Brrrrrr

A few weeks ago Toronto went through an ice storm.

At the time I had no idea what that meant, but you basically get what it says on the packet.
Ice and lots of it.
The roads and sidewalks were a complete nightmare. People were out with salt doing their best to chip away at the ice but it's only just disappeared a month later when the temperatures lifted briefly to zero.
Madness!
And we've had some seriously cold weather.
We drove to Blue Mountain ski resort a few weeks ago and it was -30 outside with the windchill, our car's defogging system just couldn't take it and we scraped ice from inside the windows with a credit card. We were laughing all the way, at least it wasn't snowing as well.
Another cold snap is upon us and it's averaging -25 with the wind chill (which is so important to mention here in winter, that's the actual temperature for us mortals) and the school walk is a challenge. All the layers in the world and my toes still feel cold. Three pairs of socks and snowboots no less!
That's most likely because the schoolyard is still covered in ice so you have to stand on it to wave farewell to whichever bundle of scarves and snowpants is yours. A lot of time standing around in -30, there just aren't enough socks in the world!
It's only five minutes home from school but I happily accepted a lift home from a friend yesterday.
The furnace in our house just can't cope, there isn't enough insulation either. Not usually a major problem but just too cold for the house to cope. There's been ice on the inside of our stairwell window too!

But I still love it. I find this weather invigorating. I must be crazy...

Poppet's new balaclava has come in very handy this week!

I'm happily staying inside working on an order for one of my stockists. And watching "Kingdom".
You just need a bit of Stephen Fry in your life whenever possible.
No?

Pussycat, Pussycat, Where Have You Been?

Well you may ask, my friends.

Since my last post in November (apologies!) I have flown to Australia and back with Poppet, celebrated Christmas three times, rung in the New Year (and our tenth wedding anniversary) and been off on a ski trip with some friends.
School has returned to our life and normality is creeping back in at last.
So I thought I'd grab a moment to recap and show you some photos from our trip...

We had a lovely time Down Under visiting with family and friends whom we miss dearly. Our house sold not long before our arrival which meant I also had to deal with our belongings which we had previously stored in the garage of said house. A herculean effort ensued and I managed to empty it out over a few days.
Exhausting!

I somehow shrank it all from this mess to 42 boxes and a bicycle, all of which has been moved into a storage facility in Perth awaiting readiness to ship. We are officially NOT homeowners which means we are ready to start the difficult task of buying a house in Toronto. This city is hard to buy into, bidding wars are very common so we will do our best to bring all of our determination and patience to bear.

Fingers crossed.

Poppet spent most of our trip in the water, and it's reassuring to see that she is still a water baby (dodgy Canadian swimming lessons notwithstanding). She managed quite a few swims in the ocean and I also dipped more than a toe in once or twice. It was freezing cold in the water but just gorgeous!

These shots are all from Augusta. It's a little town located at the most south-western tip of Western Australia. I grew up having all my holidays there so it was awesome to take Poppet down. So little has changed.
Perfect.

Our girl spent some lovely time with cousins and grandparents and friends. We are grateful to have had a few weeks down under with them all.
We even saw a couple of koalas...

We returned home to Toronto and our favourite guy after a very long time on some pretty bumpy flights (insert vomiting child here), only to see our city hit by an ice storm. Thousands of people were without power over Christmas, we were very lucky to get through intact. And lately it's been so COLD!!!

But more on that later...