Sunday, February 10, 2013

The beauty of a blizzard...


School cancellations, trips to the supermarket for last minute non-perishables in case of power outages, batteries for flashlights, and the list goes on. If you are one of those who escaped any of the possible downsides of this storm (flooding along the coast, downed trees, loss of electricity, etc.), it's much easier to appreciate the beauty of these storms.

(courtesy of picMonkey.com)

This was the view from our dining room window yesterday, showing the ivy that climbs our brick chimney and the new gate and fence hubby installed over the summer. I love the snow piled atop the arbor.

This is our dining room window this morning. I had to take the arbor photo from the upper panes on the right side of the window where there was no snow piled up.

Through the top of the left panes, the deck is visible. A brave Sammy Squirrel and Mr. Bluejay are waiting for me to toss out some peanuts...

...while a little junco waits patiently for me to brush the snow from the screen feeder 
so he can get at the seed.

This was the view from the family room slider. 
The snow was piled up to the first grid on the door section. 

The drifting snow was practically up to the patio table, and the chairs are barely visible at all.
It's going to be a while before we're eating out here, I'm afraid.

A bit later I tossed out peanuts for my friends, with most landing on the table.

The "gnome home" is also filled with snow, its window also covered with snow.

Oh, good. Sammy found one of the peanuts I tossed out for him. 

Now we'll take a peek out front and see how the snowy landscape has changed our view.

Here's a view looking down the street. I insisted that hubby, in his sixties, agree to having someone plow the end of the driveway for this 2+ feet of snow. He agreed, so we arranged to have that done. This photo was taken pre-plowing.

A while later, you can see that the end of the driveway has been cleared. They did a great job. But now we need to shovel a path from the house to the driveway and then unearth the vehicles. It's hard to see from this angle, but the snow is almost covering up our mailboxes.

Okay, this is better. From the front door you can see the mailboxes, barely visible above the snow. There's usually at least a 2' clearance between the bottom of our flag and the ground. But now, when not being blown by the high winds, the snowman flag rests on top of the snow.

And there it goes again, blowing in the wind...

This was our mini snowstorm of January 16th, just a few weeks ago. Even though there was snow on the ground, the mailboxes were still well above the snow and the flag had plenty of space below it.

I hope those of you who don't live in New England or snowy regions enjoyed these photos.

I hope those of you who do live here, but winter in Florida, are smiling, as you're reminded of 
why you made that choice.

I hope those of you who love to ski, snowboard, and snowmobile have a blast.

I hope those of you who don't (me included) have an early spring!

Donna

14 comments:

Lyn said...

It does look pretty as long as you don't have to be anywhere! Xxx

Magali@TheLittleWhiteHouse said...

I'm glad you're safe. I enjoyed the pictures very much as we rarely have much snow around here. That squirrel is so cute!

Jan said...

That's a lot of snow. I'm not surprised Baby was appalled in the previous post. Jx

C M Designs said...

Donna, you need to show some of these pictures this coming summer when it's HOT again.. Maybe they would help to cool us off..
I see that you feed peanuts to your Sammys. I feed them to our squirrel friends also.. They just love them. I just bought a forty lb. bag of bird seed today.. It will be gone in no time.. It is full of sunflower seeds which the squirrels like also.
I love your snowman flag.. Sooo cute.
Your big window is very nice with the window seat..
Thanks for sharing your blizzard pictures.. I hope it will be the last one for this year. It was a very good idea to have someone else do the clearing of your drive..
Stay safe !
Charlotte in Virginia

Melanie said...

I agree that snow can look very pretty, but I've had just about enough of winter! I am longing for spring...how about you?

halloweencouple said...

Beautiful photos, the snow from inside is always so beautiful, just something about looking out at all the snow covered places from the warmth of our homes is calming, at least for me :)

Susan said...

Hi Donna...Great photos. You guys definitely got more of the white stuff than we did in western Massachusetts.

One thing is for SURE. Sammy squirrel is a true New Englander. He doesn't let anything get in the way of meals, including a blizzard. Ha!

Take care and good luck shoveling. Susan

Barb said...

Your pictures are so fascinating and pretty. Good for you getting that plowing done. My DH is past 60 but thinks he is still 30!!

Sunny Simple Life said...

Wow that was some storm but you are right it is so very pretty. Glad hubby didn't have to plow himself.

Sharon said...

Great pictures! Stay warm and think Spring.

Ruth Kelly said...

That was a lot of snow. Good luck in digging out.

Life at Still Woods said...

My goodness! The Enchanted Cottage does look enchanting with all the beautiful snow. Enjoy the quietness of nature before the digging out begins.
Blessings from Still Woods Farmhouse

Elaine said...

Those drifts sure were something!

So glad Sam weathered the storm well and did not get blown away!

Debra at HOMESPUN: http://www.thehomespun.com said...

They are wonderful photos / that's some deep snow!

I see that Sammy comes out anyway...it seems here that when we get about 6 inches or so that the squirrels stay in their nests. I don't see any of them till its melted down to 2 or 3 inches!