Whether The Weather

Weather permitting, we say.

Although we are almost unique in the animal kingdom in the facility to change our immediate environment, to shelter ourselves from the weather, we learn the hard way that despite our technological advances, our architectural abilities, our sheltered lives, when we live in coastal areas we are too often challenged by nature.

Those are the times when weather does not permit; does not permit us to remain complacent. Extreme weather conditions bring us to a state of humility before nature. And fear and foreboding accompany our anticipation of nature's anger at being taken for granted, that extreme weather conditions submit us to.

And so it has been most latterly in the wake of Hurricane Noel, when it whipped through the Dominican Republic and Haiti and left chaos there, then went on to remind Mexico that it too stands in the path of weather violence. With hundreds of towns evacuated and under water, tens of thousands of Mexicans in desperate straits without potable water and food, awaiting extrication from their ordeal, we are convinced.

So I was more than a little glad, speaking with my sister-in-law in Halifax, that this time around they experienced weather's pique as opposed to the last go-around when Hurricane Juan exposed Halifax residents to the full bore of vicious inclemency. Few branches down, she reported, no trees uprooted.

Little wonder, since Juan had already wrought such inestimable damage, there are scant few mature trees to flatten and uproot now. They were without power for a scant four hours. Lucky.

Not so fortunate my son's mother-in-law who breathlessly informed me she was cold, and getting colder. Her prospects for the resumption of power are slightly less hopeful, verging almost on bleak - not until Tuesday. But she's a stoic, and refuses to fault the lack of attention given to sparsely-domiciled areas such as hers, contending the power workers are doing a good job restoring power to large city centers, and she's seen worse. Although she hesitates just yet to venture outdoors because of the vicious winds.

As for us, we're still basking here in Eastern Ontario in relatively mild weather. A high of 5 degrees today, some sun, some cloud, little wind, no rain. Everyone has a great smirk of happiness on their ravine-jaunting faces. Mind, the trees are now completely bare of leaves and the aspect is sere and monochromatic, but it's the season.

When we returned from our ravine walk I stayed outside to work in the gardens. Thinking this was the perfect opportunity to finish winterizing them. And it was; not so cold that I would have to wear gloves, awkward when attempting to tie up twine. So I capped the already-mounded and cut-back roses with rose cones and weighted them with bricks atop each one.

Wrapped the tree peonies. Mounded and partially wrapped the Magnolia, the azalea, the rhododendron. Wrapped the ornamental cedars and spruces, while leaving the holly and the hemlock to fend for themselves; they'll do well. The globe cedars were wrapped, as well as the Japanese cut-leaf maple.

Done. Let it snow. And it will. We will experience - shortly - high winds, blowing snow, and icy rain. Weather prevails.