Escaping the Snow

From four steps to a slide!

I am buried. I normally like snow. I never felt cramped by it or like I was gonna go berserk at any moment. But! The snow has piled up, inspiring depression and kicking all hopes of sunshine into the plow. I know there is a road out there, and hopefully beyond that-- life.

At least one of us enjoys this

And so I snooped in my photos for an escape. Something to remind me that it will end. That I don't have to pull out my tuque fuzz or break my shovel in half. Maybe a fun trip we took last year would remind me of the joys of this country...

I came up with a field trip to Lower Fort Garry in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

It was warm. It was fun. It was educational... and it inspired a story. What more can I ask for? Sounds like the perfect escape so I filed through the photos and decided to share a few.

So here I was, on a field trip with my daughter's class... just walking Lower Fort Garry, learning about Canadian History, actually explaining a few things we were seeing to the students since I did enough research on some of these time periods, I actually had my own stories to share when... a new story hits me. No clue where it came from.

I was standing here when the voices in my head took over.

 I actually heard the voice of the girl talking to a young man. She was looking out the the window to the right on the second floor. Her dress had lace that crept up her neck and her hair was half done in a braid. The young man, a hunter, stood in my shoes, a dead rabbit in his left hand, his bow gripped tightly in his right. He wipes at the dirt on his face, wishing he'd taken a moment to clean up. They are at that telltale point where they both know to look away. Yet... she leans further out the window and he steps toward her. I see her father through the window underneath her and he gets up to see what's going on. The story is so clear in my mind, I'm moments from breaking into a writing binge to get it all out.

That might be a fun escape from all this snow.

We even learnt how to make a bed.

The attention to detail make it a very life-like experience.

Even the detail in the yard added to the magic.

We learnt how to make a nail. But what was really interesting is that this guy was making the best pay in the entire fort. At about 40 bucks a year.

How do you survive the long winters like this one?
Have you ever found inspiration for a story when you didn't expect it?