It's a wintry day in the neighbourhood

[andrewducker]

Yesterday, after the latest big snow fall, there was a lot of discussion on the street WhatsApp group (set up after the lockdown a year ago), as to how we could make the street passable for deliveries. Because we have multiple older people here, and lots of people who get shopping delivered, and the road is a cul-de-sac with a downward sloping entrance, so when it's snowy it can be hard to get out of the street. And because we're small (only about 50 houses) we don't tend to get gritting lorries.


And then a bunch of digging happened while we were out sledging, so I felt guilty about not looking after the neighbours. So last night I bought a snow shovel, and this morning spent an hour or so digging tire tracks free of snow so that there was traction.

And with several locals helping out, and Sophia (and other kids) wandering back and forth it was actually pretty lovely and a nice neighbourhood experience. We didn't move here for the people, but it's been nice to find somewhere that actually does feel like a neighborhood

Comments

[stormclouds]

Mark went to dig his pedestrianised area out with the snow shovel my mum bought him many years ago*. But someone had beaten him to it. He did clear snow off the top of some stuff he needed access to.

*He thought it was a ridiculous thing to have been bought because it was at the end of the snow that year. But snow can happen in other years too.

[andrewducker]

That's exactly why I bought a sledge in December, even though the snow was melting and there almost certainly wouldn't be any more for years.

Very glad I did too!

[cellio]

It's great to have actual neighborly neighbors, yes. I was just talking with my parents tonight; my father and the next-door neighbor have a friendly competition to see who can get the block's sidewalks cleared first after a snowfall. Dueling snowblowers! And yesterday the other neighbor (other half of the couple) came over with a shovel and cleared a path for the dog along the fence, even. Wow. (It's my sister's dog, but it spends its days with my parents when my sister is working, which suits everybody involved -- my dad gets a proxy dog and the dog isn't left alone all day.)

[cmcmck]

That's been a nice experience here too!