Arctic Invasion

It's crisp, it's sunny and the grey is gone.  So has any shred or semblance of warmth because we are in the grip of an Arctic outflow more powerful than we've seen in years.  I was attempting to capture the snow blasting off the the roofs and down the street but my timing was poor.  It was -19 C this morning with a good solid wind to push it down even further to below -30 C.  We have about 20 cm of powder atop virtual conrete.  Snakes of dry snow slither and fly down the road as though on the Arctic tundra as frigid winds pour out of the north.
The hiking group is planning on commorating the one century anniversary of Robert Falcon Scott's arrival at the South Pole, (Jan. 17th 1912) next week by going on a 2 to 3 hour snowshoe ending at our fancy English Inn, Minnette Bay Lodge where they will dine on quiche and salads.
If they go out tomorrow maybe they can pretend they're actually AT the south pole.  Make me less sad to miss these outtings for the next few weeks as I present art workshops in the elementary schools.