ReNe: winston churchill park

What we like to do after any major snowstorm is to go out to the beach or park, basically any place for which the snow would not be cleared. Also, it's really pretty to see the natural landscape swathed in snow. So after last weekend's storm, as we've already been to the two beaches, it was a toss-up between High Park and Winston Churchhill Park. We went to the WC park.

This is a shot of the park from Spadina road. One can almost believe this was taken at a ski slope. There are a couple of skiers, a few snowboarders, but most of the people there were tobogganning. I really want my own sled too...

Taken at the entrance to the park. The bridge is part of Spadina road; the first photo was taken from the bridge.

Again one of the oddest things about winter; the temperatures after a good snowdump usually isn't very cold, and by the time we walked to the park, we were sweating a bit. I had to unzip my coat and I only had a T-shirt underneath. Oh yeah, and though it's not obvious in the digital photos, it was blindingly bright because of all the snow. Hence the shades.

That's about the same spot four months earlier, in autumn.

Mike playing in the snow.

Mike taking a break after playing in the snow. That's how deep the snow was. On the footpath, the normally waist-high railings and information boards were knee-high.

Just a empty sweep of white. I like the starkness of the landscape.

Just for contrast, this was the same spot, four months ago.

On the way back home, we noticed the snow piled up outside this house. Guess this is what happens when you don't clear snow.

And, more buried stuff.

ReNe: another big snow storm

Another snow post!

Well, there was another huge snow storm over eastern Canada yesterday, and all I see whenever I look out is snow. Activities over the weekened, or lack of, have to be planned around the white stuff.

This winter has been marked by the record levels of snow. The current storm system is interesting because of its size and duration. It's expected to dump about 15-25, or 20-30cm depending on the news source, of snow on Toronto, and up to 50cm in the worse-hit areas such as Niagara. Also, while most storms last 10-12 hours, this one was expected to last up to 36 hours and came in 2 waves; the first on Friday evening and the main event on Saturday afternoon and night. It could be the biggest storm of the season if it exceeds 30cm; the biggest storm this season was the one that dumped 30cm on CNY eve.

This was taken on Saturday, early afternoon. It may be hard to tell from the picture but not only is there snow coming down, snow is also being whipped up from drifts by the gusty winds. Truly an amazing sight. At this point, the snow was very small, even a little wet, almost on the verge of melting.
Late afternoon, I got really tired to being cooped up indoors and so we went out to buy groceries. It's actually pretty fun to walk outside in the snow and while driving is hard because of poor visibility and spinning wheels, it's not a big deal at all to walk in a snowstorm. Temperatures were cold though not unbearable; -7C, -17C with windchill. This was taken along Bloor; note the condition of the streets, the fact that roads are almost indistinguishable from the pavements, and the massive snowplows.

Normally if, say, 10 cm of snow fell on both the roads and pavements, there should still be a clear distinction between the two. However, because of the strong winds, snow gets blown up and re-distributed all over. I have stepped onto the roads by mistake because the curbs are hidden under the snow, initially thinking I stepped into one huge pothole and then realizing *not*. It's tricky. Also tricky is avoiding stubbing your toes on hard-packed ice from previous storms, hidden under a fresh coat of new snow or avoiding sheets of ice, also hidden under new snow.


Once in a while we see this: dogs tied up outside a shop/supermarket/cafe, while the owner is inside. Some of the bigger dogs seem all right, especially those with thick coats, though we've once seen a poodle (you know, the kind that's shaved) shivering badly. Anyway, this guy here just seems bored.

Notice the white-out conditions. You can't see clearly beyond two blocks. It is hard and dangerous to drive (I recall the blizzard conditions on the drive back from Toronto to St Louis last Thanksgiving) but fairly easy on foot.

The storm wreaking havoc across Eastern Canada resulted in so many car crashes on Saturday that police in Ontario stopped going to crash sites - instead telling those involved in a collision to get a tow and report to a designated centre.

"Since yesterday when the storm started we've had close to 600 collisions," said Const. Dave Woodford of the Ontario Provincial Police on Saturday afternoon. "Then . . . over 200 collisions since 6 o'clock this morning."

[Canwest news service, 8 Mar 2008]

Outside one of our favorite places to get groceries. P.A.T. is a Korean supermarket; stuff is relatively cheap, fresh and the variety is good.

And despite the mammoth storm, there are always the hard-corers. Always an inspiration.

For those confused, I'm referring to the cyclist. I've seen cyclists who are even out in -18C weather, ski-goggled and balaclava-ed Made us feel like a wuss for complaining about cycling in Singapore when it rains, eh?


Strong winds whipped the snow into knee-deep snow-drifts at parts. There was a stretch of deep snow just outside our apartment.

As noted, the late morning snow was small and wet, like little ice pellets. By the time we went out in the afternoon, the snow was thin and cylindrical. Odd, that. I wonder kind of conditions exactly are required to produce all these different types of snow. Towards the evening, the flakes became big and fluffy, and you can easily see the crystalline structure.

