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

Preparing For the Worst

I have taken lots of bird photographs of late because they have shown up big, and as you well know, I can't help myself. In spite of the twenty mph winds yesterday afternoon, along with the thermometer reading about 28, while going to get the mail I saw scads of birds in a ratty looking tree/bush right across the street. Hoping for the best, I marched inside, grabbed my camera with the longest zoom and marched right back outside again. I probably should have had gloves on because baby, it was cold outside! 

Nonetheless, when a flock of birds shows up, I'm your girl.

These are Cedar Waxwings feasting on really tiny berries. With any luck you will be seeing them again now that I have had such a good opportunity. For the last few weeks I have tried and tried to get good shots, but they have been so high up in the trees it has been impossible to show off their beauty. 

With any luck they will come back for seconds this afternoon!

Last week was a strange one for us as we experienced what it is like to prepare for a winter weather event. After I wrote my blog post we went to the grocery store and there were a lot of people there on a Tuesday afternoon which seemed strange until I realized that they were buying for the upcoming storm which was billed as catastrophic. It was fierce for some places, but we were spared pretty much all of it if you don't count the extreme cold. Anyway, Bruce retrieved all sorts of things from our camping gear to prepare us for whatever came our way. The generator we brought here started on the third pull which is really saying something because it had not been started for many years. Gotta love a Honda. 

Meanwhile I am in bird heaven. Each morning, around 8:00, I set my phone to record the bird sounds and some days there have been as many as 17 different birds, including a bird that I rarely see, and I do mean rarely that showed up in Sandy's yard across the street.

This would be a Northern Flicker should you be wondering. One thing that has struck me when I write the names down, and really shouldn't I have noticed this before? Almost every bird seems to have a first and a last name and sometimes they even used their middle name! Think Northern Cardinal.

Northern Mockingbird! 

Eastern Phoebe!

All these pretty birds were in our yard which makes taking their picture so easy!

Because of all the drama associated with the impending doom from the storm, the week dragged on. One day it was supposed to hit on Friday, the next Saturday, and the severity of it kept changing. Sound familiar to the Floridians reading this? Inches of snow, then it was ice, then it was rain......

One evening we spent some time at the wine shop just to get out, even though nothing had really happened. That being said, the sky was filled with big fat clouds just after dark with a sliver of a moon visible.

Mind you it was cold, but it was to get colder and I am here to testify that at least the weather folks got that right.

Saturday morning a fairly new downtown place posted on Facebook that they would be open until 2pm with the storm now predicted to arrive around 5:00; an out of the way place that I figured could use our business, so after some chores, we went over. After having a chat with the folks who are opening a new market, we went in and found two folks at the bar.

I just loved the cute little coasters although it looks as if this one could use some glue to tidy it up. Anyway, the couple was delightful, were in town to attend a class at the folk school, and were staying across the street from us at Sandy's bed and breakfast!! Their home base is Nashville and the woman kept receiving photos from her co-workers of the massive snow storm they were missing in Nashville. When she told me that she worked at Ann Patchett's bookstore there, I was freaking out. If that name does not ring a bell that is understandable, but for this fan girl, she is one of my favorite authors. Anyway, they were very interesting and it was a good way to pass a few hours.

So what IS the bottom line? We got rain and it went on for about 24 hours and then the sun came out, weakly, but it did come out. I took off for a walk. I do so love the fog in the mountains!

I neglected to mention that church was actually canceled because of all the uncertainty. That, my friends, is a very rare occurrence in their 102 year history. Walking down the main drag towards the river, the puddles were minimal.

My mission was to see how high the river was and indeed it had risen. The clouds were so good!

More importantly after some pretty gloomy weather it was great to see blue. 

As it was getting later, my walk was not terribly long, but it was good to get out. I took the back way home and watched the sky take on a bruised look, although there was a wee bit of red in the sky, it was hard to know what was going to happen next.

I'd gone up early to read in bed, and when Bruce came up he said his phone was telling him that there was a one percent chance of snow overnight. 

Here's what that looks like.

While I am on the subject of snow, I came across this photo of our family when we lived in Buffalo, NY. Can you even imagine?

Nancy is in my Mom's arms, Carol is beside her on the right, Maureen to the left, Pat and Gail, far right. Lisa comes into the picture a few years later after we moved to Orlando. I do not mind the cold at all, but the amount of clothes that pile up is definitely something I am still getting accustomed to.

Back to Murphy, all morning long the flurries came down.

The wind whipped it every which way and when I say it was cold, I am not exaggerating one bit. The temperature never rose above freezing!

The good news was that the sun came out, melted everything that was not in the shade and everyone's spirits lifted! 

Bruce went to the basement and braving the cold which when he is working on something, barely notices. He wanted to plug some gaps that he did not like to look at and were responsible for letting in a lot of cold air. 

I love this picture ! It is so crazy. He is in the crawl space and climbed through that opening to get there!! It all looks neat and tidy which won't surprise you in the least. 

Meanwhile I was finishing this upstairs, 

and making bread on the middle floor, aka known as the kitchen!

I would give the bread a C grade, little taste and nothing to recommend it, but I would give the loaf of zucchini bread from our neighbor Becky, an A.

If possible, it is even colder today with the heater running like mad all morning long. 

Bruce had parked the car in a position so that if we had snow he could drive straight down the driveway, thus much was in the shade. When we were off to do a few errands around 10:00 this morning, the windshield looked like this.

It was quite the challenge getting the ice off the windshield but the temperature has soared to 30 degrees so maybe tomorrow it will be 40?

Nope, if the forecast is to be taken seriously, we will have to wait until next week. In the meantime winter is a good time to catch up on things which in my case, involves reading more novels! And who knows, after talking to my sister who takes more exercising classes than anyone I know, maybe I will try drum fit at the senior center. After all, this is a year for trying new things. 

Just don't think I will be giving up my birds anytime soon!

Hope your day is full of joy!

your friend,

Gail