This is what a residential street looks like after snow in Edmonton. I'll take more pictures later of how the streets turn all disgusting, sludgy, and brown after cars have been all over it.
Even the dog park is covered in white veil. Sigh, opportunities to be chic are become sparse.
It's very slippery. The previous snowfall has melted and become thin ice, and new snow sits on top. A very cumbersome combination. Even when I'm just walking it's hard to get any traction unless I'm actually wearing 'winter' boots. Like, the kind I wear while tobogganing!
My heeled boots are still fine, I just don't move nearly as fast.
One last gripe is sunlight. The sun sets very early now and even during the day it is often overcast. So gloomy. During Christmas holidays this isn't a big deal because of all the festivities, but come January/Feb we all tire of it and start to really feel restless.
This blog will likely morph into a blog about ecomobility in general and less exclusively about cycling while looking cute. At least in the sketchy winter months where every day is unpredictable. In a city like Edmonton there comes a time when biking and public transit make a beautiful union. I'll be taking the 7 today. My favourite bus that picks me up right outside my house and plops me down smack dab in the middle of downtown. The weather is -10 for the daily high. -17 low.
Bus chic is something that is often overlooked. Many people only take the bus here in Edmonton if they have no other choice, as a last resort. As a result you get a lot of sketchy and sad looking people on the bus, which doesn't encourage fashionable people to take it in the first place. Moving around the city in an environmentally responsible way doesn't have to look sad. It can looks smart and fabulous. Bus or bike.
8 comments:
Down SOUTH ... the grandsons helped put our bicycles away in the shop today when we heard the occasional patter of rain on the leaves.
High today +68F, low tonight +60F
- Freth :-)
:( big hug from california
I already miss your bike-chic prettiness!!
please dont stop posting♥
xo/meli
Freth,
Curse the south for your lack of snow! The cold really makes us northerners rough and tough, though:) And pale.
S*
m e l,
I will be biking, just not when the roads are really bad. I've never done it on the ice, but am willing to try! Just not recently:)
S*
Love your blog! Have my own about biking and being able to do it in my everyday clothes that I wear to work as a prof at one of the local Uni's. (stylocycle.wordpress.com)
Anyway, as soon as I recover from a fall on the ice *while walking* out my door last week, I'll be getting back onto my bike for winter riding. I just figure it will be slower...
Anyway, I won't be riding much over the December break, but I hope that January will find me still making it in to work and back each day that I go in. It's just too much fun, and too lovely out there to resist. I admit that one of the big challenges will be in the rather sloppy ploughing job, and in the unfortunate fact that my Batavus is too large to fit the bike rack on the bus. Arg.
Anyway, I do love your blog!
Don't dismay Miss Sarah! Possible winter topics I could use your advice on:
- winter laying techniques (on foot or bicycle)
- helmets + toques = dilemma
- how to keep your bike looking pretty over the winter
- biking clothes is probably on sale now... nough said
- new lines of fashionable/urban biking clothes (An new line from Calgary by Kristy Woo)
- Maintenance courses, and bike fixes you can do yourself to save on the spring tune up
I could go on! Don't let the diminishing hours of daylight get you down :)
Hi Morgan,
Thank for being a fan! Like you, I'm riding less than I used to because there are too many variables. If the weather is decent, then I'll go for it. But if it's below minus 10 or 15 and there's crazy north wind? Forget it! I'm not that tough.
Today I did it in my winter parka, will post picture soon! Keep riding when you can:) It DOES feel lovely!
S*
"Moving around the city in an environmentally responsible way doesn't have to look sad. It can looks smart and fabulous. Bus or bike."
Hear, hear!
Although I am a bit sad that my bike chain suffered from a bad bout of rain = chain rust, otherwise I would absolutely be riding about town (it's about 11 deg. C here in Berkeley, CA). Our weather is really tame compared to your snow!
Hope your holiday season is going swell! Thanks for blogging!
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