HOW MUCH SNOW DID YOU GET?

ANSWER:

From shoveling out to get the CoCoRaHS cylinder to melt some snow and get the water content.

The birdbath from yesterday’s Bluebird post after 6-7 inches of snow.

See who came to get a drink today? Looks kinda deep to me! He shows up better when sitting on the frog’s head.

And, no, I have not seen any bluebirds today. I almost did not see any of my Buddhas either.

Buddha in a blanket?

THE DAY OF THE 2010 BLIZZARD

The final count – 16 inches… and then the wind started to blow and the drifts got deep. the grackles buried the feeders in a blur of black wings, and drank the water from the birdbath at the rate of 2 buckets an hour.

If I stayed outside shoveling the driveway, the grackles stayed in the back yard and the little birds ate as fast as they could. Today, I am almost out of birdseed. I have probably gone thru 50 pounds or more in a day and a half.

For the most part Punkie stayed tucked in one box or another, coming out only to make a quick run to an azalea bush, or to the cover to the crawl space door. When I got up this morning to take snow measurements for the TV station, Punkie’s “sun room” and green house were covered with snow. You can see it has been cleaned off numerous times.

The Buddhas are buried. If you did not know where they were, you would not be able to find them. I hope you made out better than we did. It has been fun, sort of, but I am exhausted.

A BUDDHA IN THE BUSH

A BUDDHA IN THE BUSH - and other news from PA...
As I have said before, this blog is a very personal thing. I don’t worry about how many comments I get, etc. Many folks read it who do not have blogger accounts or choose not to use them but let me know they are checking in anyway in my private email. In one sense, it is a personal record of where I’ve been or what is going on, what things look like. As I have also said, I try to keep religion and politics out of it, though sometimes some things just kind of sneak in. I am not on here to preach or push my religious views on anyone, but, if you have looked at my blog for a while, you will notice the occasional Buddha sitting here or there. I like having Buddha around… he is not there for me to worship, that is not what I do, he is there to remind me that, even though I am just human as he was, if I take the time to sit and think or sit and maybe NOT think, just be quiet, maybe I will be a better person, and maybe I will be of benefit to others in the process. So there you have my religious and political views. As the Dalai Lama says, "My religion is kindness." My daily prayer is to do no harm. That is my political view also.

At our house in PA, there have been 2 Buddha's sitting on the mountain side for many, many years. The one sitting closest to the house is in bad shape,

but, he still sits there over looking the house, there to remind one to be peaceful and loving, compassionate and caring. See him at the base of the tree? He was hidden in weeds last year. The other Buddha kind of disappeared some years ago. He was on a big rock behind the house my Uncle now owns next door, the house where I stayed this summer so I did not have to climb up and down those wicked stone steps to get in and out of the big house. But, one morning, as I was talking to a friend on the phone, I went up back a ways and sat on a rock just inside the edge of the woods. As I looked around, what did I see but a head sticking up above some weeds? I did a little weed removal, mostly goldenrod, and there he was. Apparently he had been keeping an eye on my bedroom window all along! It was like finding an old friend. I don’t know who moved him or why, but it doesn’t matter… there he is. Maybe next year I can repair the one by the steps to the Big house…

Last year I had a problem with our caretaker not being much of a caretaker and the back yard was over grown with poison sumac that was over 6 feet tall and wisteria that was growing out of a wall into the grassy area.

I bought a hedge trimmer, weed whacker and, I am sad to admit, a big container of Round-up. I guess it did the job as it was all cut over this year. This is an area big enough to park my big van in and still have space for loading and unloading. It eliminated one set of steps for me when I stayed at the Big house.

And, for the record, the front porch has been repaired, also. I guess they didn't like those ugly pieces of plywood I put over the hole last year. But, they tore the porch up when they dropped a stove they were moving out... so I guess they fixed it. I am too old to do those things anymore. Getting the plywood down there was a big enough chore - and, even tho it looked mighty bad, it beat a law suit by someone falling thru the hole!

Sometimes I wish I could live up there again. But I have gotten spoiled by the flat land down here in VA, minimum snow fall, temps that almost never go below zero - a temperature in the teens is news! But, it is nice having a house where one doesn't need an air conditioner. On a day like today, it is hard to imagine... but it is in the low 70s up there right now, mid 80s here - cooler than expected because of the heavy cloud cover (but no rain, sigh.) The humidity is 98%.

I will miss the old house if we sell it. But my brother has absolutely no interest in it. It has been in our family for 3 generations. And it is more than I can take care of, especially if I am living 6 hours away. And, as I have mentioned many times before, those steps just do me in!

