Well ok then, winter.

Just like that, winter announces that it’s really here.  A nice photogenic change of colour scheme is one thing, a sudden smackdown is another.I was doing errands in Nelson and it was snowing all day but it was plus one, so nothing accumulated, but when I was on the boat home, it started to stick with a vengeance.  When the ferry landed and the ramp was coming down, loaded with 3” of snow, I thought, uhoh.  Made it off the ramp ok, but started swimming on the unplowed road a few hundred meters further and had to go to 4wd just to get up the hill. The snow was coming so thick and fast it made that blizzard tunnel effect on the windshield you can hardly see through- the technical term for snow like that is puking.  It felt like a mission to the ski hill on a really good day.  I crept home in a line of other creeping cars, I suspect most of them also still on summers; gratefully, made it home without misadventure at 20kph, and now I’m parked until the snow thaws or I manifest snow tires.   Trees down everywhere, semi-trailer stuck across the road, and the power flickering but only out for a few minutes.  Unbelievable for November.  Just past mid-November, even.There’s nothing like a good big snow to make you feel isolated and wintered in.  As long as it’s cozy at home and you need nothing from the outside world, then being stuck at home in the snow is like being snuggled under a big white blanket.