Are we almost done with this white stuff?

I am thinking you will be tiring of yet more snow photos. But I sure am taking a lot of them lately. The first one below is from my usual spot out the computer room window showing the bird bath under the dogwood tree. This was taken on the morning of Wednesday February 3 after a "light" snowfall the night before (there have been so many I have forgotten the amount of this one). But I include it for contrast with what comes next:
You may have seen the news that the mid Atlantic region got walloped by a big snowstorm beginning yesterday (another Saturday today and, so it goes, another snowstorm). It is not over yet but I am hoping the worst is past. But here is the same view taken mid afternoon today.
And now, the evidence. I leaned as far as I could out the laundry room door and plunged in the yard stick. You'll see it says there is 25" of snow but the snow banks higher behind it.

Casey and I first shoveled the driveway and the deck around 5pm Friday at which time we cleared maybe 3 - 5" of snow. Then we shoveled again from 9pm to 10:30pm but it was so heavy going then that we only got the driveway done.

At 3:00am Saturday we lost electricity. Now we were in a fix because the snow was so much that we needed to use the snow blower. But the only way I can get that monster started is with the electric key start. And without electricity I could not start the machine. The snow continued to fall. Around noon, hallelujah, the power came back on. So we went outside and struggled for almost two hours until the machine ran out of fuel. In that time I got the area in front of one garage cleared plus a wide enough space to get that one vehicle down to within 5' of the road. But since the snow plow has not been during daylight hours there is too much snow to get out onto the road anyway.

Right now we are taking a break and building up our energy and courage to make another assault on the snow around 4:30pm. It does seem as though it is tapering off. I hope so. This for sure is the record breaking storm they predicted with likely as much as 30" or more before the current storm passes over.

The advance forecast is not encouraging as it suggests more snow on Tuesday.

Glory be, enough already. I might go sew for an hour (while I have the electricity that is!) before we suit up again to go outside.

A Triple S day

So, here we are, another Saturday and another snow day. How is this being arranged? It seems to me that whenever we are having a "snow event" this season it is happening on a Saturday.

So that accounts for two. But my title mentions a triple S day - allow me to explain;

It was into this mailbox, pictured above, that the third s of the day happened. And that was two envelopes bearing the happy news that two quilts I had entered into a juried quilt show had been accepted for exhibition and judging. The quilts are joint efforts; one is the lily blocks made from the last international round robin, set into a top by me and quilted by Cheryl, and the second is made by me for the previous year's President's Challenge in my guild and again, quilted by Cheryl. I was really excited by this news as this is the first time I have entered a juried show.

And yes, we had another snow event today. As late as yesterday the forecasters were downplaying it and suggesting that we might get 2" to 4". The reality is that Casey and I went out to shovel the driveway and walkways around 4:30pm. At that time I measured 6" and the snow was still falling. Before our shovelling I had looked out the window and seen that the cedar tree was alive with robins. Here are just a few of them out and about despite the temperature of about 17 F at that time (about minus 9 C for those who think in metric). Snow is still falling.

Sweet warm wishes as we close out the year

Casey and I took a trip to the city on what was a very cold but bright day on Tuesday.
This year's Capitol Christmas tree was given to the people by the state of Arizona. The tree, just visible to the right of the foreground tree, was covered in decorations made by school children from Arizona. I was surprised how well the decorations have held up to the rigors of being outside in the unusually cold weather we have had in the past few weeks.

After walking fast from Union Station to the Capitol and back in an attempt to keep warm we decided to venture on to National Harbor, a newly developed area in Maryland. The main destination there for us was a visit to the first (and currently only) Peeps store. We had fun browsing the shop, trying our hand to see how "hot" we were on the Red Hot Tamales side of the store and choosing just which flavors to fill the bag with from the Mike and Ikes display. Afterwards Casey posed for his photo outside the store - at first I thought this would be a "delete" photo but I like the contrast of Casey bundled up and sitting straight and the girl just inside the store peering out to see what we were doing.
And in case you might wonder how cold it was that day check out this photo of the filling station at the pleasure boat jetty. Yes, that really is ice. And no, I did not venture too close to the edge because that water did not look at all appealing.