ReNe: some snowy numbers

Another snowstorm, another 15-20cm dump yesterday. Coupled with the mild weather (about -2C), this made for a slushy commute both yesterday and today. As one unknown guy, overheard complaining loudly on his cell phone, said, "I'm crossing oceans here!"

As the average March snowfalls for Toronto is 19cm, that's a month's worth in one storm.

I am seriously considering buying a pair of rubber boots.

As noted before, this February (for Toronto) is the snowiest on record, at 75.8cm. Since Environment Canada started keeping records from 1937, the snowiest winter was that of 1938-1939, with 207cm of snow. The average (over the years) snowfall in winter is 115cm, and currently, this winter has seen 176cm so far, making it the 7th snowiest. There's about 2 weeks more of winter to go, and another big storm forecasted for this weekend. I can't wait.

(But that's not so bad. Ottawa, the snowiest city in Canada, received 355cm of snow so far this winter, the second snowiest on record. Their record was 441.1cm in 1970-71.)

[Numbers from Globe and Mail, Mar 5 2008; The Star, Mar 5 2008]

ReNe: snowstorms

In addition to the snowstorm last Friday, which apparently dumped 20cm of snow, there was another storm last night, a mix of snow, ice pellets and icy rain, that dumped another 5-10cm of snow. (Sounds like a lot but the snow melts quickly.) More snow is expected later this afternoon, about another 15cm worth.

Schools are closed, some public transport routes are not running, and the office is now pretty quiet. About half of the people do not seem to be around, and those that did come in came in came in later than usual. The same thing happened during last Friday's storm.

Fun. Really, it is. I quite like walking through the snow and the city looks especially different with snow. It's not as bad as it sounds, and certainly easier to walk through than a heavy rain storm in Singapore. I've walked through flurries and snowstorms on my commutes to and from work, and unlike getting caught in the rain, most of the snow falls off when you're moving, and it is easy enough to brush off most of it once you reach your destination.

To me, it's a very novel feeling -- the city slowing down due to the weather. Singapore Inc. operates around the year; temperatures remain largely the same year-round, and there's no 'natural disasters' and hence no excuse for missing work or even coming in late. Breaks are all planned (i.e. public holidays). It's a well-oiled machine and it, as well as its workers, are not expected to 'break down'. When an ex-colleague was describing the typhoon warning system in HK, where she worked for a while, us Singaporeans were amazed. "And the company lets you go home??"

The not-so-fun bit is the cost... Cleaning up is expensive and guess who pays...

Anyway, some numbers and quotes from the local newspaper (The Star):
Amount budgeted snow removal budget: $67 million
"About halfway through the winter season, the city is at or slightly above its budgeted spending for winter maintenance"
Cost to clean up last Friday's storm (20cm): $3 million
Cost to clean up storm on Dec 16 (30cm): $5 million
Total amount of snow that has fallen on the Toronto area since Nov 1 2007: 98cm

MiKE: Wait, there's more..

Was sorting through some pictures, and came across some more good photos that I forgot to put up yesterday. Here they are:

Another shot of sunset at Balmy beach, this one with the obligatory silhouette of CN tower just so that people know this is Toronto (yes yes, it's possible to 'shop it in anytime):

Balmy beach again, this time with the moon in view already:



And one more from the beach at Woodbine:
Isn't that sweet? Yes, not us, but hard for us to take such a pic. Let's just say we were doing something like that too :)

ok, some of you may be wondering how cold it is here. This is our bottle of fruit/flower tea, left by the window, indoors, and as you can see, it has started to freeze:

But, not to worry though, even though the outside air is pretty cold, the heater indoors is very warm; in fact, the reason why we had to open the windows is that if it were not, the apartment would be too stuffy.

MiKE: picture diarrhea

So, we've been taking pictures. It's been snowing, with a major snowstorm over the last weekend; and also, we've discovered the TTC day pass, which allows individual access to the TTC (that's the bus, subway, and streetcar) on weekdays, and family access on the weekends. Which makes a lot of sense. Because we would recoup the cost of the pass by simply making a return trip. There are a lot of pictures here, so I'd spare the opening narrative and write around the pictures:

On the advice of a friend, we took the 501 streetcar service, apparently (one of?) the longest streetcar routes in N. America. It brought us to the beach on the east coast of Lake Ontario, which has to be seen to be believed. It is not called one of the great lakes for nothing - at the beach, it feels for all intents and purposes, like a beach in an ocean. So much so that Serene had thought that it was the Atlantic. It even has its own breakwaters, like this:

except that, unlike other places we've been to, this one has icicles hanging off the rocks. That day we visited it was very cold, the weekend saw a minimum temperature of -15ºC; when this picture was taken, not only was it cold, it was windy..

Part of the reason why we went to the beach that day was that it was a clear sunny day.

