COLD

It's a morning that makes everything have a crackly feel about it, -28C according to the thermometer in my truck. So cold the chickens needed their water thawed, not refilled. So cold that the eggs themselves were frozen when I got back to the house. They literally crack from the cold as the egg white freezes and expands, and when I touch them there's a little 'snap' as the shell gives way. So cold the inside of your nose seems to stick together while you inhale. So cold the dryer vent has frost creeping in on it, as do the exterior doorways. So cold the windows have these little teensy glaciers of ice at the bases that are slowly creeping in. I expect to see mammoths any day now.

So, that done, I sit here drinking coffee from the Caribbean that a friend graciously brought back for me. Much goodness.

But, in a way the cold is welcome after a winter that simply wasn't one until the cold came. December and half of January just felt wrong for a Canadian winter. But now, the creek is frozen solid and the girls had a delightful time a few days back discovering tracks of the animals that use it for a highway. Deer, coyote, fox and raccoon have all been wandering around out there. I do like how in winter we can see what the critters have been up to. We have few sightings, so the tracks give us a little glimpse into their lives (and deaths, as evidenced by last winter's discovery of mouse tracks that met up with fox tracks and then continued no farther, or the little tracks that suddenly ended with the imprint of a sweep of the tail feathers of some bird of prey).

And so another day starts with daughters R and A chattering in the kitchen while they fry up the eggs (the ones that aren't frozen) for a good fresh breakfast, while little M sings and plays while waiting for her eggs to be ready and I make plans for today's field trip to a museum.

And it's supposed to warm up to a balmy -14C this afternoon. Break out the pina coladas!