Life in the Arctic

Well this week the cold well and truly arrived. I made a galette des rois on Wednesday night for our French lesson on Thursday so of course we woke up to our first snow day of the year. The phone call came at 5:30am saying school was cancelled. I peeked out of my window and even through the gloom could see there was no snow. Could it be right? By 7:30 it was blizzarding and continued all day so we stayed snuggled up and warm (actually being trapped drove me crazy) until it stopped and we went out and shovelled snow in the dark. 10 minutes vigorous shovelling of the drive way and I was done with snow!

By Friday morning, the plows had been out and school was back on. The cold, however, was here to stay, freezing the snow so it now looks like glass. In the dark it takes on a mystic quality and looks like everywhere is flooded, the trees bring reflected in the surface. Beautiful!

But did I mention the cold? Yesterday I went for a brisk walk around Back Bay and it was biting. Then today, Theresa and I went to Boston. 10 minutes outside and I could barely move my jaw it had gone so stiff. Without taking into account the wind chill it was about 10 degrees farenheit (-12C). Good job there was plenty to do inside!

We went first to the Museum of Fine Art where we saw "Degas and the nude". It was an amazing exhibition of his work featuring sketches with charcoal, prints with ink, pastels and some amazing sculptures. All of his work had a tactile quality - you just wanted to follow his lines. We decided we could have happily taken several pieces home, but the one we most wanted was this...


The museum was huge but we before we reached art overload we visited the collection of American contemporary art with some Calder mobiles and Jackson Pollocks hidden amongst other treasures.

Having feasted our eyes, it was on to our bellies. We headed to the North end to 'The daily catch', a tiny little restaurant (seats about 20 people) which is rather rough and ready, however, is known for its amazing sea food. The chef cooked our meals in a tiny kitchen in the corner. We were able to thank him personally from our seats. I had a lovely tuna steak with some spaghetti on the side.

Yum

Yum

Yum 

Yum 

Yum!  

Afterwards, it was a hop, skip and a jump across the road to the famous 'Mike's pastry' for Cannoli - ridiculously unhealthy pastry filled with flavoured cream of your choice but incredibly delicious.

Devouring these (sorry Grandma Nora, we were common and ate on the street), we shivered our way back towards the car. Or at least that's what we thought...we hadn't paid very much attention to exactly where we had parked, just being grateful for finding a spot close to the markets. Theresa had at least spotted a Starbucks on the corner but... Starbucks are on every corner! Cue a man with an iphone and a starbucks app. Wonderful! Nearing hypothermia and frostbite (despite thermals and layers) we made it back to the car via a warm cup of tea.

The cold is set to continue (-21C tonight!!!!!). My fault for wanting the real Maine winter to arrive. I am excited though as I have just managed to borrow a pair of ice skates from someone at work. In Yarmouth and apparently in Cumberland too, there are places flooded on purpose to create places where people can turn up and skate for free, not to mention the ponds and lakes scattered all about. Layers of padding (and health insurance card) at the ready.