We are having a huge storm right now in NS.

[fred]

It looks really awesome. about 2 feet of snow down and freezingrain on the way winds gusting to 100 Kmph with storm surge on the south shore & heavy waves as well. They are expecting flooding there. Fortunately I am on the Fundy side, bit rigged for a power failure. The good news is that the landlord has a new generator. I am stocked up on food & water, and all my lithium Ion battery lights, bicycle & stuff are charged. If we get through this without a power failure. I'll be very surprised. (???)
Oh, and if I'm unreachable for a while you'll know why & not be worried. I'll try to keep in touch when the generator is running. We'll need it some I think to keep the pipes from freezing.
Blessings to all.

[kittykins]

I hope all turned out okay! The storm missed us, but it is very cold.

[fred]

We did not loose power. I'm astonished. More fine snow & rain today. Bird feeders are topped up and I had quite a few avian visitors today.

[Elizabeth]

I understand that yesterday's prolonged ice storm took the power from some 50,000 NS customers yesterday - I hope you and your avian friends stayed safe, Fred

[fred]

Yes we did. It's above the meltng point today but with continual rain. One proor Starling had all his feathers ruffled and soaked, like ttrhere was no oil on them, or less that would be proper. He kept coming back to the feeder. Poor thing must have been cold and trying to get as many calories as he could. I hope he's managed to take in enough to survive the night. He's been after the bird pie and there have been several types of feed out there. I renewed the seed bell this afternoon. Mix of rain & snow tomorrow. I have shopping to do, but a friend who will drive me and I don't have to take the bike out to do it.
Other news. I havea new Technics Turntable SL 1500 C, and I love it. I'm still setting up the amplifier for it and fussing with the speakers. Ultimately I'll have to build some cabinets to listen to my records. I have many from the 60s that I haven't heard in decades. This is entry level audiophile equipment and I am so looking forward to hearing these records that I consider to be gems of the 60s.
The another distraction. My telescope 's Equatorial Mount arrived early this week and with sbit of creative financing I have it here now and I may open the boxes tonight. I built an 8 inch Newtonian teledcope back in the mid 70s and it's never had a proper mount. This one was expensive, but it is big & heavy with all the bells & whistles. I have a planetarium program on my computer and the mount will plug into it and it's supposed to be recognised immediately and controllable from the computer, just like they do in real observatories. So that'll be another distraction. I can take my time setting it up, because I don't expect a clear night sky until Spring. This is Nova Scotia after all. You remember N.S. weather, don't you Elizabeth. Add global warming effects and I think this is worse than it used to be. Very messy weather.

[kittykins]

Wow, sounds messy. Your new turn-table sounds cool...enjoy! I lived in Nova Scotia myself for a year, as I was training to be a teacher of the deaf in Amherst. Our Masters program was through the University of Moncton about 40 minutes from there! We used to take the train to Moncton when we needed, which wasn't often. I also spent time in PEI and Newfoundland as part of student teaching experiences. I do remember the weather was WET in the winter too!