And like most other clear sunny days, the sunset was beautiful:

Here's another shot that that correctly exposes the rock, so you can see more detail. Once again, it was interesting to see ice on the rocks; yes, call us frog-in-the-well, whatever, this was our first time.

A shot of the coastline. I am no geography major, but I remember from a long time ago that wave action creates a characteristic pattern on the shoreline:

And a shot of us in the sunset. The lighting became very red, reminding me of a wisecrack a prof said recently about how it was all thanks to 'oxides of nitrogen and sulphur"

Looks all sunny, but it was very cold; within 15 minutes of being there, Serene was complaining of numb toes and fingers, and wanted to get out of there:

And a shot of us.

When waiting for the streetcar to arrive, the sun took its time to set, making the silhouetted scenery you see below:
And so that was our first trip out to the east and the beach. Overall, it was quite a pleasant way to spend the Saturday: wake up late-ish, have brunch at St. Lawrence Market, take the streetcar east to the beach, freeze up while at it, and then come back, after shopping for groceries at Sanko, someplace which I'd like to go, but usually don't because it is quite a distance away. We were convinced into buying 2 Oden sets, which don't look like much, but when cooked, turned out to be a bit too much for one sitting.


So, one of the weekends, we heard drums. Wondering what it was, google gave us the answer within a couple of minutes: there was a demonstration and a march from the Bloor Street United Church (which, incidentally, had a rainbow flag at its signboard) to the Parliament. Apparently these people were demonstrating for the right of US war resisters to remain in Canada, whereas the government was deporting them back. Browsing the page, it seemed that most (all?) of these people were US military 'deserters' (depends on who's doing the name calling, eh?) who refused to serve the second term, or who refused to go to war in Iraq; some of them had applied for conscientious objector status and were denied. So, they gave up and just moved here, and decided not to go back. Isn't that great? That people of another country would fight for your right to disobey your own government, even to the point of petitioning their own to allow you to break your government's law? No, seriously, I mean that with no sarcasm whatsoever. People with an attachment to higher values, and enough empathy to be activist about it.


So, that night, it snowed, lightly, and then we noticed this on our window sill: It was very fine snow, and the temperature was cold enough that it did not melt:


This past weekend, we decided to go to the beach again. So, after brunch of a veal and eggplant sandwich (with everything on, including the hot peppers), we walked toward Queen Street to take the 501 east again. We passed by this church, and as you can see, it had been snowing quite heavily the day before. It was beautiful; dark brown tree branches trimmed with white snow:


On our way to the streetcar stop, we came across this. Seems people have a sense of humour here.

And then we arrived at the beach; this time a different part of it. Once again, you can see the coastline; it does not look like what I would imagine a lake to be at all:


It had snowed 15-30cm, downtown near where we stayed, lots of it got ploughed off the roads and the pavements salted so that much of it melted to become a dirty slush. But out here, it was relatively untouched. You can see just how much snow actually fell:


The inside of a TTC streetcar:

Shooting out the window, we came across this:
Oh, for those of you lazy enough to scrutinise the picture, it says: "A PROPOSAL: TILT THIS BUILDING 5 DEGREES TO THE RIGHT"

Sunday, we went to the Christie Pits park, apparently a part of a river which had been filled in. the result is that there was a natural depression, which, when filled with snow, equals many fans of kinetic energy out in force to take advantage of the lowered friction of the slopes. On the way there, we came across this quiet street. Toronto has ever been described by people as a city that works; I like it; unlike other more densely populated cities, there are hardly any significant parts of the city that are built up with high rise blocks - I am thinking in terms of the 40-50 floor concrete monstrosities in Hong Kong, for example. There is a certain amount of sprawl, but not like American suburbia, where it becomes so desolate and isolated that there is no sense of community and living together but rather a place where many individuals happen to be sited close together. Anyway, this side street makes a good picture for me because it is just off Bloor West, a fairly busy street, yet this looks so peaceful that I would stay here. And not to mention the white-snow-on-black-branches look. I like it:

So as I was saying, we went to see the park, and noticed this one kid who loved the snow he was deliberately falling onto it; guess it is nice to be a kid with nobody (inside) telling you what to do or not to do. He was running up the slope, and then when he found a deep enough pile, would throw himself onto it, and then repeat the process:

Parkas and scarves hung aside, people would have just taken cardboard boxes and slid down the slope:

And then there were this 4 Japanese people who came with an inflatable sled. The guys just had a turn, so it was the gals' turn; they get ready:

One of the guys got tired of waiting, and then gave them a shove:

While the other waited midslope to take a picture. Here you can see it is not going well, they have turned 90º:

And they end up falling off the sled and sliding on their clothes:
The gals spent quite some on the snow; it must have hurt somewhat, or it was just fun to be lying there.

At the park, there was actually a skating rink. And this guy was pushing his baby stroller along:

And finally, parting shots, us walking back, near someone's house, admiring the effect of the snow on the trees: