Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, your popular host, Mani the purebred border collie, here to bring you up to date on our weather. You may remember me from such snow-related posts as “Snow Upon Snow”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose. Looking for a squirrel.
I think you can tell that it snowed here. Kind of a lot.
The weather has been pretty different here in the last week. It started out pretty nice, but then I think last Wednesday the temperature started to drop in the afternoon, and by nightfall it was below zero F (-17C or so). The guy I live with covered a few things, just in case.
We got a little snow that night.
I’d been having some tummy troubles, and had to go out at like three in the morning, when it was even colder. The guy I live with got out of bed, got dressed, and went out with me.
This happened more than once.
I’m okay now, thanks to getting a little sweet potato and then pumpkin on my breakfasts and dinners.
Then day before yesterday it started to rain. It never rains here in the winter, but that day it rained for like five hours. The guy I live wth couldn’t believe what was happening. Then the rain finally turned to snow, and that’s what we have now.
It’s not very cold, though; more like a spring rain followed by snow.
Today is the anniversary of the terrible fires up north, which totally freaked out the guy I live with, and so, believe me, he’s pretty happy having snow on the ground, even if it means no snowdrops for a while.
The guy I live with went out today, in search of eggs. There’s an egg shortage, but he finally found some. (Naturally, he forgot some other things on his grocery list.) He went to a store he hadn’t been to in a long time, and remembered how it felt when he and his wife went there.
After that, he went to a little shopping center that he and his wife used to go to all the time, because there’s a nice sushi place there, and a Cost Plus which she liked a lot. Now I guess it’s called World Market. He was hoping to find some “hot oil” (Chinese chili oil), but they didn’t have any, which I guess is understandable at this time of year. He said when he walked back to the car he could hear his wife’s voice very distinctly in his mind.
It was the first time he’d taken the car out on snowpacked roads. (We don’t have those very often, because the intense sunlight melts the snow.) Our street is on a hill, and he said the Subaru drove up the hill just the way Subarus do; with no effort at all.
I hear that tomorrow is New Year’s Eve. The guy I live with said he’d make my fort all nice and cozy, with clean rugs, because there will be fireworks.
So that’s it. Happy New Year to everyone.
I’ll leave you with a picture of me walking home at “the blue hour”, with my blue collar.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
Goodness, I forgot that the fire was at such a weird time for a fire.
It was, for sure.
Chinese-style chili oil is quick and easy to make at home.
The guy I live with thought about making the real thing, with ginger and sesame seeds, but there are Asian markets pretty close to here.
We lived in Flushing, Queens NY’s Chinatown back in the 1970s and the local noodle shop included bay, scallion, star anise, cinnamon, Sichuan peppercorn, and cloves in their chili oil for the noodles and hot pots. Delish.
The guy I live with has a recipe similar to that, but he’s going to get the very ordinary hot oil instead.
Mee-yow look it all yore snow Mani an Guy!!!! HURRAH!!! Winter furinallee!
BellaStia Mum nodded inn agreemint ’bout beein inn a store shee an husband Kevin used to go to…shee understandss!
Wee hope THE fire crackurss do not upset you two much Mani!!!
An wee walk beeside you inn spirit wearin a blue color….Bye Bye 2022 an Hello 2023….nee nice to all of us!
***nose kissess*** BellaDharma an (((hugss)))BellaSita Mum
The firecrackers were pretty bad, but today is okay.
It’s supposed to snow again tonight. That’s not very common for our winters, but the guy I live with is fine with it.
Happy New Year, Mani. That snow in the Denver metro area was something. Don’t think I’ve ever seen rain in December here.
Here’s hoping the tummy troubles stay in 2022 and you have a plethora of squirrel adventures. 🦴 🎉 🦴
Thanks. I’ve been getting a little pumpkin and everything has been back to normal for over a week.
So not only did we have rain, but we’re getting more snow.
There won’t be any complaining, though, after the fires last year.
Amen to that!
It’s a relief, even though it makes for boring days.
Loved your evening stroll photo! You captured a mood there.
Blessings to you and your boon in this new year, peace, hope, joy.
Thanks; same to you.
We started walking this way because it’s hard for the guy I live with to slog through the snow in the field.
Best wishes for the New Year.
Thanks, and same to you.
I guess gardening will be going on hold for a while, but it’s okay.
We had hoped to travel to visit a garden today but it has been a night of freezing fog and temperatures are set to not rise above 5C today so we cancelled it – we don’t have the same kind of vehicles as you have! The rest of the week here has persistent rain forecast.
We never have freezing fog here, or anything like that.
Four-wheel-drive or all-wheel-drive still means the car can slide on ice, but the car we have (and the last one) will drive through snow almost knee-deep with little problem.
“very ordinary hot oil” Well, one could always amp it up with a small amount of five-spice powder if so inclined.
The guy I live with is going with his friend to the Asian market later this week. We’ll see what he finds, though he really wants to make more Thai food.
I hear there are at least three “real” Chinese restaurants here. The guy I live with and his friend have been to all of them.
Wok on! We made Xinjiang-style cumin lamb for dinner tonight.
There’s been a lot of wok-related work here lately.