Winter Reigns Supreme

I have been talking to my friends in the UK, or rather mostly Lorraine has, but either way, the common message is how cold it is, how much snow they have had, etc. By all accounts and certainly by UK standards both statements are true. A couple of years ago, I certainly would have been making similar statements. They have had several inches of snow, and the temperature has been hovering around freezing for some time now.

Putting this in context, and I am sure people could similarly compare us to Oswego County , in upstate New York (Charlie I know you don't normally click my links, but this one is worth it!). Over the last couple of weeks, we have had temperatures as low as -20c and as low as -30c with the wind chill, and I am talking for several days at a shot. It also seems that every time the temperature rises to anywhere near freezing, then we get snow.

Today is the warmest it has been for a while, and we had about 3-4" of snow last night, with another 4-12" forecast over the next 24 hours or so. Now don't get me wrong, I love it, as does Lorraine and Reggie, although bedtime walks are a little shorter of late! We love to see a proper winter, including people cross country skiing across the golf course!

Two years ago, almost to the day, we came over to the area for a sighting trip, and the weather is very similar. I took a picture of Lorraine yesterday in almost the same spot. If you ever read her blog (she hasn't posted for a while) then this picture might look familiar, with the addition of the dog, and it actually is a little warmer.

Older readers will also remember one of my first actions was to purchase my "Big Ass" American truck. Well, it is almost time for the truck to go, although we will likely replace it with another, probably a Dodge Ram, in the coming months, right now we are considering changing to Chevrolet HHR, and actually have one on a weekend test drive this weekend, exactly this "purple" colour.

We went out for a test drive yesterday, and took off up to Wisconsin, and the Illinois State Beach Park. You know it is cold when the sand starts to freeze. Reggie got very excited when we saw some deer, and there was one very brave fishing boat breaking a way through the ice. Check out the other pictures from the weekend here. I will be using some of them as backgrounds over the coming weeks/months as winter plays out, so I hope you like them.