Winter, Spring, Winter

It's that time of the year again when the temperatures do their wild fluctuations!  For the past several days, we've had temps in the high 70's to low 80's - pure heaven after the cold we've had.  But we had a front move through yesterday that has brought back the cooler temps.  It's not all that cold but still nearly 30 degrees cooler than what it has been.

The daffodils and forsythia are blooming and I spotted a crocus nearly open yesterday.  These plants seem able to take the weather see-saw although a hard freeze would probably ruin the blooms.

Little teasers of spring right now then back to winter.

Another sign of the season is that there are a lot of skunks out and many are being hit on the highways.  Since we're in the country, many are hit on the road on which we live.  That makes for such a delightful perfume for several days!

But, the skunks and the early flowers signal that spring really isn't that far away.  Here's hoping it's early this year!

Oh, No, Not Again!

         

Yep, it's snowing AGAIN this morning!  It just started less than half an hour ago or so and look what's accumulated already.  My DH just had to go to work this morning and left at his usual time before it started snowing.  He works about an hour from here and actually made it to work before the first flake fell.  However, it may be a different story this afternoon when he tries to get home!  I hope he heeds the advice he would surely give me and comes on home before the roads get icy as they are predicted to become (check out Atlanta who got this a few hours ahead of us!)

Guess I'll stay in today and see if I can work on a painting.

What a Difference a Day Makes!

 

On Friday, January 29, 2010, we had a really lovely day.  Yes, it was getting a little overcast and the temp was falling a bit but it was still relatively warm.  If you look closely at the photo on the top (click to enlarge), you can see that we still had green grass and those are wild turkeys foraging behind the trees - the most I've ever seen at one time!

Then, things changed very rapidly and and by mid-morning on January 30, 2010, we had a view that included snow as shown in the photo on the bottom!

You all know that I consider snow a four-letter word, especially with the very low temperatures and the wind that made it seem even colder!  Fortunately, we didn't lose power although we were prepared for that, and I had prepared some good old comfort food like homemade vegetable soup just in case.

The only thing we weren't prepared for was Bonnie going through the shavings in her stall so quickly.  She didn't venture out all day yesterday and she usually loves to be out in any rain or snow even if it's a cold/freezing rain.  But, she stayed in her stall all day and went through shavings as if the barn were full of replacements!  Of course, we thought we had plenty based on her past habits so her stall is down to the bare earth floor and there are even puddles standing in the stall corner.  Little minx!  Now she has no bedding to speak of as we couldn't leave soggy wet shavings in her stall.  

The roads are solid ice around here but I'm hoping we'll be able to get out later this afternoon and if we can get to the main road, we hear that south of us isn't so bad.  Maybe we can get to Tractor Supply and pick up a few bales of shavings IF they're even open today!

Oh, the absolute joy of winter!