Snow Day!

Yesterday was a "snow day." They don't happen very often - but heavy overnight snowfall made our street impassible until the city snow plow came to clear it. They arrived late in the afternoon. I guess they have a priority list - and we aren't on it!


















We usually go to a 10 am Sunday service, but we didn't venture out to church. The last time I tried to drive in snow this high, I got stuck at the foot of our driveway and neighbors had to push me back in!














Nothing to do but make the best of it - by baking one of my favorite muffin loaves (recipe posted here) and preparing warm soup for lunch.














It's hard to believe, but the habit of clearing heavy snowfall off streets developed only in the past 90 to 100 years, as cars became more common. I remember reading that the city of Montreal began to clear their streets in the 1920s. I don't know about Ottawa. This online history of snow removal indicates that they began removing heavy snowfall from New York City streets in the 1920s as well. Prior to that, people wealthy enough to own cars put them away for the winter and took out the horse and sleigh! I guess people kept horses in backyard stables at that time!

As I look out at the backyard snow, I try to imagine a little stable in the back. About 30 years ago, I remember one of my neighbors saying she had seen a horse in a garage somewhere in the neighborhood. She had talked to the people who lived there and apparently it wasn't against city by-law at the time, as long as there was no mess. They must have done a really good job, as I looked for the garage with the horse, but never found it. Thirty years later, I wonder if the city bylaw regarding horses has changed!