If you have been unfortunate enough to live on the east coast during the winter of 2010-11, you know that it has been exceptionally cold at least through the first three weeks of January.
It has truly been a coastal winter to remember. It is not often that the Southern Outer Banks of North Carolina gets real winter weather worth remembering.
Most winters we get to enjoy temperatures into the fifties, sixties, and yes, even into the seventies.
This has been a more difficult winter. We have struggled many days to reach the mid-forties, much less our normal mid-fifties or twelve or thirteen degrees Celsius for the Canadians in the group.
We were even iced in for a while. In fact I felt so bad for our feathered water birds that I took our skiff on an ice breaking mission.
However with a more normal winter storm instead of a snowstorm just passing through the area, I hope all of that is behind us now. I think Canada and New England have returned to their tradional roles as keepers of the "cold weather."
Through December and most of January the cold air just spilled out of Canada. Now it is seems bottled up as it should be.
With Canada taking its proper role, it is much easier to be thankful for Canada's presence on our Northern border.
We southerners like to enjoy our out-of-doors four seasons of the year, and it was hard to bundle up enough to do that in December. Of course we don't have real cold weather clothes, but it is the principle of the thing. My winter boots are tennis shoes, and even though it was "cold" this winter, I have yet to need gloves though I seem to think I need them since they are often stuffed in jacket pockets.
While the winds have come rolling in after this first normal storm of the season, it was still a pleasure to get up this morning when the temperature was 54F.
Maybe if the wind will die down, I will manage a ride down the river in our skiff, it has been a couple of weeks since I checked in at Red Sixteen.
Of course that is not nearly as long as it has been since I lived through a true Canadian winter, but I manage to keep the memories alive by calling a couple of old neighbors just to feel their pain a little.
Today would be a good day to call, I just ordered my tomato seed so I can get my plants in the ground in late March.
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