Category: Nature

Just a day or two before Christmas we had a flurry or two, just to put a
slight dusting of snow on the ground and placate the many people who were
clamoring for a white Christmas. And Ouma Marie had to contend with that.

It has now officially been declared the fifth driest winter ever and it is
starting to hurt the economy – there are many businesses who rely on skiing
and ice fishing and all the many outdoor activities of Minnesota that
relies on there being snow on the ground.

And to cap it all, we have just busted all records for 7/8 January – at
12ºC each day it is the warmest it has ever been on each of these two days.
Yesterday was also the earliest that it has ever reached 12ºC (54ºF) in a
calendar year.

Most Minnesotans are smiling and enjoying the balmy weather – there are
motorcycles on the road and cars are getting washed (not always possible at
the -10 – -15º that it should be this time of year). But the rest of us (I
call us the romantics) are lamenting the absence of at least a foot of snow
at this time of year.

According to the predictions, however, this is the last day of summer –
tonight and tomorrow or temperature will drop with more than twenty degrees
C and for same days we will be back to normal. This cold front falling
down on us from Canada, will hopefully bring some snow as well!

Without too much warning we had the first accumulating snowfall of the winter in the early hours of yesterday morning. Enough for me to scrape off the driveway (if you ride over it, the snow gets compacted and melts onto the tar and is then very difficult to remove all winter).

Not only was the snow a very welcome sight, it had the added benefit that I could see the tracks of a rabbit in the front of the house. I assume it is the same rabbit that visits the front of the house most early mornings (at least in winter when I can see the tracks) for the past three years.

When Toughee killed a rabbit in the back yard three weeks ago, I feared that I would see the tracks no more..! But my old friend seems to be doing its early morning rounds once again!

At least the snow made it a bit more real for our visiting Ouma to think that it is -15ºC outside while she wears just a normal light jersey inside.

Now we enter the time of fall that always drags too long for my liking: after the fall colors have peaked until the real snow comes.

The few flurries that we had earlier this month, was just to whet the appetite.

Just north of us it is cold enough and enough snow fell that they have already opened some of the ski slopes (where we had breakfast on our trip up the St Croix river to look at the fall colors).

It is always difficult to judge just when the trees will reach their peak fall colors, but we were reasonably spot on when we took a trip next to the St Croix River ten days ago.

Together with our friends Troy and Naomi and their two kids, we had a very nice drive out north east of the Twin Cities. An ideal breakfast source was not so easy to spot, but eventually we came to a family owned restaurant in St Croix Falls, were they were willing to serve us with a huge hearty breakfast at 11.30 in the morning!

Troy took some beautiful photos along the way – they can be seen on his journal at:

The Adventures of Troy & Naomi: October 2002 Archives

The weather played along and on the way home we could actually stop an enjoy an hour on a pumkin farm where we bought pumpkins for carving.

I suppose I am slowly converting to being a true Minnesotan – this is the first year that I feel the snow needs to wait a while. At least until all the trees have dropped their leaves.

It is also not very nice to have snow on the ground when our temperatures are still above freezing at times – this allows the snow to melt and then freeze again as ice and that does not clean up very easily.

So, summer should be above zero C and have rain and winter should be below
zero C and snow only.

I remember a small panic the first winter we were here: I went to Wallmart one evening while it was sleeting (rain that freezes as it hits anything). When I came out of the shop, I could not get the car’s door open – it had frozen shut and there was nothing I could do. The wind was quite strong and therefor it was very cold! I could not phone Gina to come get me – we only had the one car then, and it was too cold to walk the mile back to the apartment.

Small panic…!

Luckily I realized that the passenger door was in the lee of the car and had not been welded shut by the freezing rain. I got in that side and somehow managed to worm into the driver’s seat!

It will not be long though before we go below freezing permanently and then I can just enjoy the snow – hopefully a lot this year – with my mom’s visit it will be nice if she gets the full Minnesota treatment!

J

With the first light snowfall this week, came a promise of a beautiful winter.

Winters can be beautiful, and with a possitive attitude, I find Minnesota winters very exciting and full of adventure.

As I write this, it is snowing again. The ground is still far too warm for the snow to accumulate, and even though I look forward to snow on the ground, it is still too soon. The trees have not even dropped all their leaves – or should I say, not all the trees have dropped their leaves yet.

These maple trees seem to have minds of their own on the subject – as if they decide overnight – and when you look again they are bare and there is a carpet of yellow and gold around their truncks. And don’t think two trees think the same way! No team effort here… Different trees choose different days to drop their leaves – with seemingly no predictability.

Just a note on the purpose of this Journal:

To give friends and family (mostly in South Africa) a more immediate window on our everyday lives in our new (five year old) home – Minnesota in the USA.

In the beginning of our stay here I kept a detailed journal of our adventures and published it on paper – now I will celebrate the end of our fifth year here with this journal, taking excerpts from my original journal ‘to compare notes’.JP

Today was our ‘rake-up-the-leaves’ day.

In the back yard all the trees were empty by last night and while mommy prepared inside for visitors this evening, I took the boys outside for the big job! It is the first year that they are big enough to really contribute to the job and within an hour we had it all done (last year it took me and Gina at least three hours). As son as the maple tree in front, drops its leaves, we will rake them up and then they go into huge orange printed bags that will look like big American pumpkins – these will remain outside in the front garden until after Halloween.