Dog Days of Winter?

I wonder if there is such a saying as dog days of winter? Unlike my husband who looks everything and anything up on Google ,and now AI is getting into the act, I am okay with not knowing some things. In fact, I think that I told you I have mostly avoided any news if you don't count that I knew the Olympics were starting last Friday night and what a spectacle it was!  We did not see it all, but what we did see was so special that I hardly could absorb any more stimulation. Oh my! You just might recall that our twins once modeled and went to Milan for that purpose. And as it so happened, David was chosen by Giorgio Armani to be in that season's runway show. Back in Orlando Bruce and I were dying; thrilled for David, and sad for Bill. Having children is not for the faint of heart is it? Anyway the costumes, the Italian flag in the form of a runway show, the music was so brilliant. We are watching the sports at every opportunity.

Last week was quiet as far as being out and about, in part because some days were so darn cold! When last we met in this post, I wrote that snow remained on the ground and I had a few fun photos of the remaining snow and ice I wanted to share including this stem I am holding from the big hydrangea plant. Even though we have been here for a few years now, I can not get over how plants come back to life. Remember this when the new blooms arrive in early summer.

This was the view of town a week ago Monday, taken from our front steps.

The Cherokee Scout, our local newspaper, asked for snow photos and you-know-who delivered.

They printed the one above as well as one of Bruce shoveling snow, but they mostly cut that out of the picture,  I am not bothering with that one.

Lastly, this:

Oops, I got ahead of myself. I kept getting a kick out of how the snow melted just so that this looked like a little person to me.

Do you see it, or am I crazy??

It was the absolute coldest night of the winter thus far.

Mr. Bruce, while traveling the country and building restaurants in cold climates, spent some time in single digits, but not so much for the Mrs. in this household. 

Maybe that is why he has had enough of this winter? 

So what do I do when it is so darn cold? Cook. I was making some baked potato soup for lunch.

It must have been not long after completing my last post that we went out to lunch and ran into Mr. Vespasian there. He is now 87! 

Every day he spends time at Chevelles, sitting at the bar and enjoying conversation with his posse. He's got a three beer limit and then he goes back to his apartment. He told us he still drives by the house most days. Probably to make sure we are taking good care of it. 

In that last post I also mentioned that I had some thrilling, at least to me, Cedar Waxwing photos to share but the snow storm took precedent. Well nothing as dramatic as a snowstorm occurred this last week, so let's get back to those birds!

They are in the process of stripping all of the berries off the plants, seemingly with no concept of personal space!

If I had to guess there were at least twenty of them and nearly that many American Robins chowing down.

And while I do like the Robins, it is the Waxwings that I could not get enough of. I wonder how in the world this one was injured? 

Robins and Cedar Waxwings often chum around together, sharing food sources.

I took these last week and I have not seen any since! :(

Sandy has her birdbath on the ground and they were taking advantage of the water source.

It was absolutely freezing that day ,but in that type of situation I just grin and LOVE it!

This morning it was lovely when I went for a walk. In a small town, the courthouse oftentimes dominates the skyline.

The birds were enjoying the "balmy" weather and I am only slightly kidding. Today it is meant to be nearly 60 degrees,  making everyone happy. I was but a block from the house when a pair of Cardinals made an appearance. 

The Northern Cardinal is the North Carolina state bird and maybe that is why I see so many of them? I find it so fascinating because in Orlando I rarely saw more than one pair, but here it is a fairly regular occurrence to see multiple pairs together. The same holds true for Blue Jays although it is rare for me to be able to get a good photograph of one. That is, until today.

And lest you think I only take pictures of birds, here is one I took on another day.

My eyes are always on the lookout for photo opportunities and with so much practice, I am pretty good at spotting things others overlook. Like in the scene below for example. What do you see?

Here is what I saw and thankfully with a zoom lens I can show it to you.

Meet a tiny little Song Sparrow.  The fellow below, a Northern Flicker, is a type of woodpecker that digs in dirt for food. My equipment and skills will never allow me to get a good flight shot, but should you be interested, look it up! The gold color lining the lower feathers opens up to some gold magic that is beautiful!

See it right near the tail? He had a heyday digging in that dirt while I was watching.

Bruce hung up the little "Card Trick" experiment that I made to decorate my sewing room.

Our pastor Wil was on a month long leave for spiritual renewal and we welcomed him back last Sunday.

Somehow we managed without him, but we most definitely missed him and his family very much.

One day last week we played pickleball in the gym in Andrews. Here is what that space looks like.

It is wonderful for the super cold days and if one is not playing, there is a walking track above.

Are you tired of birds yet? I sure hope not because here is a pretty Brown Thrasher that I spotted this morning.

 I read this little piece this week and while it not for everybody, it works for me. 

"Somewhere out there, someone is listening to birds instead of the news and the world feels kinder there."

Okay, on a serious note, last Thursday at Soul Table, while I was making Suzanne's name tag I noticed she did not look herself and I asked after her, and also about Rob, who generally comes with her. She told met that Rob died on Tuesday. This is the third ST regular to have died in the last six months and while I know our guests are generally old and not always in the best health, it still shocks me, especially Rob who was always nicely dressed and looked to be fit as a fiddle. Boo hoo!!

So before Murphy came to national attention with Braden Rumfelt's American Idol audition,  apparently there was Granny. Oftentimes, while having lunch we read the newspaper and because it is so small, we read most everything. "Hand me the section with the obituaries please," she said to her husband. OH MY WORD! I am reading about Evelyn Louzine Wilson and mostly thinking I have never heard of that name before. The further I read I came across the part where it said that in her 80's she became something of a YouTube celebrity. Indeed she did, and although I had heard of her somehow, I did not know that she lived around  here. Thousands watched those videos and if you are curious, click on this link. 

