March 2 2012
Following yesterday’s snowstorm I thought I would capture some of the snow removal action in the neighborhood.
Even after 13 years of living through Montreal’s winters, I still find the snow removal process fascinating. Perhaps it’s due to coming from the UK where snow normally disappears within 24hrs without human intervention. Montreal however, relies on a small army of city employees, private contractors and thousands of machines to keep the city moving after a snow dump.
Alas, despite walking around the Plateau and downtown listening for the tell-tale signs of sirens warning people to move their cars, there was hardly a snowplow or snow blower to be found. The fact I didn’t see any no-parking signs that the city put up prior to clearing a street, made me realize that maybe the snow removal crews wouldn’t be starting until the weekend. Hopefully I can grab some shots over the coming days, as this may be the last major snow storm this year.
Late this afternoon, I took a quick walk around the plateau and grabbed this shot of a lone figure on avenue Laval. I decided to blur the image to give it a bit more atmosphere.
Lone man in cape on the Plateau
This morning while getting my caffeine fix at The Pikolo Espresso Bar on avenue du Parc, I did at least manage to see this caterpillar snowplow.
Keeping warm with a coffee, while other people work to clear a path
Anyone who has walked the streets of Montreal in winter are fully aware that they need to jump out of the way when one of these machines comes hurtling down the sidewalk. On this occasion he was stationary, waiting it would transpire for a refill of salt – delivered by a city truck.
Time for a Salt refill
As an aside, some may be thinking I spelt snowplow incorrectly – I actually had to look it up, not knowing if it was plow or plough, 1 word or 2…I got this explanation from Wikipedia that I thought was interesting to share:
Both spellings have existed since Middle English. The OED records several dozen variants. In the UK, plough has been the standard spelling for about 300 years. Although plow was Noah Webster’s pick, plough continued to have some currency in the US, as the entry in Webster’s Third (1961) implies. Newer dictionaries label plough as “chiefly British”. The word snowplough/snowplow, originally an Americanism, predates Webster’s reform and was first recorded as snow plough. Canada has both plough and plow, although snowplough is much rarer there than snowplow. In the US, “plough” sometimes describes a horsedrawn kind while “plow” refers to a gasoline (petrol) powered kind. The American spelling appears to relate to the Latin “plovum”.
– maybe my confusion is from living in North America for 13 years 😉
To view images in gallery format, simply click on one of the images below.
Thanks for stopping by. Until next time.
– Martin