How do you describe this kind of cold?
I cannot remember a cold so deep nor so enduring. It arrived on Christmas Day and has been relentless ever since.
Words such as bitter or frigid just don't seem to convey the intensity.
So I'll try to describe it in images and tropes:
It's too cold to snow. The days are blindingly bright and the sky is so blue it's almost indigo.
When it gets really cold, we get frost filigree all over our porch windows. When it gets even colder, the frost disappears. This is the first time I've witnessed/observed this.
To venture outside, I have to put on a winter coat and then put a down vest over top of that. Dog walks last maybe 5 minutes, and I know exactly how many steps it is to get back from the corner to our house. I count down.
The cold air actually feels like it is searing exposed skin.
The dogs appear to be ''holding it'' and when they do go, it's impressive.
The wiper fluid in my jeep not only froze, it expanded and broke out of the container that holds it.
The snow gets more and more squeaky the colder it gets.
We keep hearing sounds like gunshots. It's tree branches shattering.
And...
Arwen's eyelashes became encrusted in ice after just minutes outside.
Contrails
Contrails
Such a pretty word.
How does my landscape appear
To a person on that plane,
Looking down?
A quilt of forests and fields
Tidily seamed by road and rail.
Up there in the ether, do they ever wonder
If someone is looking up at them
As they glide through the sky,
While the vapour of their passage
Unravels back to nothing.
Here goes nothing...
Happy 2018!
I've spent a good part of the last two or three years ''finding myself'' as an artist, and while I still have a long road to go (which is not a bad thing; quite the opposite), I've decided that in order to have others believe in me, I first need to believe in myself, and truly own the identity of artist.
As anyone who reads this blog knows, I already have a longstanding habit of putting out a post on a daily basis: sometimes just photographs, but often with some text of my own, or some borrowed poetry. Before I used this platform, I spent a few years on Blipfoto doing the same. And I will continue to post this blog as a daily exercise and as an outlet for my photography.
I am also launching a new blog, following the model of Blipfoto's 365 project. For 2018 I have set myself the challenge of painting every single day, as well as posting a painting/blog every single day. The painting that I post may not necessarily have been done on the day it is posted, but there will be 365 paintings done and 365 posted. To this end, I have set up an artist website which will grow and develop along with the project. If you are interested, please do have a look and follow along. The first blog post is up. Just click on 'blog' in the main menu at the top.
Thank you to the handful of readers who stop by here regularly. I have no means of replying directly to the comments that you leave, but I receive them immediately in emails, and I read and enjoy them all.
All the best to all of you for 2018.
The Blue Period
Another day, another Extreme Cold Weather Warning. This writeup is an interesting and informative capsule about the cold phenomenon that has most of North America in its grip at the moment. The colder it gets, the more blue-purple the light - and therefore the snow, since it is reflective - becomes. We managed 15 minutes at the park before I turned into a popsicle.
Tomorrow will bring a new year, and along with it, an exciting announcement.