One of my fondest memories is sitting on this porch, way at the other end in an old swing with my grandfather (he died in 1954) and listening to the thunder. He taught me to count the seconds between the lightning and the thunder and to figure just where the storm was. I measured miles by landmarks. "Oh, that lightning was over in Freeland," or Blakeslee, or up in Mountaintop, or at Shorty's garage.

I bet Grandpa would have taken better care of the Buddhas if he'd been here... Yep, I'll have to mix some cement and do some patching next year...

WARM ENOUGH FOR YA?

Well, we are at the roasting stage... it is above 75 when I get up in the morning, usually before 6, so I can go out and water things before I pass out from a heat stroke. This morning, breathing outside is kind of like trying to breathe underwater. I am sure the humidity is about 300%, maybe more! The temps are supposed to be in the 90s for several more days... heat index in the triple digits. Sigh. The ground is dry, a hard thing to believe after months of walking on spongy earth, on ground so wet it sucked your boots off if you stepped in the wrong place. So, I thought I would reminisce a little, and share some coolness with you.Remember when the snow was so deep I had to shovel a place for Punkin to go potty?

Snow Buddhas... I could take a snow blanket for a few minutes. Maybe. Feel better now?

WORK, WORK, WORK

WORK, WORK, and more WORK... the story of springtime.
So far, the only one to really enjoy the “new” and improved patio seems to be Spook. He really seems to love it out there, though he still doesn’t like having his picture taken. See him? He thinks he is invisible. I do sit out here every once in a while to catch my breath or give my back a rest. As you can see, things are blooming here at Possum Lane. And what is not blooming, hopefully will be. The first beans are up and recognizable as real plants, not just green lumps! I am trying another experiment in gardening… so far it is just home to plants waiting to get planted… the cucumbers are in the ground with a fence to climb on, zucchini, strawberries, Progress! I moved the new composter… not sure if this is a better idea than the old way, but I am willing to try. So far the raccoons have only gotten in it twice. Amazing little critters, aren’t they? The house plants, for the most part, are outside waiting to get cleaned up, cut back, and situated for the summer. The lilacs outside my bedroom window have been especially beautiful this year. And both Buddhas seem, well, content, in the midst of the azaleas around them.

A SNOWY DAY!

The morning of January 30th, 2010 looked like just any other day when I got up at 6. The roof of the barn looked like it had a good coating of frost, nothing more, as the ground was clear. It is still dark here at 6 AM this time of year here. So I turned the spot light on - and what do you know! There were little fine snow flakes coming down. So, I went about my usual morning business. I usually have a ton of computer work to do on Sat morning, but this Sat there was even more than usual, as I had been in a class for Planning Commissioners for 2 days and had not been home to get anything done. And, I confess, I was too tired after class to do more than eat dinner, take a shower, and stumble into bed. So, I turned the old DELL on, went back into my bathroom to get dressed, fixed a cup of tea, got on line, and started to play catch-up. I had a week's worth of emails to answer. I glanced at the amusing ones, saved the tough for later - my post-Starbucks mail, as it were... and tried to get some work done and get my Sunday Musings started - something I usually have nearly done by Sat morning. The morning began to get a bit lighter... no, the sun never showed its face... The official 8 AM measurement for CoCoRaHS was 1/2 an inch. WBOC called a little before 8 and asked me if the snow had started, how much we had, and if I was willing to go on the air in a few minutes. By 9:30, we were a bit oven an inch. 11:30 had us over 2 inches, and by the time of the 1:30 broadcast (WBOC) we had 5 inches in the open areas, but drifts around Anna's van were half way to my knees. The birds were hungry, so it was a great opportunity to get pics of the cardinals. Here is Mr Cardinal in the camellia out front, and again at a feeder. See Mrs Cardinal in the camellia?

It was kinda cool doing live broadcasts from my yard for the Salisbury TV station. The first time I did that for them was during a hurricane and my BIG walnut tree out front blew over right on schedule. I caught the words "Oh $hit!" just before they came out of my mouth as I was standing only about 30 feet away from the tree. Today's broadcasts were much more uneventful, thank goodness!

AT 7 inches... plus...the van an hour after we cleaned it off... a barn in the snow... the camellia, Aunt Alice, Buddha 1, Buddha 2 (up to his chin in snow almost! Gonna have to wade out there again before dark.) (these Buddhas are 2 feet high) And St Francis standing next to the birdbath! Didja ever wonder where the kitty goes when he has to, um, go? And the snow is higher than his, um, water pistol? Well, I shoveled a path for him, but he did not want to come out to use it, so he ducked into this little shelter. As I type this, there are 4 male cardinals out the window argueing about feeder rights. And the snow still comes down... Some parts of the yard are over 9 inches now... and the temps are dropping. It is now down to 20 at 3:30 in the afternoon.