first storm of the seasonsunrise – 7:37, sunset – 5:28
9 hours and 51 minutes of daylight

 
The shot is from the porch and so the weird perspective.

The snow started Friday evening and lasted all the way through mid-day Saturday. I went out with the broom to clear the area in front of the back-door, but it was fruitless; within the hour the swept area was covered in snow. Total accumulation was between 6 and 10 inches. We were on the northern edge of the storm.

I kept thinking of all the farmhouses we passed going up to my parents in Northern Ontario and how isolated they all seemed; how scary it felt picturing myself in those farmhouses; and yet the snow-storm here left many isolated. (I have a pic that Jo’ gave me of a barn in winter in the middle of a field. It’s all gray and blurry with falling snow. It’s one of the most desolate, depressing photographs I have ever seen.) Is the difference one of duration? By the middle of the next week, the snow will be gone, but in Northern Ontario and the Upper Peninsula winter and snow will last into April.

And it’s on days like this that I go looking for summer rental in Italy. (I’m already counting down to Kaua’i.) In Calabria, the rental situation is very different than in other parts. Even Puglia, which is similar economically, had several viable rental properties. Most of the online rentals in Calabria are in resort areas and most are new construction. Forget refurbished medieval housing with modern amenities. The albergo diffuso in Belmonte was truly a find.

55 days till spring