Yep you guessed it right, its snow. Had never seen so much snow in my life. Last year it snowed alright but was just a tiny bit of snow for a while and then it was gone. This time around however its been magic. I realized I don’t miss sun as much when it snows, everything looks so bright even at night. Watching the snow flakes come down reminds me of magical tales, Narnia, Santa Claus and Christmas. Everything's bathed in snow, the roof, the trees, the wind even the fence has snow and its simply beautiful. I tried to click some pictures but what you see and feel can't really be captured, it has to be seen to feel its magic. I wonder why snow is white, why not blue or pink or purple? Is it the reason we associate all good with white? If the sky looks blue, my brain would accept the blue flakes, wouldn’t it? But it shines and falls silver.
That said, snow can be nasty. It turns into ice making it impossible for driver to keep their cars in their control. I saw a lot of worry, annoyance and smirks on the faces of drivers behind the wheels during past few weeks. Car skid, circled 360 degrees and even came to a stop right in the middle of intersection. I was all happy watching people make snowman/snow women (he he,don’t ask), kids playing in snow and all that. But then the weather turned worst, weathermen predicted storm and compared it to the blackout storm which I thank god had not witness. For person like me watching such news can be quite stressful I tell ya. There were talks, news and emails about blackout not for few hours rather for days. Suddenly the dependence on electricity all zoomed in to me. No electricity means chilled icy water, no microwave, no heater, gosh no internet (god please give me a merciful death!). Wouldn’t my life come to a standstill? Jas rather seemed prepared. He had heard stories and wanted to be equipped for the worst. So we headed to Fred Meyer. There were so many people buying so much, that I winced. Their trolleys overflowing. Candles, Firewood, lots of food (really lots), torches, even portable stove. I totally freaked out. Everything I saw in those aisles I just wanted to buy, what if it gets too bad, too cold. What if this was it, Seattle under snow for all I know. I didn’t want to die without eating my favourite candy, muffin, the list goes on. Its all about food isn't it? Well Jas simply gave me a stern look and explained we weren't going to die and there is no reason to be all dramatic. Hmph! But we did get firewood and fire starters. I was all happy that we could still warm even during the possible blackout. But let me tell ya my friends, lighting firewood is a tricky thing. One has to know how to set it on fire. And believe you me it isn't easy, not until you learn the trick. Other than Holi (Festival of colors) in India, I had never tried to light a fire really. Oh yeah there were a couple of other times, I did watch people light fire but that was such a long time ago. Back in Goa at my GrandPa's house we had this large, very large, big black pot. This pot was large enough to boil water for four baths. This was when I must be around 10 yrs old and we didn’t have a heater in Grandpa's village house. No it wasn't the stone age. I remember watching Grandpa light fire at the first light of sun to boil water, and me sitting close by to remain warm. I never really tried to learn. I also remember Mum and other women in the house lighting fire to cook food. We were one of the few houses in our village that had electricity, gas stove and water pump but still for some reason Mum and my aunts cooked food on the chul (the wood fire stove), just for the authentic taste. And of course it was just for a few days, back in Mumbai everything would be modernized.
Well the point is, I never really paid attention to learn how to light a fire. And when it came to lighting firewood after several tries I was left with lots of smoke and just a little part of the firewood turned black.Grr!. After a lot of trial and errors we came up with a few steps to light the firewood and I thought I should share:
1. Never try to light one log- What was I thinking when I tried that, for almost 2 hours, trust me doesn’t work. You end up inhaling a lot of smoke.
2. Place two logs one above the other with fire starters in between- Yep this is the basic, and yeah confirm they aren't going to fall off, almost twice the burning upper log fell in my lap hmph!
3. Use candle to light the fire starter- Matchsticks aren't that useful so go with the candle and please don’t try pouring oil,aftershave, spraying deodorant or air freshener. Yup tried all that and doesn’t work. Don’t look at me like that, ok that's stupid I know but I was just reinventing the wheel, trying to light fire without reading or knowing much.
4. Blowing air helps- But again don’t stick your head in the fireplace and blow air on the firewood, gosh that’s crazy unless you want to find out how funny you look when your face is covered with black charcoal-ash. Use a book to fan some air into the firewood, it will catching roaring fire once you stop.
Finally don’t keep playing with the wood and fire all the time. Enjoy the warmth and fire, its amazing. Get a cup of hot tea, coffee, a good book and sit by the fireplace reading, listening to music or just chatting.
