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| Narcissus |
The flowers are a delight - especially considering the snow and ice outside. This is a photo of them in the windowsill. The process was very easy - so easy I might try it again next year.
Showing posts with label snow. Show all posts
Showing posts with label snow. Show all posts
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Early Spring
The flowers are a delight - especially considering the snow and ice outside. This is a photo of them in the windowsill. The process was very easy - so easy I might try it again next year.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Winter Visitors
Turns out we've had some winter visitors around our home this year. I'm pretty sure these are raccoon tracks. I saw a raccoon crawl in to the sewer opening one night some months ago. The raccoons in our city remain well fed, even in December.
I am surprised that I actually can identify the tracks as raccoon tracks, as I was reminded (again) this past weekend that I am undoubtedly a city person, through and through.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
snow day
I have a couple of posts I'm thinking about, but in the meantime - I woke up to this!
Remember how I said we could now park one car in the garage....
Remember how I said we could now park one car in the garage....
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Love that snow
One of the best parts of living with three year olds is the immense joy they have in just about everything. Going to the store? Yay!! Grandma and Grandpa are coming over? Yay!!
I've mentioned this before about laundry and going to school- and as many things that change between the ages of two and three - this is one of the things that has not changed. My kids are still as upbeat and enthusiastic as ever.
As with most of the country, it's cold and there is a ton of snow and ice everywhere. For adults, winter storms strike fear in their hearts. Particularly for older people who worry about falling on the ice. Others dread shoveling snow. I've mentioned this attitude before, in December no less - here. It has taken me three hours to drive home from work before (a 20 minute drive). It's no fun.
But my two - they love this weather. They love the snow pants, boots and mittens. Last night as we were going to the gym - they ran around on the snow and ice. They try to taste the snow. They love the crunching sound their boots make. They even seem to be fascinated watching me scrape the ice from the windshield.
Living with little ones - it's easier to not be so jaded. It's nice to be constantly reminded that a negative outlook is not the only perspective.
I've mentioned this before about laundry and going to school- and as many things that change between the ages of two and three - this is one of the things that has not changed. My kids are still as upbeat and enthusiastic as ever.
As with most of the country, it's cold and there is a ton of snow and ice everywhere. For adults, winter storms strike fear in their hearts. Particularly for older people who worry about falling on the ice. Others dread shoveling snow. I've mentioned this attitude before, in December no less - here. It has taken me three hours to drive home from work before (a 20 minute drive). It's no fun.
But my two - they love this weather. They love the snow pants, boots and mittens. Last night as we were going to the gym - they ran around on the snow and ice. They try to taste the snow. They love the crunching sound their boots make. They even seem to be fascinated watching me scrape the ice from the windshield.
Living with little ones - it's easier to not be so jaded. It's nice to be constantly reminded that a negative outlook is not the only perspective.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
February
I thought of this song on the way to work - it snowed the day before and it was snowing this morning.
The snow this morning was actually quite pretty - big flakes just drifting down to the ground. I'm not feeling negative about February at the moment - but it is traditionally a difficult month for me....that in between stage before Spring but after Christmas. It's still pretty dark, and cold - and snow and winter have lost their novelty.
These are photos I got from googling snowflakes. The photographer, Wilson Bentley was a bachelor farmer. This is the link to more of his photos.
"And then the snow came, we were always out shoveling,
And we'd drop to sleep exhausted,
Then we'd wake up, and it's snowing....
And february was so long that it lasted into march..."
-February
Dar Williams
This is a link to her official website...
Friday, December 14, 2007
Snow Terror
I'm not ready to come right out and say which city and state I live in. Someone could easily put two and two together and figure it out. I'm not sure I'm ready for that just yet. And many friends IRL do know where I live. I do want to write this in response to Holly’s post about shoveling snow. I’m a little in awe of all her shoveling, by the way.
Let's just say, I do not live in a midwest or western state bordering Canada. Some of those states (think Montana through Michigan) get a ton of snow during the winter. Winter there can start as early as October and last through April. Three feet of snow would not be unusual. 60 days of grey weather (no sun) from January through March is also not unusual. Having lived through that much grayness - let me tell you, it s*cks. You start to wonder if you will ever see the sun again. You try to figure out why everything seems so dreary and depressing. I wondered when I lived there why I really disliked winter.
To give you another example of the differences (even four hours north), in my driver's ed courses, we practiced turning into the skid (in "the simulator" - a room with a large television screen and fake wheels, accelerators and brakes). That's in the event that your wheels spun out in the snow (you turn in the direction of the skid, in case anyone was wondering). My husband said that they had no such training here (in fact, I'm not sure the state pays for driver's ed, which is a difference).
