who get together every couple of months for breakfast and even for an annual Blog Out Loud.

And XUP puts on a great wine and cheese spread.

And that Bazel cat is most entertaining.

Now, go read XUP's version of the weekend.

...and now Jazz has hers up.

"With Glowing Hearts/Des Plus Brillants Exploits"

There was a poll out not too long ago that said, in a way most polls are wont to do, that very few people were interested in the Olympic Torch Relay. Pollsters are always negative. It is their role to play Eeyore in the woods of our acre.

It is, of course, very much a media centred and media driven event.

Anyway, nobody asked me. And I actually have been following the torch relay.

106 days. 12,000 torchbearers. 45,000 km. 1,036 communities.

Of course, as anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of what Canada looks like, will realize that most of the torch relay involves driving the thing from place to place with the runners only actually running for 300 metres before passing it on. The torch will also travel by seaplane, snowmobile, canoe, dogsled, dory, double-decker bus, streetcar and kayak to name a few of the interesting alternative modes of transport. Unfortunately not by camel. I would have liked to see that.
It started in Victoria and is wending its way across the country, up and down and around, until it finds its way back to Vancouver. Some have said the torch looks like a huge joint. I wouldn't know about that. Ask Pinklea. Mostly, it seems to resemble a giant barbecue lighter. Sleek and elegant and resembling ice and snow (so they say).

Even with all the myriad things wrong with the Olympics, I still get caught up in the spirit of the Games. And the athletes. I've started reading the sports section that outlines the worlds' and qualifying events and gives stories about the athletes to watch. I find that much more interesting than football or hockey. Or Tiger.

I read the Globe and Mail every day and the first thing I go to is the daily account of the torch relay. It isn't so much the relay itself, as the communities it passes through. The stories of those communities and the different personalities of each. Some have been through such a hard time of it lately that the idea of this expensive journey of a giant barbecue lighter just seems to be an overblown pointless extravagance. I can understand that. Other communities have been so hard done by and isolated over the years, that the very idea of the torch coming to their town just overwhelms them in pride. A chance to feel included. A chance to shine and let the world see where they live. I have found much of it fascinating.

The Olympics are coming here, whatever we think or want. So we might as well make the most of it and get interested and involved. There really is nothing sadder than a party where the hosts are bickering and unhappy about the whole affair. Or completely indifferent.

Now, I am not a fanatic about this. I do not watch the webcam, nor do I keep abreast of its tweets.

But on Day 51 of its journey, when it passes through my town, I will be there.

It's not as cold as you think, or is it colder?

It has been a little frigid in these parts lately. At first I don't notice the intense cold when I go outside, probably because I've already started to overheat in the elevator with my many layers of fleece. But once inside the car, the cold seeps through the layers from the leather seat and the steering wheel, and the icy blast of air envelopes your body while waiting for the hot air to come through the vents.

I become obsessed with the outside temperature gauge. I glance at it probably more often than at the clock or the rearview mirrors. Good thing it doesn't report the windchill.

What the ... -17? it was only -15 a minute ago.

I finally hit on the perfect solution to mess with my head.

I changed the setting to fahrenheit.

Immediately got rid of that nasty minus sign.

Didn't get rid of the -29 windchill, but 3 felt so much warmer than -15.
and I have no idea really, what fahrenheit means anymore

Last night, when I got into the car, I forgot that I had changed it and immediately thought I'd be overdressed for 6 and wondered what happened to the -29 windchill.

But then I saw the little F .

And remembered that it is always warmer in the parking lot, nestled under the trees.
And watched the temperature decrease to 0.

just another cold winter's day

We in the northern hemisphere are experiencing a bitter cold snap. You may have read a few complaints, or observations, or thoughts about this on other blogs.

I thought I'd try to see some positive points of it being so cold.

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...

...


Well...

You can leave butter on the counter and it won't melt into a liquidy, messy, softness.

Anyone else have a positive spin?


Then, I had a look at Russell's blog from Iowa.
He managed a photo of a sundog which I had completely forgotten about.


Beauty in extreme cold.

Then there is this photo of snow in Norway that looks almost blue from the cold.


For more photos see Ivar Ivrig's photo gallery