September snow

It's September, which means it's spring,

which means surprise snow

that isn't really that much of a surprise.

In the case of today it wasn't really snow either.
Methven was bothered by light dry snow
that failed to stay even for a second on the ground.

Maybe tomorrow we will wake up to a snowy vista.

Two years ago on September 3rd,

it was a Friday and I was driving back from

Oxford to Methven

through the mountains and the Rakaia Gorge,

when I drove from warm sunny sunness

straight into an almost whiteout blizzard.

I was surprised.

Then my windscreen cracked.
I was annoyed.

Not much but enough.
I watched the crack slowly travel

up from the bottom and across the screen

to the registration sticker where it stopped.

The next day was Sept 4th.

We got hit by a 7.1 earthquake in the dark of morn.

It took me three weeks to get the windscreen fixed

but it held.

September 4th was blissfully sunny.

Crazy weather in September.

Yesterday I travelled the reverse journey

from Methven towards Oxford.

I only went as far as Hororata and

then towards town to Yaldhurst

to meet a group of  our TeenAg girls from
Christchurch Girls' High
who were keen to visit with

Dan the Rhymestone Cowboy and horse whisperer.

At Dan's we were smacked around by a howling Nor'wester,

sandblasted by dust,

and deafened by low flying 737s

as we were right next to the airport.

The horses weren't concerned.

Just us humans.

I did my usual thing of forgetting that I would be

tramping over dirty, uneven ground

and wore heeled boots.

I did my even more usual thing

and put lipblam on right before I got out of the car.

As I walked around the shelterbelt

I got a face full of fine Canterbury topsoil.

From then on I was trying to get dust off my lips while

keeping enough lipbalm that my lips wouldn't dry up

and fall off my face.

It could happen.

On my way to see Dan, the girls and

Duncy Monkey our Extension Manager

who had organised the outing,

I had received a phone call so pulled over to talk.

As I talked I noticed the mountain snow wisping away

in the Nor'wester wind.

After a bit I realised that there was an avalanche sliding down the mountain,

prompted by the fierce sun.

The wispy cloud was the puffs of snow as it raced along.

I suspect it would have been a whole different story

if you had been on the mountain.

I try to avoid being on mountains.

 The avalanche is in the snowy gully in the centre of the photo.

I'd never seen an avalanche before

so I was late to Yaldhurst

in favour of watching nature.

A good choice I think.

Now it's snowing pretty hard and I live at sea level so you know that's got to be cold.  Tomorrow I drive to Dunedin to meet with Young Farmer leadership so I hope the snow washes away overnight.

bone arse freezing

I do have to say it's been soo sooo cold the last two days.

We had a wee weather bomb filled with snow

about 6am yesterday.

I woke to a txt from the Lovely Kim to say

don't come to work cause the roads are covered with snow.

Fine by me.

I knew it was going to be bad

cause the farmers whose farms are on my way home from the Methven

were loading up bales of hay by gates for easy access

when the land was deep in snow.

I guess the bales would been identifiable by

 being the really big mounds of snow.

They had a couple of feet of snow in the Methven by 7am,

we had only just started.

Punky Pete had already left by then

but was home by 10am when they closed the Polytech

and sent the students home.

I don't know why I take photos in the dark when it snows.

We didn't get much snow in Leeston.

Only 5 cms but it was endless.

Snowed and sleeted all day.

Then rained and melted and froze.

I spent the day sitting a metre from the roasty, toasty fire.

Wow the fireplace looks wonky there!

I woke this morning in my bedroom with no curtains

to see my breath and to hear it was -5.8 degrees.

That's cold.

That's bone arse cold.

We hit a high of 0C today.

I stayed inside with my thermal long johns on,

my merino undershirt, a merino jersey,

jeans, wool work socks and my favourite

possum merino beanie from TBfree New Zealand.

Oh and I threw a Young Farmer's hoodie on so kept my hood up.

Cosy as a fridge.

At least I'm not these heifers I saw today.

I have to remind myself their hides are very thick

and the girls can handle being out in the snow.

For Leeston the snow has pretty much melted away.

That means black ice and slippy roads.

Oh good! 

I need to drive to Christchurch tomorrow to play musical cars.

Snow, snow go away and bugger off to Antarctica from where you came! 

driving to work

this morning gave me a huge surprise.

As I drove over the Southern Hemisphere's longest bridge

there were cars coming towards me

covered in snow.

Seriously covered in snow

like about 10 cms of the nicest, driest powder.

and then...

the Mt Hutt Shuttle came towards me and my heart sank.

If the Mt Hutt Shuttle was covered in snow that meant that Methven was too!

The Shuttle parks across the road from YF Central

and down a few buildings.

It'll have been parked out overnight.

This is out behind YF Central in our parking lot.

It looks a lot better with snow on it.

Actually I think most things look way better with snow all over it.

Liquifaction for instance always looks better

when a good dose of snow has been dumped on it.

The thing that was so great about this snow was that it was so light

and decorated the trees like those artificial Christmas trees at Kmart.

 I know you are thinking,

Sara this is the third lot of snow you've endured in two months,

how can they be so different?

Well I'm not an expert in snowyness

but snow that is followed by blissfully sunny days

totally rock.

Ones that are followed by long, overcast, grey,

continually snowy days are not cool at all.



Probably cause it's melts and freezes and snows again

which it did do last night.

Rozza's water pipes froze and her pathway was iced over,

plus she had a heckof time getting the ice off her car window

because it has set and snowed and set again.

But for the rest of us....

Am I a bad person

if taking photos of today's stormy snow dump is too much of an effort?

I got home from delightfully sunny Wellington

yesterday afternoon knowing it was meant to snow

and when it finally did it was dry and powdery

and looked lovely.

This morning in the middle of a power cut

it was just nasty, slushy, wet snow about 10 cms deep.

Now it's hail, snow, hail, slush, howling winds

with a temp of -1 but real feel is -14.

Actually I've been out there and

it's only really cold if you are in the wind.

I'm meant to go to Auckland this afternoon

but I can't see that happening.

I feel compelled to go to the airport anyway

which is crazy cause the hardest part of the trip is driving there.

Nic who is meant to come with me is stuck on her farm

saving baby calves*

Plus on the way home my plane had a lightening strike

not that I noticed and only know cause

I was the almost last peron off the plane

and overheard the steward telling the ground crew

to check something because of it.

I'll try the trip into the airport and see what happens.

* yes all calves are babies, especially the ones that die in snow storms.