After the storm

Finally the storm is over and I'm able to return home. I was so thankful that I had a place to stay in Cornwall and didn't have to travel to work on Sunday during the storm. My son's place is only a few blocks from the hospital rather than my normal 40 min drive. Final reports are that we had 40 cm in our area. As you can see from the pictures, that's a lot of snow! We are not fortunate enough to have a snowblower but we are lucky enough to have several neighbours who do. I'm not sure yet which one blew out our drive, but it was all complete when I returned home this afternoon. I have a bottle of wine and some gas money ready whenever I find out which one it was. One thing I did notice is that my bushes in front of the house, which were covered in Christmas lights ,are now buried beneath the snow. So much for decorating!

All that snow can look very pretty but for those of us who travel in it, it can be extremely treacherous. I travel to work on the back roads where there is not as much traffic for most of my drive. However I do have to get on one of the major roads for the latter part of my journey. At that point I get on highway 401. The 401 highway is an east/west route from the Quebec border all the way to Windsor, On. At the height of the storm this highway was closed at Cornwall due to a pileup involving six tractor trailors! When I heard that I was very glad that I'd stayed put!

I'd hoped to get some stitching done at my son's during my stay but I forgot my Ott-lite at home and the light just wasn't good enough for stitching at Dan's place. So instead we took a walk over to the local Blockbuster and rented the new Harry Potter release. I enjoyed it but was a little disappointed since they left out so much from the book this time. After this I caught up with a little reading. I almost ended up walking to work from his place this morning because I had difficulty getting my car out of the parking lot at his apartment building. During the night they plowed the lot and my car was surrounded by mounds of snow. I couldn't even see the wheels on it! I managed to shovel a good portion of it and then took a running leap over the last mound where I promptly got stuck. After backing up I had another go at it and this time I managed to get out.

I took the scenic route home this afternoon along what's known as the Long Sault Parkway. This road takes you onto some of the islands on the St. Lawrence River between Long Sault and Ingleside. It was a lovely, sunny winter day today and all that snow made for some very nice pictures. You can see the St Lawrence River in the background of the first picture.

No stitching progress at this point. I'm hoping to get some done this evening and have some new pics for you in the next day or so. Time to go, I hear my DH arriving from Ottawa with supper!