Praying for Snow?????

This was on a local church a couple miles from my house. Not THIS actual church sign, but the same words. Cracked me up! And we have not even had a foot total this year. BUT we have lost 9 days of school to snow – or ice.

OK, I made my OWN church sign!

Now how do I add snow?????? Hmmm.

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?

BLUEBIRDS

Here on the Eastern Shore they have a saying that if snow hangs around,

it is waiting for more. And with the temps in the 20s, I was preparing for the next snow today when I happened to glance out the kitchen window and thought I saw a bit of blue where I seldom see any blue…

Forgetting my chores, I looked around the back yard and could not believe my eyes. Scattered around the yard were well over a dozen bluebirds (and spouses) sitting in the bushes,

on various perches,

and even on St Fwankie’s head!

 

Try as I might, I could not get more than 5 or 6 bluebirds in any one picture frame.

So, I gave up since I had to go to work, but imagine my excitement when I came home and saw 11 of them and a few other little visitors gathered at the birdbath. For those of you who are new to my blog, that is a birdbath deicer in the water.

It is the most popular watering spot in town as it is the only unfrozen water out there. It is usually empty in the morning as the deer come to visit at night along with raccoons, possums, and the gray fox family.

Winter Storm Janus 1-22-14

Well, Winter Storm Janus blew in last night in a bad temper. Snow is one thing we all enjoy every once in a while, the high winds are another thing. Then, too, temperatures in the teens are a shock to our sensibilities around here. My camellias are frozen. Not nice, Mr. Weather! In truth, we had only 4 inches more or less – with the blowing it is hard to measure how much actually came down – but here on the Shore, 4 inches might as well be 4 feet. The phones started ringing at 6 AM with cancellations. The radio had been broadcasting nothing but cancellations since 5 AM, foregoing all other broadcasting except ABC News and Mike Huckabee and a couple funeral announcements. I mean, who needs to listen to advertising when you can’t get out of your driveway anyway, right?

One interesting comment by our announcer (and owner of the station) was to tell the Good Old Boys to stay off the road. “Yeah, I know,” he said, dropping his voice and adding the drawl of the uneducated, “I got 4 wheel drive, man, I can go anywhere. I am out here to help people who get stuck!” Then he paused for dramatic effect, “And you end up in the ditch with the rest of them causing more problems than you can ever could fix, blocking road clearing crews and even emergency vehicles. So stay the heck home and off the roads!” Of course, the bulk of the sales on days like this are – guess… go ahead… milk? No. Bread? No… Baby formula? Nope, not that either… beer. Well, if you can’t get to work what else is there to do? So, half of the 4 WD pick-ups in the ditch are drunk drivers anyway. Whoopee.

OK, I digress… so what else is new? Anyway, here is the scene out my back door onto the carport which is protected on one side by the house, a little by the furnace room, and, of course, has a roof over it. Look at that snow, will ya? It was all the way up on the top step. See how it has drifted by the bottom step? I had to sweep off the steps to get to the snow shovels. I have 2 – one is an old aluminum shovel, one is plastic. This was an aluminum shovel type of snow because that is ice under there on the ground and on the concrete. My van was covered with almost as much snow as my truck that was sitting out in the yard.

   

The greenhouses were struggling to stay above freezing with ice crystals on the doors. My little incandescent bulbs were working overtime keeping my bucket of bricks warm. I hoped none of them burn out during this below 20 weather. I would hate to open the doors to change a bulb!

It was not a ‘pretty’ snow. The high winds blew most of the snow off the branches. On the other hand, that kept things from snapping and coming down on power lines… unless the wind did it. The prayer flags got a good workout blowing so hard you couldn’t even tell if it was Sanskrit or Hebrew on them. But the early morning sun was pretty and a promise that things would thaw. Eventually. The daffodils have been up, some as much as 6 inches, but they were invisible this morning. In a good year, they bloom the end of February. I have a feeling they will wait until March this year. But, who knows?

The Buddha was wrapped in a nice blanket of white while St Fwankie kept an eye on the birdbath deicer. The little critters were very thankful for that tiny pool of not quite freezing water. However, I have a couple wrens and sparrows that have discovered the cat’s heated water dish and take an occasional drink out of that. I tried to get a shot of one of the little fellows last week when it was so cold hunkered down at the bottom of the door to the furnace room. When I opened the back door, he hopped out a ways, but went right back to the door after I shut the kitchen door once again. I think he is smarter than Spook who has abandoned his heated box now that Punkin is no longer there to defend him. Bless his heart. A friend renamed Spook last week calling him a kittidiot. I have to agree. He is such a scaredy-cat that it often applies.

The new generator is here… but the inspector has not been here and I am on a long waiting list for the gas tank. I can only hope I don’t need it.

And these last 2 shots are of my CoCoRaHS official precip cylinder – minus the inner core that stays in the house during freezing weather where it will measure the melted snow for water content.

I hope the storm was not a bad event for you and yours. Stay in, stay warm, stay safe!

AN IMPOSSUMBLY LONG WINTER

Where is Spring, you say! Here we have daffodils, pansies, even the forsythia is opening… the late camellias are starting and I swear I saw a little color on a couple early azaleas. I did! But if you listened to that dumb groundhog up in Philadelphia, well, I am sure you must be disappointed. You can see a picture of this liar on this blog: http://thefrogandpenguinn.blogspot.com/2013/03/dont-shoot-piano-player.html.

