#1 Brat has come home from Africa, safe and sound, with loads of experiences in her luggage, as well as local crafts for everyone for Christmas. #2 Brat is well on the way with her design studies in Denmark – she’s a bit frustrated with the lack of structure within the school, but I guess that’s what you get when you choose a life within “the arts”…

Christmas has come and gone. It was the whitest in living memory around here, by Christmas Day we had around 20 inches of the white stuff. Since then, the temperatures have been stuck in the -20 – - 30 C, but yesterday spring arrived, and we’re now enjoying relative warmth with a measly -10. We did get one mildish day during the Christmas period too, and that’s when we went and did this:

Which was great fun, and a real dive into Winter Wonderland.

A very happy New Year to all!

I’m looking forward to 2010.

(Illustration photo, courtesy of me – from springs past)

Thank God It’s Friday – and Hubby’s been called out to snow duty again. Which of course means that it’s snowing. The great outdoors is back to looking like mid-January. The calendar, however, hasn’t changed with more that a day since yesterday, and shows that April is one day less away.

Global warming, my big behind!

FYI, we’re not supposed to have snow for Easter in April here. We’re supposed to be enjoying colorful crocuses and daffodils on the brink of bloom. The daffs have been seen to crack through the snow, but that’s all been hidden during the night, thank you very much. The birds are singing. Makes you wonder if they know what they’re doing.

Great blogging weather though.

It’s looking like other things are perking up. Unless any must-have household appliances choose to blow out their electronics in the next month, and the car(s) stay on their best behaviour, we’ll be all right. Actually, given another month or so, we could possibly even handle the odd unforeseen expense – which is a much better state of affairs than what we’ve had lately. (Great big sigh of relief).

For the slideshow, click the link or the picture.

This is our life at the moment. And it’s snowing again. I’m sure I’ll see Hubby again some time a bit closer to April – he’s on snow clearing duty, and has been for 9 hours. He hopes to be home for lunch tomorrow – 12 more hours from now.

Our weekend is snowed over, you might say.

- and my head almost fell off.

Can you see how cold it is? I’ll tell you if you can’t: it’s -22° Celcius. I don’t know if Fahrenheit even goes that low… (OK, I found a converter that would do minuses, and it says -7,6° Fahrenheit).

The sun is on it’s way up, but I doubt it’ll do much good today. #5 Brat was going to spend the day outdoors at school today, but I hope they’re sensible enough to cut it a bit shorter… She’s got a flask of cocoa with her, but by the time they get around to recess, I’m afraid it’ll have turned into an icicle.

#4 Brat, bless her heart, still insists on wearing her canvas Converse shoes. I suggested this morning that she at least bring a padded sitting mat to stand on, but it didn’t go down well. Mum’s got no sense of style – just boring old common sense. Nothing new under the bleak winter sun!

(Excuse me while I insert a link here – for free insurance quotes. I don’t know what other kinds there are – who’d want to pay to get a quote, anyway?)

Right – where was I? Oh, yes, Brats and the cold. #2 Brat is a sometime member of the “barebelly” squad. I didn’t see her this morning, as she left so early, but I hope she covered up today. #3 is on his way home from his school trip to Ecuador, and boy, is he in for a shock! I hope #1 Brat is somewhere warm – she’s in Oslo for a weekend of fun and games, and as for #6, he’s still snuggled up in his bed, blissfully unaware of most of life’s controversies, the cold included. He’s not too keen on this snow business – his legs are too short for 60 cms of the stuff.

Whose legs aren’t, come to think of it?

Update, 8pm: It’s still snowing. Same places, just a little darker:

I think we’re talking 20 inches here (50 cm).

I wonder if I should shovel the snow off this table… Just to make sure it doesn’t go right through my terrace boards! A shame, though – it looks like a lovely, iced cake. Naaa – I’ll see about that tomorrow.

Isn’t he a beauty? Who would have thought this swanky fellow is 27 years old?

WW Headquarters

WW Headquarters

This is high, high up in the Norwegian mountains…

More on the PhotoHunt!