After the lovely mild weather and snow and ice free footing, winter begins again. We are experiencing a blizzard, the accumulation is a few inches deep already. The temperature is hovering around freezing I don’t fancy our chances on seeing bare ground again for the next few days. It seems that it will cross over us in bands. The weather people also say we will see snow daily until well into next week. This morning on our walk I wore my winter boots, the sandals are set aside, for now.
Our lifestyle is heavily focused on food. Shelter and other basic needs are taken care of more intermittently than the task of feeding ourselves. Attila eats a lot, and I have significant dietary restrictions and safety concerns. Making sure that our “eat to live” approach to food is as “live to eat” as we can make it, takes a lot of contemplation, searching, experimenting, budgeting, and strategising.
To celebrate March, we have been treating ourselves to all sorts of treats. Fresh Ontario grown strawberries (hot house), sweet grapes imported from Peru and Chili, lettuce from Quebec, leaf lettuce from Alberta, cucumbers and apples from Ontario. We regard fresh vegetables and fruits as luxury items from late November until mid June.
Our grocery purchases are largely from the dairy and produce section of the store. Today we found ground beef on sale, so we purchased a quantity to freeze in 6 ounce packages, that will last for the whole of 2026. We allow ourselves a few ounces of red meat once a week.
I continue to incorporate Miso into my diet. One teaspoon of white Miso has 250 mg of sodium, my adjusted palate experiences this as almost pure salt. I love the flavour of Miso. Today I mixed one teaspoon of Miso with two teaspoons of tahinini to use as a butter replacement on an egg salad sandwich. I loved it. Spreading it on warm toast means the probiotics and enzymes remain active and ready to go to work. When added to hot foods these are largely destroyed, but the other health benefits of Miso persist.
I’ve asked Attila to add a teaspoon of Miso to his hummus (he is the resident hummus creator), I think it will taste great. I will also make a tahini miso sauce to freeze in one tablespoon portions to add to a single servings, such as Tuna Noodle Casserole, and Mac ‘n Cheese. I am still perusing recipes to create the sauce, then the experimentation process begins.
Our current jigsaw puzzle is almost done. We both work on it off and on during the day, for very short periods of time while we are waiting for a kettle to boil or a timer to go go off, or just passing by the table. The current puzzle is by Cardinal, and is called Slice of Life. We bought it at the charity shop, and have really enjoyed this one.
Worldly
Weather
0°C
Date: 6:06 PM EDT Friday 13 March 2026
Condition: Light Snow (Ha, its a blizzard!)
Pressure: 100.4 kPa
Tendency: Falling
Temperature: -0.4°C
Dew point: -1.0°C
Humidity: 96%
Wind: ESE 21 gusts 32 km/h
Wind Chill: -6
Visibility: 3 km
Special Weather Report: Total snowfall amounts of 10 to 15 cm.
Reduced visibility in heavy snow at times.
Snowfall rates up to 5 cm per hour.
Quote
“Conceal a flaw, and the world will imagine the worst.”
Marcus Valerius Martialis
40 AD – 103 AD
Maggie, since you’re having to endure a blizzard, I’ll quit whining in my world about how the below-freezing temperatures have wrecked the saucer magnolia blossoms. Hope it doesn’t get too deep where you are!
Wendy, the loss of beautiful blossoms is dispiriting! The snow here will melt away in a few days, the magnolia blossoms will not return for another year. Certainly March weather can offer some unwelcome surprises!
The snow here is a few inches deep. The snow plow just rumbled by the house, it is 6:43 a.m., more snow on the way. The temperature drops below freezing at night, rises above freezing for a brief time during the day, so the white stuff will not be here for long!
Our poor little house got terribly buffeted by winds of some 90kph, last night. The power whiplashed – off, on, off, on. Finally, I guess the system just said uncle and CLUNK! we were swathed in darkness. Our power was off for 6 hours, finally coming on just after 10AM.
It took a couple of hours for the furnace to bring our temps back to normal.
Strangely, compared to you our next 2 days are supposed to be relatively warm. The weather service is forecasting highs around 10 to 12C for Sunday and Monday.
Teri, wow, that is windy! It was not that windy here, I think we only had gusts of around 40 kph, and it didn’t affect our power, thank goodness.
With the wind snatching heat from the exterior of your house, and without heating from within, I hope you managed to stay warm.
The weather is certainly giving us a wild ride this March, enjoy the warm weather!
You have a wonderfully healthy diet, Maggie. How many pieces are in the puzzle? Our weather is like a yo-yo. One day we’re barely at freezing. The next day we’re up to 50 degrees F. The one constant is increased windiness. I tied down my wind chimes so they wouldn’t blow away. Stay warm!!
Thanks Sandy, I am constantly tweaking my diet, as I discover ways to keep the sodium, sugar, saturated fats, cholesterol, and calories down, and the proteins, vitamins, minerals, and other good things high. I truly wish I had tried Miso fifty years ago!
We prefer 1000 piece puzzles, because they fit on the puzzle board, and we can work on them for a week or so, at our leisure. My Mom prefers 500 piece puzzles, because they fit on her puzzle table, and don’t take as long with only one person working on them. There are puzzles with thousands of pieces, but they are take up too much room for us.
Do you like jigsaw puzzles Sandy?
The weather this year has been very erratic! And now that you mention it, windiness has been increasing. I am thinking that wind mills might be all the rage soon, capture that power for personal electricity use. The technology isn’t there yet though, too costly to setup. I whimsically think of all the apartment towers with a little wind mill sticking out of the side of each unit to supply power.. I think that might work very well in the wind tunnels created by apartment towers!
Luckily we haven’t lost our power, so our heating system has remained reliable, at least so far.