Not nice

On the day that we're remembering our fallen soldiers that the heroes still with us have to face cold temps and a frosty blanket of white on their journey down to the cenotaph in Victoria Park.

These older gentlemen and ladies will put on their uniforms over sore joints and achy bones and do what they have to to honor fallen comrades because that's what they do.

It is instructional, though, as the rest of us stand around with numbing toes and running noses while at the park to be forced to endure just the smallest degree of the cold misery many of them encountered

A good reminder, for sure.

Lest we forget  . . .

Snow spotted in London

Yipes - you snow bunnies will be glad to hear that snow has been spotted in downtown London on this morning of November 10, 2011.

Yes, you heard right.  A few flakes were seen dancing downtown and I blame the people in Victoria Park.  No, not those controversial Occupiers but the other ones - those putting up Christmas lights.

It's too early to anticipate the Yule and therefore Mother Nature is protesting. 

This is acting out at its most visible.

So stop it - put away the festive folderol and let's finish fall first!

It's baaaack!

This is a shot from Saskatchewan of a snow storm on Monday, Nov 9. 

In southwestern Ontario, we tend to get hit heavy and hard early in the snow season - harken your mind to last year's beginning of December snowmageddon or the October snowfall in 2009 that ONLY hit London - but this time it's our comrades in Saskatchewan.

So get those booties and parkas out - we can't be far behind boys and girls.

BUT don't forget - wear sandals until snow flies!

Keep warm and carry on!

Autumn has fallen . . . hard

Well, it's September 7 and it's 14 degrees Celsius (that's 57 for us Fahrenheit-ers) here in Southwestern Ontario - YIKES. 

The last few days of August were in the 20s and low 30s (70s & 80s) and that lasted through the first couple of days of September.  It was like the weather hadn't realized it was the beginning of fall - the climate hadn't caught up to the calendar.  But as soon as it did, off went the heat and on came the cold.  Man it was chilly waking up on Labour Day at 16C or 60F degrees!

And so it begins, our journey toward winter.  Though the leaves haven't started turning yet, it won't be long.

Sure sign that summer is over: the sedum is blooming. 

All that beautiful colour that Mother Nature gives us in the Autumn is just a cheat to make us forget the endless white that will soon blanket the landscape.

Some people profess to love fall - the colour, the renewal, the new season, the cooler temps.  Is that you are you a 'faller' or do you dread it because it's the beginning of winter?

Chime in here and let us know what's your fav season.

SNOW-FREE ZONE!

It's safe to come out of the house, finally!!

With Victoria Day weekend safely behind us, gardening season has officially begun in Ontario. 

Some parts of Canada are ahead of us and others behind - but most if not all of the country is now officially snow-free!  That's right - the long, painful winter can now be put behind us and we can look toward an unforunately short summer - followed by another awful, horrible, long, painful winter!

But always the optimist, the short summer months are to be enjoyed!!

ROCASS will be on hiatus during these few short months of nice weather.  But I couldn't end the bitching season without recognizing two fellow ROCASSes who contributed invaluably to our united ROCASS experience.

Charles Vincent, talented artist and graphic artist extraordinaire, created the logo.  Thanks, Chaz - you've truly embodied the very essence of the ROCASS spirit in it!

Erika Faust, my able assistant at Write.On Communications and fab writer/editor - and now web page creator - took my little idea and ran with it, making ROCASS.ca the fun, frivolous waste of time it is!

Thanks to both of them and we'll be back in a few months with plenty of gripes and swipes at that always-hate-it white stuff!

Frozen bunny ears and death to the Ground Hog!

Well folks, it's nearly Easter weekend and even though 'spring' is officially supposed to start with the Vernal Equinox - this year it was on March 20 - the 'spiritual' start to spring is often around Easter.  I don't mean spiritual in a religious way, but rather as a 'we're all caught up in the spirit' kind of way.

