Wild Winter Weather

After several clear, warm, and coatless days last week, Friday went back to steady rain and dropping temps. Late in the afternoon we even had sleet. We woke Saturday to falling snow. Doug got snowed, sleeted, rained, and sunned on as he walked to the office. Coming home for lunch he got battered by 4 mm hail. The sitting room was cold enough to see our breath after lunch so we lit the pellet stove. While waiting for the icebox to warm up, Doug went back to the office and I decided to drive to the Westfield Mall to check out Pack-n-Sav for groceries. I quickly discovered that ChCh goes to the mall when the weather is lousy outside. Parking was hard to find and the mall was wall to wall bodies. I am not much of a mall person at home but Westfield seemed very crowded to me. I did one lap of the mall to check out the selection of stores and to continue my search for a pastry knife and pie dish. Success was had in finding the pie plate in K-Mart but the pastry knife is still elusive. I guess the two butter knife strategy will have to suffice. Pack-n-Sav is a scaled down Costco without the pharmacy, home appliances, books/entertainment, and clothes. Prices seem a bit lower than Countdown so I guess Pak-n-Sav will merit the big shopping trips. Pam’s is the store brand. I did find vegetable shortening made of hardened coconut oil - so another stab at pie crust making is in the offing. The Shreddo will have to go. After a dinner of venison and blue cheese ravioli with pretty good apple pie a la mode (Hokey Pokey ice cream – check out Kiwiana in Wikipedia) for dessert we settled in to watch Olympic coverage. We are 4 hours ahead of Beijing so live coverage is on quite late so we didn’t last for the opening ceremony on Friday night. The emphasis is a bit different with the focus on Kiwi athletes (lots of rowing) but we did see American swimmer Michael Phelps set an Olympic record his first heat of the individual 200 IM and a few American women move on in their swimming heats. The Football Ferns (Kiwi Women’s soccer) didn’t kick off till 11:45 pm so we didn’t stay up.

Sunday we woke to clear blue skies but very cold temps. My outdoor thermometer/birdbath was frozen solid. The plastic table on the patio is bowed with a shallow depression that collects water. I know the air temp is cold if it is frozen. When it is not frozen the black birds and song thrushes which frequent the back yard use it a birdbath. Doug almost killed himself on the black ice on our driveway on his way into the office early in the am. Yeah, he is working all this weekend (in his unheated office) trying to get ahead so we can entertain Cappy next weekend. Cappy just got her PhD from Tufts in Mech Engr and is visiting here as a stop on her world tour prior to starting her responsible working adult life. We have fingers crossed for decent weather next Fri to Wed. One advantage to the clear, cold weather is the spectacular sight of the snow capped Alps jutting up on the horizon. The Mech Engr Dept is on the 5th floor so the views are great. Doug’s corner office faces southeast so storms coming over the Port Hills are fun to watch. The Alps are on the other side of the building (but so are the bathrooms).

My walk today took me north of campus to Jellie Park. It has lovely gardens with very soggy playing fields, an aquatic centre (with several huge outdoor waterslides), and a very sluggish monarch – obviously not very happy with the frigid temps. On the way I saw several people out washing their cars, doing yard work, and hanging laundry. What a difference a day makes - kind of like New England weather. The yarn shop in the small mall close to home whispered to me as I got close enough so I couldn’t resist a gander at their offerings. I ended up with needles and yarn for fingerless gloves. A quick trip into Doug’s office for googling yielded several patterns.

The icebox has warmed up nicely today with the sun streaming in through the north picture windows. No hot water bottle necessary. Thus I am writing the blog, downloading pictures, and trying to figure out how to knit fingerless gloves.