Winter storm, "Elliott"

 Many of you are wondering at images you are seeing of masses of snow being dumped upon the USA, It is not funny. Many have died already.

The problem is in part caused by the heating of the Great Lakes so that they are very warm and not at all frozen as they should be. So cold  air masses flowing over these heat engines gather water vapour and like any good refrigerator - running on electrical energy or on any other source of energy - produce a cold product, in this case mostly snow.

Compounding the situation was to call the storm "Elliott" with 2 "t"s, The Scottish poet James Hogg, the "Ettrick Shepherd", wrote in 1811, that one could lock out a storm of English if one was Elliot of Lariston as was successfully demonstrated as needed in the 1560s. It was so successful that maybe it was forgotten? I never heard it being sung last week, although a recording is available if you click on this line.

Our " doors were not locked and we are digging ourselves out of our ignorance! 

WOB

Peek-a-boo

We are digging out. There is a bench here. Beside the stairs!

 

 Our building rises above the snow, too:

Slowly but surely -  rebounding?

Our neighbours are digging out, too:

We are digging out, too:

And soon the thermometer will show itself and we can play peek-a-boo!

WOB

The Art of Shovelling Snow

 First find some snow in which to practise. Take this bench:

Don't shovel everything or people will not recognize your work!

A red shovel left in plain view identifies you:

One can also see it easily from a distance.

This is fine for single use and light snowfall. However, when one graduates to the street level then it helps to get a team together:

Note the colourful shovels and the car. Life isn't always so accommodating. It helps to have chosen a car colour that stands out. For example, this VW Bug/Käfer:

Ribbons help the driver to locate his car or Auto.

We next move on to pleasure shovelers who roam about singing hockey songs and other Christmas carols:

Remember not to do it all at once:

Effort counts and does warm the heart - beware of over enthusiasm and heart attacks - there is always Valentine's Day and Family Day in February.

This is just snow shoveling as a recreation, as a sport or something one does for pleasure.

There are several more levels here in Canada but I will show just one more at the individual level before closing: the serious one-man show person. The person attracts attention with "lights and whistles". Still, one should not get in the way of a busy person!

A private citizens is chosen at random to demonstrate scale. Note, too, the green stake at right - probably used to keep snowmen from running about?

This has a good dentist! The teeth don't need "freezing"!

For scale, again note the green stake:

This toy costs around $10,000 - I don't know about drivers' tests or licenses.

I hope this was fun - see you in the gym - WOB

UFOs - finally identified!

 It had to happen - I saw birds on the wing

- how absurd, I always thought the wing was on the bird?

So some Black-capped Chickadees:

Some White-breasted Nuthatches:

(complete with a mouth-full)

And a female Downy Woodpecker:

Maybe there is some hope for better birding in '23?

WOB

A small group of "reddish" birds at Leacock

 It was mid afternoon on Saturday December 10th when I saw these birds fly into some deciduous trees at the back of the museum just in from Leacock "lane". 

I have tried sharpening the images and then enlarged them to show the bird on the right

of the trio. There may have been more in other trees. Also after the above shots I moved to try and get a better - at least different angle on them-

I am not familiar with this bird - Bill, as opposed to WOB!