It started yesterday, huge fluffy clumps of snow floating down; by nightfall, we could hear great whumps as branchloads of wet snow slipped from the trees down on to the roof. By morning, the yard was an alien landscape criss-crossed with fallen branches.

2400 families are without hydro this morning. Our lights only flickered a few times through the evening, and only once long enough to reboot the computers and make the microwave's clock go on blink; just a hundred feet to the east of us our neighbours have been without power for most of the night. Roads are said to be 'treacherous' and travel is not advised; it's wet, it's slippery, and there's lots of it.

And so begins the long road to our Early Spring! Seems Willie's got some 'splainin' to do ...