Not only that, to show my age, in 1993 when I was in high school, we actually had the first school cancellation they had had in YEARS (someone threw out the date of 20 years if I remember correctly). It wasn't really a snow issue, it was too cold to get the buses started. Schools are cancelled here all the time - for even six inches of snow.
There is no snow on the ground where I live currently (even in mid December). Well, there are piles of melting snow in parking lots, but that's it. And there may be (wait for it) 6 inches over the weekend. Some less than hardy people are freaking out. "I'm staying in Saturday!" they exclaim. They refuse to drive with two inches of snow on the ground. I am not exaggerating this. It's common for it to not snow before Christmas.
We do have something called "black ice" here, which we didn't have in the more northern states. That's where it looks like the road is wet, but it's really slippery. And people here don't seem to drive better in the snow, everyone drives too fast. Also, the city doesn't pay to have our side streets plowed, so it can get rather dicey when there is some snow on the ground.
So it's always really an odd position for me when everyone starts complaining about the cold and the two inches of snow here. Okay, so we can get up to a foot each year. New year's eve a few years back, we may have received two feet. Everything was closed for days.
People start lining up at the local stores to stock up on salt, bread, batteries - again, when even six inches is predicted. I guess I look at it from the perspective of states where snow is on the ground from October to March. Where shoveling snow every morning or every other morning may not be unusual. Where you own a good pair of boots and gloves - even to walk from your car into work each day because you need them.
I'm not saying that where I live there's no need to be nervous about snow - or that it's not important to be careful. Or that shoveling doesn't s*ck. Maybe, if I worked in the same area I grew up in, I would have heard the same type of naysayers who would flip out over the snowfall (or potential snowfall).
But sometimes it just seems a little silly given that I know exactly what life could be like if we really got a lot of snow - all the time.
Let's just say, I do not live in a midwest or western state bordering Canada. Some of those states (think Montana through Michigan) get a ton of snow during the winter. Winter there can start as early as October and last through April. Three feet of snow would not be unusual. 60 days of grey weather (no sun) from January through March is also not unusual. Having lived through that much grayness - let me tell you, it s*cks. You start to wonder if you will ever see the sun again. You try to figure out why everything seems so dreary and depressing. I wondered when I lived there why I really disliked winter.
To give you another example of the differences (even four hours north), in my driver's ed courses, we practiced turning into the skid (in "the simulator" - a room with a large television screen and fake wheels, accelerators and brakes). That's in the event that your wheels spun out in the snow (you turn in the direction of the skid, in case anyone was wondering). My husband said that they had no such training here (in fact, I'm not sure the state pays for driver's ed, which is a difference).
Not only that, to show my age, in 1993 when I was in high school, we actually had the first school cancellation they had had in YEARS (someone threw out the date of 20 years if I remember correctly). It wasn't really a snow issue, it was too cold to get the buses started. Schools are cancelled here all the time - for even six inches of snow.
There is no snow on the ground where I live currently (even in mid December). Well, there are piles of melting snow in parking lots, but that's it. And there may be (wait for it) 6 inches over the weekend. Some less than hardy people are freaking out. "I'm staying in Saturday!" they exclaim. They refuse to drive with two inches of snow on the ground. I am not exaggerating this. It's common for it to not snow before Christmas.
We do have something called "black ice" here, which we didn't have in the more northern states. That's where it looks like the road is wet, but it's really slippery. And people here don't seem to drive better in the snow, everyone drives too fast. Also, the city doesn't pay to have our side streets plowed, so it can get rather dicey when there is some snow on the ground.
So it's always really an odd position for me when everyone starts complaining about the cold and the two inches of snow here. Okay, so we can get up to a foot each year. New year's eve a few years back, we may have received two feet. Everything was closed for days.
People start lining up at the local stores to stock up on salt, bread, batteries - again, when even six inches is predicted. I guess I look at it from the perspective of states where snow is on the ground from October to March. Where shoveling snow every morning or every other morning may not be unusual. Where you own a good pair of boots and gloves - even to walk from your car into work each day because you need them.
I'm not saying that where I live there's no need to be nervous about snow - or that it's not important to be careful. Or that shoveling doesn't s*ck. Maybe, if I worked in the same area I grew up in, I would have heard the same type of naysayers who would flip out over the snowfall (or potential snowfall).
But sometimes it just seems a little silly given that I know exactly what life could be like if we really got a lot of snow - all the time.
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