This year, however, the Easter bunny - that arbiter of warm weather that makes us frisky and spreads eggs (a fertility symbol) around - has moved in with his/her rodent buddy the two-faced ground hog.

That punctilious pundit of meterological predictions got it REALLY wrong this year.  He foretold of six more weeks of winter the day named for him at the beginning of February and here it is nearly 12 weeks later and it's SNOWING in London, Ontario.

So that's it - spring has officially been cancelled! 

Is there any hope for summer?

141 certifiable people!

That's the number of folks who answered yes to the London Free Press poll yesterday: Are you enjoying April's snow?

That's right - 940 people answered the poll.  85% - the sane ones replied an emphatic NO!

So the crazy minority of 15% - or 141 people - said they enjoyed freezing and slipping, grey skies and chill winds, wilting spring flowers and scared squirrels.

Just goes to show you  . . .

:-(

Three new reasons to hate spring snow:

1)  My daffodils look so sad!  An inch or so of snow has accumulated in the front lawn, blanketing those trumpeting yellow buds with ugly white stuff - truly pathetic!

2)  Had to wear a full wrap-around-the-head scarf to protect freshly coifed hair from blizzard this a.m.  Straightened hair doesn't like earth-bound precipitation, so full hair protection measures (HPM) were called for!

3)  Sales girl yelled at me!  Walked into bridal shop on Dundas while passing by this a.m. - during snow storm - to check out some dresses.  She scampers towards me though I indicated that I was just looking.  "Can you just take off your shoes?"  And walk on your wet dirty floor to perhaps give you some of my hard-earned moola?  I don't think so!  Quickly my money and I left this retail establishment.

Sad, snowy day :-(

A flurry by any other name . . .

What's better than taking the boat out of storage on a windy day?  Doing it on a windy day when it suddenly starts snowing!  Yes, there was a flurry if wet snowflakes in Grand Bend today - April 16!

Yowza - that's all I can say!

Cyber fist pump

to our friends in Alberta!  Calgarians getting snow mid-April deserve our sympathy, empathy and undying wonderment on  . . . why the heck they live there!

(Lifting martini glass) this one's for you, Calgarians!

What's green and slimey and hits your windshield

Freezing frogs!  Or as the Weather Network puts it freezing fog - that's what's up for drivers this a.m. in jolly ol' London Town!

Don't ya love winter/spring?

Let's be careful out there!

Big flakes keep falling on my head

It's April 6th and counting people!

Just sayin'

It's snowing in south London

Yes, folks - on April 5 it's still snowing!

After a harrowing - and I mean that literally - drive home from Hamilton on Sunday night, I am officially ready for it to stop snowing for this winter.

Enough!

Uncle - I call uncle.

Are you ready for spring?

Hello Winter - it's me Margaret

I give

It's official - winter has lasted tooooo long!

How do we know this - because the city of London is delaying opening its golf courses for at least a week.  At least one of them is usually open by yesterday and people can start playing on around April 1.

We'll golfers - even those who are secret snow bunnies - are bitching like there's no tomorrow because they'll lose their balls in all that white stuff still laying around on the ground.

Or maybe it's just that they'll freeze their balls completely off - in the case of men - or freeze off other body parts in the case of women. Though, I kind of doubt too many women, even dedicated golf fems, are going to slog around the course when the mercury is still to stiff to get above the freezing mark.

So, that's it - the proof - it's time for winter to go so golfers can get back on the course and out of the office and leave the rest of us to enjoy our afternoon naps!

Frost on the Easter Egg??

When there's a hard frost in the Autumn, we refer to this as  'frost on the pumpkin'.

When it happens in the spring, after the equinox, is there 'frost on the Easter egg?'

Your thoughts?

WAY tooooo cold!

For the end of March, it is just tooooo freekin' cold out there.  North wind cut through me today as we tried to enjoy a little of the sunshine today!

What's it like in your corner of Canada?

