Remains

 As our snow finally melts off, I look at the piles lining the sides of the driveway where they were piled by the plow.  Seeing all that snow reflected in the rain-wet driveway made me think of the glaciers in Alaska and their reflections in the cold waters there...

 And although most people see ugly dirty snow left behind, I can see wierd, other-wordly sculptures, like something Picasso might've done if he worked in snow.

 Other snow sculptures remind me of the delicacy of Arches National Park, with gravity-defying arches, this time made of snow rather than rock.  Unlike Arches, their lifespan is only hours, and the shape of the arches changes as the day progresses and warms.

 And I love the way the driveway dirt emphasizes the straight edges of the snow.  The hard contrast between white and black emphasizes something you would normally overlook.



Macro Monday

Just couldn't pass this up...

Cookies and Milk...

...because it's an Oreo cow!  From the size of that stripe, I think it's a Double Stuff cow.  HA!

Green on Ice

I love the way the ice coated each individual needle.....

 ...and encased the delicacy of the cedar greenery...

Wew're back to rain now, and it's melting off all the snow.  It's easier to get around in, but I sure miss the snow and ice.  I guess one appreciates it more when one knows that it is transitory.

Encased

Ice-coated

I think I should call this "Fire and Ice".  The new growth on the pieris japonica is always red; it just glowed under all that ice!

 The poor witch hazel got caught.  It bloomed earlier than usual this year due to our (up until now) mild winter, but the snow and ice hammered it.

I Still Love Winter.....

....but frankly, I like it a lot better when we have power!

The snow I was crowing about last week kept coming, and coming.  Out at my place we had 14" of wet heavy snow accumulate.  Add to that an ice storm (unheard-of out here in the Pacific Northwest) and BOOM!  there went all the power lines.  EVERYTHING was coated with at least 1/4" of ice.  Needless to say the roads were impassable between the snow and the ice, which ended up in layers.  Few if any people out here have traction tires, and most don't have a whole lot of experience driving in conditions like this.  Add steep hills to the equation, and you might be able to envision the mess.  Fortunately (or unfortunately as the case actually was) since the power was out almost all over the place, most people stayed home.  I was really glad that we had a generator...which we had installed when we moved out here about 12 years ago.  Some winters we never need it; others we are thrilled to have it.  We have several rooms on-line, as well as the FURNACE.  I mean, I love a good fire, but trying to dry your hair by the fire isn't as romantic as it looks in the BBC version of "Pride and Prejudice".  I could run the generator for several hours to warm up the house before bedtime, and then thanked my lucky stars for all my quilts.

We have power back now, and it is so lovely to be able to flip a switch and have light, and not have to try to read by the light of a flashlight or even Coleman lantern.  The heat is nice, too. ;-)

The smaller trees were hit pretty hard.  Their trunks are so flexible that all the weight of the ice bowed them right over.  This is NOT a weeping birch, although I am sure I heard a few whimpers as I took this shot.  The ice encased all the branches and twigs.

 This little Doug Fir was "weeping" as well.  But, because it was flexible, it avoided the fate of the bigger ones near it.  I had 4 lose the top third of the tree....in fact, you can see one top at the bottom right of the photo.  Had a few deciduous trees that split due to the weight of the snow and ice.  Will have to find a chainsaw-happy guy to come out and help clean up the storm debris.

Of course, I couldn't let all the macro possibilities pass by, so I bundled up and cautiously trundled my way around the neighborhood, observing with my little macro eye...  More of those later.

YES!!!!

NOW it feels like winter!  It snowed yesterday---the big huge irregularly shaped flakes that I call "linting" or "dandruffing" because they sure don't resemble snowflakes.  We got about 3-4" out here...not bad, but the rainy roads froze first, so the going was a little iffy this morning.  Luckily it was MLK day so the schools were closed anyway.  We're supposed to get a little more snow tonight, and maybe tomorrow, but by Thursday it is supposed to be raining again.

Have I mentioned how much I love this neighborhood when everything is snowy? 

Green

I've been going through my photo files and weeding and discarding.  Came across these that I took in the late summer, and thought of the 2Peas color challenge of green.  Don't know if I'll post them over there, but I'll put them up here.  All those different greens and textures...

Christmas surprise

The Girlies were so disappointed when we all explained to them that Uncle D wasn't going to be able to come out for Christmas since he couldn't get enough time off work.  Of course, we all know that Christmas is all about surprises....   Christmas Eve B and L had to "run to the store", and after they got back home the front door bell rang.  The girls stampeded to the door because there had been treats being delivered, and they wanted to get the next plateful.  The shrieks of excitement and joy when they opened the door and found Uncle D (also known as Stinkpot) standing there were music to my ears.  The party had started!!  They sure do love their Uncle D.

Trying to get this crew to hold still long enough for a photo (make that snapshot) was a challenge.

sunset, moonrise

While I was visiting my DD and her family in Iowa over the holidays, we were treated to some gorgeous sunsets.  No snow, but beautiful skies.  This was taken through a screened window, so overlook that...

 A couple of days after getting home, I was coming home after moonrise to see this---a halo around the moon.  Even though we are having a mild and fairly warm (and dry!) winter, there were enough ice crystals in the upper atmosphere to make the halo appear.  It was gorgeous!  Glad I had my little P&S along...