Before and After

Above -- there's a walk under there somewhere

Above:  after digging out.

It was a beautiful day today, with the clear, vividly blue sky and snow-covered tree branches silhouetted against it.

Hope your day was beautiful too.

Joanie

"Snowpocalypse"

It snowed again -- all day yesterday and most of today.  This is my deck.  As you can see, the snow is almost up to the deck rail.

The photo above is also of the deck -- another shot of how deep the snow is. 

The final picture, above, shows our driveway.  The lump is our car.

Actually, it is quite beautiful, as long as we don't have to go out in it.  I hear that some people in our valley have no electric power, but we have been lucky so far.  However, we're prepared just in case, with flashlights, candles, a lantern, a solar-powered radio (that also can be powered by cranking) and plenty of food.  Now that the snow has stopped falling, we should be able to be dug out tomorrow.

More snow is predicted next week, believe it or not.  What a winter.

Joanie

Baby It's !@#$%%^&&* Cold Outside!!

Even though a lot of our snow has melted since the "blizzard of dec 2009," there is still considerable snow, as well as some dangerous patches of ice cover.  Our latest forecast is for more snow starting this evening and continuing for part of tomorrow, although only a 1-2 inch accumulation is predicted.  More significantly, we are experiencing record-breaking low temperatures, with wind-chills in the 'teens.  That's pretty cold.

Ironically, during the past seven or so years that Cliff and I spent part of the winter in Tavares, Florida, our friends and family back here in Virginia teased us that we should have stayed home because it was so unseasonably warm back here.  So this year I am in Virginia instead of Florida and wearing thermal underwear (or would if I had any)!  But I hear that it's pretty cold in Florida too -- a low of 27 degrees predicted for Tavares tonight, compared to our predicted low of 22 degrees.  But tomorrow the high predicted for Tavares is 56 whereas ours is 38 with snowfall.  When you think about, it's pretty cold in both places!  So how do I spend these frigid wintry days?  Scouring garden catalogs, planning my 2010 garden, and dreaming of spring.

I remember April. Joanie

Hanging in there, part ii

A song that has comforted me for many years is "Turning Toward the Morning" by Gordon Bok.  Now the words of the song seem more appropriate than ever before.

Turning Toward the Morning

(Gordon Bok)

When the deer has bedded down
And the bear has gone to ground,
And the northern goose has wandered off
To warmer bay and sound,
It's so easy in the cold to feel
The darkness of the year
And the heart is growing lonely
For the morning

Oh, my Joanie, don't you know
That the stars are swinging slow,
And the seas are rolling easy
As they did so long ago?
If I had a thing to give you,
I would tell you one more time
That the world is always turning
Toward the morning.

Now October's growing thin
And November's coming home;
You'll be thinking of the season
And the sad things that you've seen,
And you hear that old wind walking,
Hear him singing high and thin,
You could swear he's out there singing
Of your sorrow.

When the darkness falls around you
And the Northwind come to blow,
And you hear him call you name out
As he walks the brittle snow:
That old wind don't mean you trouble,
He don't care or even know,
He's just walking down the darkness
Toward the morning.

It's a pity we don't know
What the little flowers know.
They can't face the cold November
They can't take the wind and snow:
They put their glories all behind them,
Bow their heads and let it go,
But you know they'll be there shining
In the morning.

Now, my Joanie, don't you know
That the days are rolling slow,
And the winter's walking easy,
As he did so long ago?
And, if that wind would come and ask you,
"Why's my Joanie weeping so?"
Won't you tell him that you're weeping
For the morning?

Oh, my Joanie, don't you know
That the stars are swinging slow,
And the seas are rolling easy
As they did so long ago?
If I had a thing to give you,
I would tell you one more time
That the world is always turning
Toward the morning.
----------------------------------------------------------------

Recorded by Bok, Trickett and Muir on "Turning Toward the
Morning", FSI-56, copyright 1975.

"One of the things that provoked this song was a letter last
November from a friend who had had a very difficult year and was
looking for the courage to keep on plowing into it. Those times,
you lift your eyes unto the hills, as they say, but the hills of
Northern New England in November can be about as much comfort as
a cold crowbar. You have to look ahead a bit, then, and realize
that all the hills and trees and flowers will still be there come
Spring, usually more permanent than your troubles. And if your
courage occasionally fails, that's okay, too: nobody expects you
to be as strong (or as old) as the land." - Gordon Bok

I am waiting for the morning.

Joanie

Cold Weather?

Here in central Florida, where we are vacationing, people are complaining about the cold. It has been in the 30s at night and 60s during the day. But everything is relative -- look at the above photo from my son about the temperature back home this morning! Above, another picture from home. Our little pond is frozen solid. So I can take this "cold" weather here in Florida. After all, how much of a hardship is it to wear a long sleeved shirt and a sweater!

We will be returning home in a couple of weeks. Am hoping that temperatures will return to normal by the time we get there. I don't mind winter, but zero degrees is a bit much even for me!

Joanie