Warm and balmy, as guest blogger Ellis Worthington commented last week - or really nasty?

One thing's for sure, I've come to feel rather passionate about my electric bed warmer! 

Toasty is good!

BC blogger takes on Ontario = ON loses

Guest Blog today from my son Ellis Worthington!  Thanks for reminding us how much it sucks to live in the snow belt!
____________________________

London just got several inches of snow despite the fact spring officially starts on March 21st in Canada. The calendar is just a piece of paper full of meaningless numbers because it's nice in Vancouver but snowy in Southern Ontario

According to theweathernetwork.com, Vancouver's high temp today is 11 degrees Celsius now, sunny and partly cloudy with no wind chill. Today, London's high temperature was -2 with a windchill of -11 with a snowfall warning for London and the surrounding area. Vancouver's last snowfall this year was February 27th. This was unusual because it usually doesn't snow that late in February. My friend who has lived in Vancouver for 15 years has never seen a snowfall that late in winter. There was a couple inches of snow and it almost shut down the city for a day. At least Vancouver didn't call in the army to shovel snow, like those Torontonians have been known to. Vancouver's snow usually melts in a couple hours or a day. We get about 10 snow days a year, if that. 

Here's some pictures for a side by side comparison. They were taken on the same day, at roughly the same time. 

East Vancouver: http://i51.tinypic.com/zmnypy.jpg

My mom's backyard in London: http://i53.tinypic.com/ogl084.jpg

Vancouver is warm and sunny. Ontario is cold and snowed under. Where would you rather live? 

Winter must go - let's start a petition.

Holy  . . . it's cold outside!

Well snow was yesterday's crap-orama and today it's colder than a rubber boot filled with jello! 

Here in good old London, ON, it's -9 Celsius (15 Fahrenheit) - THAT'S BLOODY COLD! 

The wise weatherman says that will continue to be 'unseasonably' cold.  It's March 24 for golly sake, that's unseasonably cold for December!

Have you stuck your tongue to a flagpole, frozen your hand to the car door handle, felt the numb in your ears and nose today? 

I'm sitting in my office, with frozen fingers and I can't feel my toes - time for another coffee and an extra pair of socks. 

Let's start a petition - winter must go NOW.  It's just time, that's it - it's over and we want out!

Who's with me?

Unbelievable!

I must have cleared six inches of white crap off my car this morning!  Well, ok, my kid cleared it off but I watched . . . . in outrage for his exertion.

It's March 23 and we got six inches!  Not the one to two inches predicted by the eejits (that's outraged speak for idiots BTW) at Enviro Can.  Wet, heavy crap that now threatens to brown out the electricity and shut down my computer! 

Snow is trying to have its revenge on my bitching about it!  Yikes, I feel stalked!!

What's up with you?  Will you carry on bravely or whine until the plows come and plow you in and you really have something to cry about?  I'm for number two (which is what snow really is)!

Come on - let off some steam and let us hear about your tales of snowed-in woe!

Grey and crappy

That's what's wrong with this time of the year - we want it to be beautiful and sunshiney but it's grey and crappy!  The sky, our skin  . . . especially all that left over snow!

Piled it hunks along side streets, in back yards, lying in the garden covering up little sprouts that want to come up.

The crust along the roadways is especially disgusting.  Trash, salt, dirt, unmentionable items (I saw a pair of underwear - men's I think - driving along a major thoroughfare on the weekend.) all piled along a damn of frozen grey crust - yuck!

Spring snow sucks!

So much for spring melt!

It's the middle of March and here in London, Ontario it's snowing.  We got six inches between last night and today!  Yipes!!  I left sunny and 70s Houston yesterday for this crap!

So welcome to the blog - and here all I'm doing is griping and not giving you a warm ROCASS welcome!

This is your venue to bitch and moan at will  . . . or conversely if you're a snow angel then you can wax poetic about the wonders of the white stuff.

Weigh-in now!