They have started adding sticks today.
Eagles are getting wet. It is windy. Mama is protecting the young – they have tucked their heads under her chest till the storm is over. Temp has just dropped below 60. Looks like we are ready to have a week without snow!
Yahoo!
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 
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.
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!
The top photo is courtesy of Linda Ross and was taken near Logan Road in Onley. The bottom photo is courtesy of Kate Evans and was taken at 1:25 this afternoon behind Melfa just off of Phillips Drive/Mapp rd, just off of Main Street.
That funnel cloud was out in Colonial Village when someone took this picture. Colonial Village begins at the end of my property here in Onley, but on the other side of the street. It goes back to our woods that Elizabeth owned which runs from the middle of my property north and west. The tornado went thru that field on the north side of town, thru her woods and into Colonial Village, then lifted and headed down to Wachepreague and Quinby. Apparently it touched down first near the Custis Neck intersection just above the new Accawmacke Elementary School in Daugherty, then headed down here.
As I have mentioned before, I have learned not to drive thru flooded areas. Our roads back here are very narrow, so narrow some farm equipment not only takes up the entire road but can rip up bushes planted too close to the road, even knock over utility boxes along the roadways. So, if someone else is coming, it is a guess to figure out where the drainage ditch is along these turtle back roads. And they are turtle backs because it is so flat here, we have to have drainage ditches all over the Shore.
The deepest part of this "puddle" might be close to 4 feet next to the field.
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.It has been a crazy couple of weeks, but that is not a complaint… not even really an excuse for not staying in touch, but time has been short for blogging with so many other things to worry about. I have tried to keep up with some of you in private emails as blogger is being uncooperative again. Once again, storms have changed people’s lives. My cousin lost their cabin on the Susquehanna River up near Wilkes Barre, PA. But, that could have been their primary residence, so while a serious loss, they still have their home and all their belongings. And no one lost their lives – most important of all. Check off that little box on your gratitude list!
Normally this is a hectic time of year anyway, tons of things to do as summer winds down, a dozen events going on before it gets too cold, sometimes having to run from one event in the morning to another in the afternoon or evening. I feel like my friend, Ralph, bless his heart, who is running for Senate again and is trying to be in 5 places at once and still maintain a practice at Children’s Hospital. As I listened to his schedule yesterday, I just shook my head wondering how he does it all. But, he is much younger and in better health and has a team making all his arrangements. I am feeling my age! But keeping going keeps me going. Does that make any sense to you? I know if I quit and put my feet up, I won’t be getting back up.
My auntie up in the Wilkes Barre area had to be evacuated. This was not an easy thing to do as she was one of the hard heads who stayed in her house back during Hurricane Agnes (39 years ago) and had folks coming by boat bringing food and water to her thru the 2nd floor window. But, for some folks, Lee brought more flooding and destruction than Agnes. The river went up to 43 feet. It was a shallow muddy puddle when I crossed it this summer to see her. But, as of last night, she is back in her apartment in her senior apartment building, full of praise for her son and DIL for treating her like royalty (which she is, of course!) My only regret is I was not up there to do anything for her – BUT, my house (up there) is on the other side of 2 rivers with lots of flooding creeks in-between Wilkes Barre and White Haven.
Here on the shore, actually, up in Delaware, one little town received 14 inches of rain in about 6 hours. I have been in the Seaford area when it was under water, drove home from PA in 9 inches of water on Route 13 just before they closed it. Talk about timing! That was June, 2006. We saw cars with water up to their roofs in parking lots, drove past houses with water up to the front doors. So sad!
Anyway, it is very busy here taking care of my own commitments and worrying about family and friends. So, if I neglect you a little bit, forgive me. I will catch up maybe sometime in November!
I hope you have made out all right in the storms!
THE SECOND GREAT STORM of 2011 (drum roll please) did not happen here. Even my friends up in Dover, Delaware got by with just 2 or 3 inches of white stuff, BUT, they have a good layer of ice underneath all that snow. Here, in VA, it was a rain event, for the most part. However, we do have below freezing temps. As I type this, the temp has dropped to 30 degrees. It hovered just a bit above or below the freezing mark all night long, currently doing its daybreak dip of a degree or two. Haven’t you ever noticed how the temp drops as the sun comes up? As I write this, a sand truck just went by spraying sand over the black ice.
I got up early this morning, earlier than usual… I am trying to learn to sleep in, stay in bed until 6:30 or 7… as I was going to be on TV again this morning. I am the Southernmost Weather Watcher for WBOC, so whenever there is a storm, snow, ice or hurricane, I am the first one to be put on the air. This morning’s report was really quite boring vs the last time when we got 16 inches of snow and then 5+ foot drifts. This morning, only black ice to report, no pretty frozen trees or bushes, it just looks wet out there.
Several years ago I gave them a very exciting LIVE report… I don’t remember which hurricane it was, but I took the call outside on the carport. We had just spoken a sentence or two when the storm snapped my big maple tree – you could hear the craaaaaaaaaaaack on the air – Anna yelled for me to get back in the house – but it was fascinating to watch. The tree missed me (and the carport) by getting caught in between 2 other trees.
I have learned to be grateful for NO excitement like that! Calm and boring is much easier to live with.
Anyway, I am grateful we just have little inch long icicles hanging on the redbud, and also grateful for the nice layer of sand on the road. We cannot use chemicals, remember, too close to sea level, “Save the Bay” and all that.
So, now that I know we will not be frozen in, I guess I have no excuse for not calling the doctor and finding out what is happening with my heart. The chest pains are getting on my nerves and I really hate it when the old ticker skips a beat every now and then.
Hopefully the storm didn’t do too much damage in your neck of the woods… Stay inside, stay warm, be safe.
in fact my back and side yards are still under water in a number of places,
and so soft, one can actually sink in with the mud over most of your shoe. If I go out today, I will definitely be wearing boots. The pics of the yard don’t look so bad until you realize the water is over a foot deep in places 
and the leaves are floating on top of the water!
My friend Dorothy Perrucci took these pictures
down further in town of a neighbor’s yard and a lost tree.
I have included a picture of the old Hopkins Store on the wharf in Onancock
and the parking lot adjacent to the store.
It looks like the boats are tied up out in the middle of the creek! 
See the car driving thru the parking lot?
And then there is the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Remember the movie Nights in Rodanthe? Well, that IS a real house in Rodanthe, though the movie made it seem much more isolated than it really is… see the water all around it? Notice route 12. It is gone in a number of places that look much worse than this.
on TV last night, they showed the house sitting in a LOT of water, the water was up over the road...
much more than seen in this pic from http://www.obxalert.net/, from whom I also borrowed the pic of the other seaside house about to go out to sea.
This picture is from http://blog.outerbanksvacations.com/2009/11/12/outer-banks-november-noreaster-update/ before the storm really got cranked up!
Other news...
Changing the subject… for those of you who know the Shore, the Captain’s Deck burned down earlier in the week.
I pulled off and took this picture yesterday while on the way to the Organic Food Store, Quail Cove. I have had many a meal at this restaurant over the years. It was usually very busy. Fortunately the motel behind it was not damaged.
From this shot, taken across the street, you can see how close the maple tree is to the wires, the power supply to the next town over, and my house. One of the vans is next to the carport - safe, but if the tree does come down, neither of us will be able to get out of the driveway. You can see how the gum tree is leaning with the weight of the maple tree.
This is from yesterday. Count the trees.
The woods are impassable (to me right now,) so it will have to be winter before I get brave enough to try to go back there.
Now, what happened to that mouse I left here yesterday for a snack?
Notice all the leaves? And it isn't even autumn here for another month or so!