And that is the news from our home in a little mountain town. I hope you enjoyed our visit.

your friend,

Gail

Let it Snow!

If you read last week's installment of Camera Crazy, you already know that a big storm was predicted for that weekend which only brought rain, instead of the massive amount of snow in the forecast. You also know how people were buying to be ready for whatever happened next. So it was with some skepticism that people were taking this last weekend's weather prediction. 

Well shows you what we know. 

Waking up Saturday morning, I opened the bedroom curtains. which look out over the empty lot. and it looked like it had snowed .but it was not until I ran downstairs, opened the front door, and baby it was cold outside. The snow was coming down illuminated by the street lamp in front of our home.

Bruce salted the sidewalk for the storm that wasn't, which explains the spots that are not fully covered yet. Heck the lawn is not fully covered, but hours later it sure would be. There are times I wish we did not have a street lamp out front because it makes too much light to see stars, however, on the positive side it makes the snow, and frost for that matter, sparkle like diamonds, a glorious sight to behold.

Looking at my phone I saw that D'Anna had texted the night before at 10:30 saying it was snowing, so when it started in town, I don't know but it must have been windy because the smaller part of the porch was covered in white puffy snow.

Meaning, for the most part, it was super slippery. Salt remained on the porch from Bruce's earlier work, but for someone who has fallen before, and broken a bone, you cannot be too careful! The first picture of the street was taken at 6:22 AM. 

Of course I could not be still, looking out every window and carefully making my way around outside for some snow pictures!

I had to. 

Snow covered the back porch screen and the adjacent floor making that a no-go zone.

Thinking about this picture, most days I check the front porch thermometer, as well as the back porch, because they usually differ by about four degrees. To tell you the truth, I don't think I even bothered on Saturday. I will say that it has been bitterly cold since the storm and plenty of snow remains all over town.

What do you mean by bitterly cold Gail? How about six degrees overnight? High of 22? COLD! That said, I did not go out much over the last few days aside from photo taking. The roads are still messy because even if it warms a bit during the day, the overnight temperatures have still been below freezing, turning much to slippery ice. 

Let's back up a few days though. There were predictions of snow, so we got out while we could on Friday afternoon, meeting Cobby and Diane at Buck Bald Brewery just up the street from us.

Usually very busy any time of day, it was the calm before the storm. A little later Bruce went to the gym and I walked in the park. Before leaving, I took a photo of the sky because I wanted to record what it looked like before snow.

I believe it is going to take more years before I can predict snow from the clouds, but I will say that Lynn, a woman whom we played pickleball with, and who has lived here  for thirty years, told me as we came out of the gym in Andrews that we were looking at snow clouds. Turned out she was very right!

As you can imagine, bundled up, I roamed around in the deep snow in my Uggs and took photographs.

Birds were going crazy at the feeders and the Bird Buddy.

Snow was piling up and the seed supply was diminishing.

It's not often that we see a Purple Finch (top bird) but one joined the House Finch at the backyard feeder.

It was snowing like mad and often my camera struggled to focus on my subject rather than the snow.

Undeterred, I kept at it, catching this little White Throated Sparrow perched on the Mockingbird's favorite perch.

It was shocking seeing the neighbor who lives way up the hill and looks to be about 80-something, walking her dog. She claimed it was her duty. He is a little dog that is hidden by our wall.

Because the snow was so powdery, when I ran into a bush or something the snow would cascade onto my cameras which are made for any kind of weather.

I think it was around the time the woman walked by that I noticed a little Goldfinch, all puffed up to stay warm, perched on the bare tree branch.

Cardinals love Sandy's Magnolia tree.

Oh it was really something. Looking through the big arborvitae that flank our yard, you can just see the houses above on the really steep part of the street. We are so happy we did not buy up there!

By now, Stella and Jude were out trying to sled and finding it challenging because it was so powdery.

Eventually the returned home to get the rest of the family. Jude is doing a cartwheel which made me chuckle thinking about being young. That said, I never could do a cartwheel.

Every time I thought it was stopping, the snow just kept coming down making everything look so beautiful and pristine.

Note my boot marks in the snow,  soon to be disrupted by the kids. I wanted it to stay perfect, but Bruce reminded me to be a good neighbor! Looking towards the driveway below,

and here is the car that you could not see from the previous angle.

I would trudge through the snow that went up the sides of my boots, but not IN! 

Then, when I was too cold, I would use a brush to knock it all off before the next foray into our winter wonderland.

My little gnome adding some whimsy to our backyard now looks like this after the sun finally emerged yesterday and the sky turned Carolina Blue!

Oh that reminds me, did you see the Snow Moon on Monday Morning? I did.

Sorry for jumping around because I did not even show off Bruce's snow shoveling skills yet!

He tackled that when the snow finally stopped around 1:30 in the afternoon. Many, many hours of snow and was it ever a spectacle! When we bought the house, I dreamed about the empty lot adjacent to us covered with snow and, by golly, it was just as beautiful as I'd imagined.

Our sweet little house on Campbell Street has pleased us to no end and now we have something else to be excited and thankful for.

,I will have to wait on tomorrow's edition of the Scout to learn how the storm measured up to others, but some folks are calling it pretty darn impressive. 

I had some thrilling Cedar Waxwing photos to share, but a beautiful snowstorm takes precedent for sure. Probably next week I will show them off, as well as more snow photos because, Lord knows, I've got them! Before I go, I would be remiss in not sharing some more exciting news from Murphy and that is a young man who graduatedjust a few years ago from Murphy High School is on American Idol and made it through the second round of auditions. A link to his performance which is darn good. All of Murphy is rooting for him!

From the town where much snow remains on the ground, and icicles are present,

I remain your friend,

Gail