Snow Days

Yesterday was the start of a snow storm. They call them storms so I was expecting wildness and noise but what we had instead was the silent beauty of continuous snow falling, all day. It was very cold, -11  yesterday and -16 today, but it wasn't windy or miserable. Yesterday started with Lil making the morning porridge in my jumper/sweater (can't quite get used to calling it a sweater but a jumper here is like a pinafore). For reasons unknown the three younger girls decided to get into their Thanksgiving dresses and then played with their felt mice in a tray of real snow. Fun times. Ruby and I went to the post office. It was hard going as most of the footpaths hadn't been cleared yet and those that had were rapidly restocked with snow.  You can see the front steps of our house and the view down our street. By late afternoon the girls were all a bit stir crazy and so we went outside to roll around in the snow, make snow angels and throw snow balls. It was too fluffy and powdery for a snow man, it wouldn't hold together at all. We made our own version of shave ice/ snow cones with fresh snow and fizzy drink. I think this was probably the girls favourite part about the snowy day.  After a day (mostly indoors) the girl's tolerance of each other was beginning to wear thin, as you can see from their drawings of each other's brains.  

Today, after snowing all night, it was calm and sunny. A gorgeous, if freezing, day. Nina and I went into town and were surprised to find most shops closed, the streets pretty much deserted save for snow ploughs, and very few people about.  The photo showing the Park Street church above is normally a very busy street! The famous historical sights, like the Old South Meeting House were closed due to 'inclement weather'. It felt kind of special to be there, almost post apocalyptic, if the apocalypse makes everything look really lovely.  I thought this was pretty much par for the New England winter course, but I guess not as the papers are talking about 'record lows'. Tomorrow we are off to Washington by train. It means another trek through deep snow to the station. I am feeling very glad that we invested in good jackets and snow boots.