another weekend, another blizzard

Preparing for another blizzard here in MA... We are all plowed out and working on getting the snow off the convent roof. And it's cold, darn it! 10 degrees & feels like -9.

I must admit, though, it is an absolutely gorgeous day. I am dying to go out and wander around with my camera and see how the birds are faring.  But I have discovered that my boots aren't as warm as I might like, and I seem to have turned into a wimp, at least compared to my much  younger self living in Michigan and blithely walking 20 minutes in single digit temps to class every day. With many, many layers on.

Here I remember the day in Haiti a couple of years ago when I woke up and said to myself, geez, it's kind of chilly this morning. Looked at the thermoment. 77. Yup, colder than usual. It's all relative.

The Sisters from Haiti returned to Port-au-Prince today. It's a little warmer there... Of course, I'm sure they're sorry to miss another blizzard.

Not only would my younger self laugh at me, but also people in other parts of the US.  An upstate NY friend recently posted that she only had a day off for cold as a child once - the wind chill was at -50.  School was on if the wind chill was only -30.  Yikes.

And then there are other places in the world.  One of the pics below has been modified - flipped and "Somewhere in Massachusetts" added. I thought they were photoshopped.  Nope. They are in Japan.

Here is what the article says:

The Japanese Alps
- World record snow depth: 465 inches at Mt. Ibuki in 1927
- Takada, Japan annual average snowfall:  262 inches

Perhaps the best combination of ingredients for epic snow occurs along the spine of Japan's Honshu Island.

In the winter, cold air from Siberia spills over the Sea of Japan, picking up moisture. These cold north to northwest winds them slam into the Japanese Alps and lower elevations on the mountains' windward slopes, wringing out heavy snow.

When this pattern locks in, feet of snow can fall for several days.

This can be best visualized by traveling the Tateyama Kurobe Route, west of Nagano, in the spring. Plows clear the road each year, leaving, in essence, giant snow walls resembling a canyon on either side of the road.
http://www.weather.com/storms/winter/news/worlds-deepest-snow-photos

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So here we are, hours later. I was just reminded of this blog post by a warning that Massachussetts Emergency Management sent to my phone.

...and then this article, posted by a friend: 

Snow 'hurricane' to lash New England this weekend

http://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2015/02/13/blizzard-snowstorm-boston-new-england/23348961/

We've continued to get ready here, of course.

And it's still beautiful. I finally did get outside to take Penny, our dog, for a walk. She has a fur coat, so she didn't mind the cold a bit.

I'm  hoping it will stay that way for at least a little longer, as I am off to the Cape to give a workshop on Anglican Prayer Beads tomorrow.

Meanwhile, stay warm and safe, all of you, and pray for those who must travel, those who work outside, and those who have inadequate shelter. Pray, too, for minimal power outages. With these low temperatures, it will be difficult very quickly for those who don't have generators or fireplaces.