Winter's End

Mark Twain once said, "In the spring, I've counted 136 different kinds of weather inside of 24 hours." 

 The last weeks we've had about the same amount of different kinds all spread out! Athena area went from stunning sunny days where blooms were popping out like crazy, to snow and below 30 temps. I was concerned for my flowers and crouched in snowflakes to photograph them on Friday. The night photos were beautiful!

 In the morning, it wasn't quite as thrilling. I picked a few of the fallen, but figured they were a loss.

 Even Moses came off the porch for a minute, this is about as far as he wandered!!!!! Less than 2 feet from the last step.

 Everyone on Sunday was starving. This guy wasn't impressed Jon was photographing him while snacking! The squirrel decided to ignore Jon, as usual. There was also one under the front yard bird feeder, we think that is the female.We had so many different birds. The usual junco and assorted finches, but we even had a juvenile red wing blackbird! Those don't often visit. The suet feeder was hung, but they aren't as interested in that yet. Steve saw a round of robins--a bunch of robins is called a round--huddled up with fluffy feathers. The feeders aren't as handy for the bug eaters. Thankfully, the snow is starting to melt a bit. Hoping the feathered friends will be able to find something to suit their appetites out there.

With the melting, my front yard daffodils are starting to perk up. However, the backyard ones next to the house are not as happy looking. 

 The flowers are along the house, which normally is festive. However, they are also under the edge of the roof and  the ice and snow fall right on top of them. Many of the flowers I clipped and brought in to 'melt' in the sink. Some I had to leave because they were so encased, they broke when I tried to free even a portion of the plant. Others were under the snow and frozen daffs on top, those I carefully unearthed and brought inside.

 You can see how tattered some of the blooms are, but you can also see how, especially on the bottom right one, the ice is melting away. I have several vases of blossoms now! The one in bud is open and the house smells delightful! Although, that may be why Jon and I have runny noses!!!

 Last Thursday I took pictures of a giant apricot tree across the road. Sunday, the tree was still white. But not a speck of pink could be seen. I'm not betting there will be much of a fruit crop this season.

Our temps are improving during the day, night has them in the 20's. Most of the rest of the bulbs are green stems or leaves. This is good, tulips are fragile and don't manage in cold like the daffodils.

Sunshine and Snow!

Monday I found a lovely long letter in the mailbox from Carrie B!!! I waited to read it until I found the perfect place. A lovely wintery beach! I did stay in the car because it was breezy and chill. It was a splendid read and spanned several months! (thank you so much!) 

The tide was high (EAR WORM! lol) and full of ice chunks. There was a ship in, but I didn't get photos of her. I was at the Tesoro beach. Salmatof. 

 There was a trail of footprints to the edge of what appears to be the beach. I didn't go out that far, I was wearing the wrong boots. BUT, as I followed the tracks, I found rocks!

 I also fell into the rocks. It appears they had snow under them. I had thought the pit was for a fire, but it was just a hole on the beach. Crazy, but lovely to find rocks again.

 I dabbled around for quite a while and took home about 5. Wonderful things, rocks!

 A mom and her son were going to walk on the beach, but got to the edge and and stopped. When questioned, she said the water was at the bottom and there was no beach left! So, they didn't stay long.

 A man brought THREE tiny little itty dogs to the beach. Not sure what he was doing, but his dogs were scampering up and down. I kept looking for eagles, I didn't see any! The dogs were probably lucky.

 I drove to the Island Lake side of the Pipeline road. There is a lot of work being done and I wondered how far along it was on the other side. They have sections out, and a lot of trees are cut down. I guess working in snow is much easier than mud and weeds and mosquitoes!

 If I had something other than mom's rig, I'd have tried to take this road!

I went back to the beach to see more of the sunset. It was truly a lovely afternoon by the water. 

Then, Tuesday morning dawned with SNOW! I think we got more than an inch. By late afternoon, it had warmed up and was even prettier than it was on Monday. The snow was ready to be played in. So, I parked my Diet Pepsi and went to make a snowperson. 

 Other than her metal pipe nose, she's all organic! Her hair is bits of branches blown from the trees, her eye brows are a type of lichen on the trees, her arms are mossy limbs, her eyes are made of broken off stubs fallen from the evergreen near the shop, and her mouth is a flower mum tossed out ages ago. She's retaining ice water and I hope she lasts awhile!

 We posed together a couple of times. I've not named her yet, I am sure I'll think of something!

Winter Claws

Mom and I thoroughly enjoyed the winter awning we had. Then, the claws appeared! 

 This is a fairly natural phenomena happens when winter combines with metal roofing. Jon, when I was telling him about these cool features, proceeded to explain exactly how they were formed. Or at least, it sounded plausible! There were distinct shades of Mr. Fairchild as he spoke...

The sunlight on the icicles reaching out to the house made them even more fun. 

 At the far end of the house, the icicles behaved themselves, for the most part. Hanging straight down, with very little curvature on their lengths. They were slipping out from under the awning.

At night, they were even more insistent about reaching out to touch the siding of the parsonage. 

They grew with the sun and hardened in the night. 

 After a while, some started to curve......

I had to remove some today. The ones hanging directly over the entry to the porch. When one of our friends stepped outside, I realised how close to her head they were. So, I broke them off and tossed them in the snow.  A couple of the more fantastic ones had became horns on the cyclops snow creature in the yard. 

I could sense someone crafting a frozen horror tale of  expanding winter fingers, creeping their way into houses and entering sleeping bodies with a cold, chill pointed death. Only to disappear in the morning sun. A tale of winter's last breath before the warmth of spring. If someone does write this, please let me know, I'd love to read it!!!