Ottawa did not receive any significant snow accumulation worth mentioning until mid month and on multiple days we were treated to some glorious sunsets.
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| January 8, 2022 |
Even the temperatures were on the mild side for the first two weeks of 2022 and almost daily John and I went for a walk. While John took a great many varied routes, I preferred my tried and true (and favourite) 5km asphalt walk up St. Laurent and across Sandridge Road. I was also tickled pink that the sidewalks were mostly bare, free of snow and more importantly, ice.
Then, on January 17th winter officially arrived. The photo below was taken at 8 AM that morning.
It continued to snow all day and by evening the storm morphed into a blizzard. From our vantage point it felt as if we were living in a snow globe.
Not surprisingly we stayed indoors and John baked a delicious loaf of bread.
A few days later the temperatures dropped - big time - and the view out our window (again, at 8 AM) confirmed it.
John used the time to install pull-out shelves in our tiny hall pantry, while I re-organized the items and baked some kale chips. Both options were a much wiser decision than venturing outdoors and possibly succumbing to frostbite.
Sunday, January 23 was still pretty cold, but it was such a beautiful sunny day that we decided to go for a brief snowshoe along the Ottawa River. As this was the first time I've snowshoed in at least twelve to fifteen years, it was a total treat - even though neither of us could feel our fingertips by the time we returned to the van!
The third week of January began with another bitterly freezing cold day, but we were treated to some impressive sun dogs.
Mid week we headed to Green Creek for another snowshoe outing.
The only sound we heard while walking on the frozen creek was the crunch of our snowshoes in the snow. We spotted a downy woodpecker as well as a flock of winter robins. (Robins have apparently been wintering in Ottawa since as early as 2014, most likely due to climate change.)
A little further on we spotted a hornets nest.
Followed by selfie time!
Today was another gorgeous sunny day and we headed to a wooded area just east of the Aviation Museum. It was a lovely snowshoe and while it was -15C it felt actually balmy while we were in the bush and protected from the wind.
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