“The RoseBouquet”

Yes, winter is upon us. Yesterday morning when I went to go for my pre-dawn walk (the sun rises after 8 am this time of year) I found a sheet of bumpy ice on the cement outside the door. It must have been a quarter of an inch thick!

Not one to give up so fast, I went out the back door and found the brick path coated with ice too, so I walked on the garden, and there the black dirt, although lumpy was also coated with ice so that my boots slipped and slid.

Okay, now I was ready to give up. I went back into the house.

The forecast had been for freezing rain over night, but temperatures up to 7 above freezing later in the day, so I told Dad we might still go to the city in the afternoon. At noon it was obviously not getting above -2 degrees, and still ice everywhere. I bundled up and dared to go to the post office, but it was a risky venture! The sidewalks were coated - well, the two blocks of downtown had salt scattered over them, so the ice was breaking up, but still there.

It was a great victory to get home without falling.

Guess what. This morning I found 4 to 6 inches of snow on top of all that ice! I was able to do my walk, shortened to just around three blocks, and it was work to lift my boots out of the snow and make another hole with my next step. I brought lots of snow inside with the cuffs of my pants, but hey, I certainly got good exercise!

They say it’s good to exert yourself for at least 20 minutes several times a week, so you are breathing heavily. I got that today!

However I told Dad at breakfast that we have a fridge and two freezers full of food, we have no urgent reason to go to the city and get in the way of an accident.. Our home is warm; we’re snug as bugs in a rug, so we’ll stay put.