SNOW on the Sunshine Coast, BC?!
SNOW on the Sunshine Coast, BC?!
❄️ SO. MUCH. SNOW. 🥶
We had snow on the Sunshine Coast for two or three weeks over Christmas and into 2022. I always show you sunny weather and hikes so I feel like it's only fair to also show you the snow and the ice.
This is the longest stretch of winter and the most snow we’ve had since we moved to BC’s Sunshine Coast. It’s been an anomaly of a winter. We usually don't get this much snow and have it stick around.
For the last few weeks, we've kind of been averaging at +2ºC during the day and -2ºC at night. Recently, it’s been snowing every second day with some rainy days in between. The temperature is always right at the point where it can’t decide between rain and snow, which means there's a lot of ice on the road and driving isn’t recommended. A big part of Gibsons is built on the side of a steep hill so a lot of locals are just staying at home. Our road maintenance people aren't keeping up because the weather is so extreme.
Because the weather is so miserable, I decide that I’ll hide inside where it’s warm and make herb bread using fresh rosemary from my backyard. I got this recipe from my cousin, Lauriane, and I think she discovered it on a trip to Europe. I’ll post the recipe here but I’ll also include a link to a PDF in case you want to print it out.
Amazing herb cheese bread recipe
Ingredients
1 package quick-rise instant active dry yeast
2 ¼ cups warm water
4 tablespoons sugar + (½ tsp sugar for yeast mixture)
1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
6 ¼ - 6 ¾ cups bread flour (probably 6 1/4 cup only)
2 tablespoons of herbs (2 tsp basil, 2 tsp thyme, 2 tsp rosemary)
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (optional)
Instructions
In a bowl, dissolve yeast and ½ teaspoon sugar in warm water. Let stand until bubbles form on the surface.
In another bowl mix together remaining 4 tablespoons sugar, 1 tablespoon salt, 3 cups of flour and 2 tablespoons of herb.
Add 2 tablespoons oil into yeast mixture. Add flour mixture into yeast mixture and stir until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour, ½ cup at a time to form a soft dough.
Turn onto floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8-10 minutes. Near the end knead-in 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese.
Divide dough in half and shape each into a loaf. Lightly coat with oil and place in 2 greased 9x5 inch loaf pans. Cover and let rise until doubled, 1 – 1 ½ hours. Let rise on counter or preheat oven to 150°F, shut off and place inside oven to rise. Rise until double the size.
Bake at 375°F until golden brown and bread sounds hollow, 30-35 minutes. (35 minutes was perfect.) About half way through baking, cover the loafs with a foil tent so that they don’t darken any further. Remove let cool on wire rack.
This is the best bread ever. I love it! I could eat an entire loaf, making toast after toast with lots of butter! Sooooo gooooood!
Snowy Lower Gibsons
When it quit snowing, Paul and I decided to walk down to Lower Gibsons to check out the snow. Gibsons received a foot of snow last night (about 30cm) which is a novelty for us. Families were out playing in the snow and there were even kids tobogganing at Holland Lands and Winegarden Park.
And there was all kinds of activity around the harbour. People were out enjoying the sunshine, some were building snowmen, and we even saw one guy shovelling snow off a dock and into the water. Watching snow getting pushed in the ocean was a weird visual and something we hadn’t seen before. Even the ducks were out and making the most of this break in the weather.
I don’t often see paths along the waterfront covered in snow. I think the snow looks great up on the mountains, but I don't want it with us down here are at sea level.
Ice at the marina
We made our way to the marina as I wanted to see if it was frozen over. You’d think that because the marina is full of salty seawater, it shouldn’t freeze. But there's a lot of fresh water streams that exit out here at the harbour. Combine that with there not being much movement in the marina because of the breakwater and you’ll get big sheets of ice. There’ve been winters where it got cold enough that there was some ice at the marina but nothing like this since we’ve been here.
Life-long Lower Mainlanders will say that the snow is magical and pretty but growing up in Alberta, snowy winters were a regular occurrence for us. Paul says the magic ran out for him around 1987 and now he just sees snow and ice as a pain in the butt. After the volume of snow we received this year, I suspect many long-time residents are coming around to his way of thinking!
The snow hangs around a few days but we then get warmer temperatures and three days of rain. I typically like the sun more than the rain but not this winter. This winter, I LOVE the rain. The more it rains, the quicker the snow melts which means no more yucky roads or shovelling snow or brushing off the car. When the rain finally ends, we’re back to green grass and sunshine. All is well in BC once more.
Connect with Val & Paul
We're Val and Paul and we're a married couple who live on BC's Sunshine Coast! We moved from Alberta to Gibsons in 2014 and love our life on Canada's West Coast! Subscribe to our YouTube channel and email newsletter and you'll learn what it's like to live in the most beautiful place in Canada.