Minus Four Degrees!

I'm glad I'm not a plant! Nights are so cold lately that most of the pot plants in my garden are frozen! Did you know that pansies can freeze every night, thaw in the day, and still be alive? I wonder if people can ever be frozen and brought back to life?

Yesterday was the first snow of the season in Tsukuba. My garden looked lovely covered in snow but I had to go to work before 7am so I didn't have time to take any pictures. (The pictures here are frost, not snow.) Actually, I was really worried because there was quite a lot of snow near my house and my car doesn't have snow tires. I drove at about 20km an hour for the first 300m, but when I got out of the woods surrounding my house, I found that the roads had no snow. Closer to the city center there was very little snow anywhere and light rain later in the morning meant it all melted. What a pity - I didn't get a chance to make a snowman! Next time I hope it snows on a weekend not a working day.


Actually, one reason I like living in the Kanto area (Tokyo and the prefectures surrounding it) is that the weather in winter is usually fine. Very cold, but sunny! Winter back in my hometown in Australia was depressing. Cold (not as cold as here though) and mostly rainy or cloudy. I really like the cold, crisp and very clear air here in winter. Mt Tsukuba looks lovely this season - a single blue mountain with twin peaks.

The only problem with the lovely clear air is that the humidity level is so low that my skin dries out too quickly. Ironic that in June/July I have to use a de-humidifier to keep mold at bay, but this season I use a humidifier so my skin doesn't look like a raisin ...

Andrea

at bay - (keep mold away) {The dictionary didn't have a good translation for this.}