Data point...

[alexpgp]

After lunch, Galina and I went outside to shovel the snow out from around the car. I estimate 4-5 inches have fallen so far. The intensity of the white stuff coming down has picked up a bit too, so much so that the signal for my Internet link appears to have been overcome by too much absorption between There and Here.

Good thing I still have a data plan for my BlackBerry. :^)

Cheers...

UPDATE of 4:19 pm: If anything, the snowfall intensity has gone up yet another notch, but connectivity has returned. Whatever the glitch was, it wasn't in the link. Still, it's good having that data plan!

Comments

[velvet-granat.livejournal.com]

Does it look anything like this:

(it's from here (http://fotoejjiki.livejournal.com/1013084.html#cutid1).)

(I am so envious right now. It's about +30C here and knowing this place, it's going to be the traditional +40C on Christmas day! :) )

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

Nope. 'round these parts, this is what it looks like:

(http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexpgp/3130520779/)
To try to get an idea of what a hot Christmas must be like for you, I'm trying to wrap my mind around a freezing Fourth of July (and it's not working :^).

Best of the season at you!

Cheers...

[velvet-granat.livejournal.com]

Thats SO pretty... I still vaguely remember what it's like from my childhood. However, I do not remember being that cold!

Christmas for us here... often cold seafood (prawns etc), masses of salads, stone fruits (peaches, nectarines, plums, cherries, apricots all come into season now), huge fragrant mangoes, chilled slices of watermelon. Cutting cooking down to a minimum - grill some fish for supper. Trips to the pool in the afternoon, or day trips to the beach to surf (its about 45 minute drive to the Pacific Ocean shores). Everything is flowering like crazy, frangipani trees, hibiscus, bougainvillea, all native bushes and trees and everything in the gardens.

The Christmas tree with its trimmings and white cotton wool looks, frankly, ludicrous. Roasted turkey - doubly so. Don't even mention the "White Christmas" carol! BBQs in the garden or in the park. Relaxing on a veranda with friends, drinking freezing cold beer or white wine, put on some slow jazz or blues. Water fights with supersoaker guns or garden hoses in the afternoon if its too hot (and you are young ;)). Maybe a stay in some caravan park meters away from the beach, get away from the city for a few days.

And the freezing 4th of July... well, it rarely goes below +5C here, even at night. Which is still pretty chilly, but there is never any snow. I guess in some respects, this IS a place of eternal summer.