Very possumly Phil should be retired – a suggestion that he can’t refuse, kind of retirement… I, the Onley Proud member of the Possum Prognosticator’s Club, President of Possum Patrol (always on the lookout for lying muskrats), and possumly the most accurate Predictor of a Pussumly early spring… I got laughed at, guffawed at even, when I said Spring would indeed be late this year. HA! But who gets the last chortle? MOI! As I curl up all warm and toasty in my heated nest down the street from those nasty muskrats, snug but not smug… Oh, no, not me… I remember the disbelief when I saw MY shadow and ran for dear life back into my snugness on the carport Pledging not to come back out until spring really arrives… or some delicious cat food gets placed in the dish a couple feet outside my door. Whichever comes first. We possums may get blinded easily by headlights but we’re not fools! My human CO (Can Opener) still has her snow shovel out just a few feet on the other side of the heated water dish. She even has a de-icer in the ground level birdbath, yes indeedy.

But I digress… Just how accurate is that dumb groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil? According to StormFax Weather Almanac, Phil has been right 39 percent of the time since 1887. It is amazing that he still has a job. I, on the other hand can never be replaced. Not only is my Prediction record Perfect, but where else can you find an animal this cute who eats copperheads for snacks, catches mice and rats and all sorts of buglies and does NOT ever get rabies? Can you beat that with a stick? Impossumble. 

In spite of all the wet weather we have had here, and I do mean wet – I mean, look at the yard! In the summertime this is where grass gets cut! We would need pontoons on the mower to get thru here! Or, maybe we could sell it to some unsuspecting Yankee as waterfront property, huh? No?

My human will tell you, “It always snows on the daffodils.” I bet you can check back to March of each year and find a picture of some bright yellow beauties bowed over with a layer of snow. My human also says, “Count your Cards,” to see how long winter will last. Translation: the more Cardinals at your feeders, the longer the winter. Unh huh, check it out. I taught her all these things. I did. She is not as impossumble as most humans. I am right Proud of her. Pay attention to Nature I told her. The more berries, the colder the winter.  Then there is the nutty predictor – the more nuts, the worse the winter will be, or the thicker shells, or the fatter… you name it.  Whatever. They are talking about edible nuts, aren’t they? Not humans… most of them are nuts, it seems. The point is, it is 4 days after the vernal equinox, and if you look real hard, it is snowing. Either that or these trees got dandruff!

(If you were a possum you would find that hairlarious!)

OK, so it is only 5 snowflakes an hour right now. Hang on. Just wait! You’ll see!

NOT MUCH, BUT THAT'S OK

THE RECENT STORMS that have done so much damage to so many people have once again blessedly missed us. But, last night we did have a little excitement, a frozen precip event that lasted about an hour. I was told there was some thunder with it, but we were watching Northern Exposure, so I missed that. The snow/ice piled up on a few surfaces and is still on the roof tops. You can see the size of the ice crystals best on the adirondack. Snow/ice and a camellia... We are now waiting for a little snow storm. Yep, that is what the radio is saying, I can see it on the radar... but back in the 60s by Wednesday. But, for now, the boys are tucked in their heated box toasting their toes and cat-napping, as usual. The heat is on in the greenhouse... Hmmmm, I just saw something white pass by the window. Oh, my. I hope you all are warm and safe.
Pray for those poor folks who were not so lucky and lost their homes to all those tornadoes.

AN EASTERN SHORE SNOW!

AH, YES, THIS IS MY kind of snow. Here for breakfast, gone by lunch. Fun to see, exciting coming down, little kids go to bed dreaming of making snow men, snow puppies, snow anything... but, well, it was more like thick slush. Way too wet to pack into anything. The water content was .67 inches, so we did get a good amount of wet-stuff, but with the temps never getting below 35 degrees, most of it melted as soon as it hit. These are white camellias on the bush to the right. If we had had today's temps with that snow, we would have had 2-3 inches of white stuff waiting for us. It is 29 right now. (Supposed to make it up to 70 by Thurs!) It did bring a load of birds to the feeders and brought this little fellow back to the redbud. See the snow on the branch???? Look carefully or you will miss it! BTW, this posting is just for certain people who asked to see our great snow!

FIRST CROCUS

WE HAVE HAD an extremely mild winter here, so far, at any rate. The ground got dusted with a little snow once or twice - if you slept in late, you missed it! That is part of what I love about the Eastern Shore. One snow fall per winter to satisfy that need to see the white beauty of Ma Nature and that is enough... but not enough snow to have to drive in it. Works for me! Anyway, it has been a very mild winter, as I said. The first crocus is up and blooming. The daffodils are about to show color. And the forecast is for some cold weather ahead. And "It always snows on the daffodils!" So we shall see. But that is OK, I need to stay inside and get some cleaning done. However, the garden catalogs are rolling in... sigh... so I spend my time planning, itching to go buy some lumber and make myself another stand-uppity garden, skinnier but deeper. Maybe 2 of them, one each for my onions and carrots. Maybe another 4x4 to transplant my strawberries into... Where will I put my tomatoes this year? The cucumbers...

It may be chilly outside, but my brain is thinking SPRING IS HERE!

HOT ENOUGH FOR YA?

I WAS JUST looking thru my pictures to find some stuff for a Newsletter........ and I kept passing these shots. ..............sigh.......... It is 94 at this moment. Humidity is probably 250%. It is like breathing soup. Gardening anyone? It is too hot today, but it was buried in snow then. So, I decided to reminisce. We do that as we get older, right? Just thought you might like to think back along with me...

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