Through rain and snow the mail must get through

I was walking by the front windows when I saw our intrepid mailman drive by in his truck. Alas, this was as far as he got so he got out and delivered the mail on foot from here.
Here he is going box to box...
But when he got back in his truck he could not get going again. He started to reverse down the hill but more snow piled up around the chained wheels and he came to a complete halt. I alerted my own snow removal team and they headed out with shovels in hand to dig out around the wheels. It took a bit of shoveling but soon they had cleared enough space for the truck to get turned around. And off he went about his delivery rounds.
The teenagers from the side street who had watched the happenings were there to applaud once the truck got underway again. We watched as that mailtruck skidded and slid and with a rattling of the chains set off up the hill and passed out of sight.

The mail got through! And after all that excitement it was only a couple of bills and an envelope of coupons that got delivered.

A pretty real weather event

We are in the midst of an unusual December weather event. Snow is falling at the rate of 1 - 2" per hour and is scheduled to continue all day long. This storm has the potential to be the biggest snowfall on record for December.
These birds are doubtless regretting that they forgot to fly south for the winter. However, officially winter does not begin until December 21 so they still have a few more days to flee.

I try to have some images that I record in various seasons. Here is the back garden pagoda but it is in danger of disappearing. I like the way the snow has sculptured a perfect form on the roof tops of the pagoda.
Here, above, is the first man of my snow removal team. He did a great job clearing the front walk.
And the number two man on my snow removal team had the smelly noisy machinery to deal with. But it does get rid of the snow at a faster rate than the shovel will. Before we started clearing the snow we measured it at 9.5" in the middle of the driveway. That was at around 10:45am and the snow is ongoing.

The snow began around 9pm Friday evening. When I looked out at 7am this morning the snow had stopped falling but it began again by 8am and has not stopped since then.

It looks as though the snow plow did come down our street once in the night but we have not seen it in the daylight. We will stay safe and dry at home as road conditions are very dangerous.

There is so much snow already that it is safe to say we will be having a white Christmas even if, by then, it is a dirty white.

Seasonal colors

Today we had fall and winter collide. Despite the predictions of the weathermen for a 70% chance of snow that would not stick...we did have snow and it has stuck all day long. Around 3pm I ransacked the closet to find my snow boots and ventured outside with my camera. I liked the contrast of the last red leaves on a small viburnum bush with the otherwise snowy scene viewed through an already denuded viburnum.
Here, the foo dog seems to be smiling at the weather. See how the mossy green coat on the dog contrasts with the wintry backdrop. And no, there are no eyeglasses on the face of the dog, it is just an illusion.


But, perhaps you need some brighter colors. Below is a shot of a bunch of flowers that are well past their "sell by" date. These were arranged ten days ago for Thanksgiving but look how colorful and vibrant they still are.

I am enjoying finding seasonal color in whatever form to share with you.

Day is done, gone the sun and the summer as well.

Today we had one of those bonus days you sometimes get in the Fall with a lovely azure backdrop and temperatures rising at least to the 70s. It was an opportunity to get outside and soak up the vitamin D while doing more cleanup to prepare for the winter months. The colors have been spectacular this year and it is hard to pull out those annuals while we still get days like today. As you can see, the petunias put on their pleading faces and they got a stay of execution.



As I was dragging my weary body upstairs to change out of my dirty gardening clothes I glanced out the window and saw the sunset was just as pretty as the day. My photo does not do justice to the sky but I liked the way the jet trails were all lit with pink.

Lastly, I know a picture is better than a thousand words, but I am not bold enough to take a photo of a playful dog and his owner who live just up the street (I'll try to keep the description under the thousand words however). This spunky dog is perhaps a couple of years old and several times lately as we pass by walking our dog we see the dog and his owner out on the front lawn playing soccer together. Nothing unusual you might be thinking. But the dog is a tiny scrap of a thing, a Yorkie, and the ball is bigger than he is. The man gently kicks the ball and the Yorkie darts around barking with delight. It is a sight to behold.