brief sign of spring

Yesterday on the way to work I saw a dead skunk on the road. They don't really hibernate, but they spend a lot of time sleeping in their dens in the winter, and when spring is around the corner they start moving around more. I suspect they haven't had their coffee yet, and they can't get out of the way fast enough. Sometimes in March I've seen as many as seven freshly dead skunks in twenty miles. Can I go all mythological and say the skunk's death is a precursor of the rebirth of spring?

freeze, thaw, freeze

The daytime temperatures have been warming up, but not staying above freezing. Consequently, the snow on the roof is creeping away.

Making interesting edges:

gradually slithering away:

There was grass to be seen beside the road this afternoon. Come on, spring!

futility

Monday, my day off, it snowed all day. (Tuesday I had to get to work.) Here is the walk and the car just after I cleaned it off about noon.

See the clear windows?

This is what it looked like two hours later, just before I cleaned it all off again.

After that cleaning I waited until nearly dusk to do it again:

Of course I had to do it all over in the morning, but at least there was less of it. I got an hour's exercise out of it.

overconfidence for the FAIL

The car hadn't been driven in over a week. The Jeep had been getting up the hill without the slightest problem, and it was above freezing today. (Well, one degree above.) So I took the car to town for its exercise, not having any trouble on the way out of the drive.

However.

(Phone cam, so no enlargement.) It's really not as steep as it looks from there--

but it was too steep. After I'd walked the groceries back to the house and had lunch, I went out with a shovel to break up the ice in front of the car and see what happened, and the answer was Nothing. There it stays until there's some more effective thawing. 

I tried going up my neighbor's driveway, which until I tried it I thought was less steep. That's how I'll have to take the Jeep out, I suppose. O the embarrassment, all die!

signs of spring >: (

Yesterday the phone rang just as I was reaching for the broom to try to sweep the snow off the cars. Because "Private" on my caller ID usually means my friend the doctor on her cell phone, I answered. It was a robocall from a candidate for local office--one I will probably vote for in spite of this. Yes, the primary election day is less than three months away. Spring is on its way.

snow day

I got the call I expected early this morning, saying that we would be closed. I've spent the day doing none of the extremely urgent things that needed doing, just reading and looking out the window. As predicted, it got several degrees above freezing this morning while the snow fell, but I watched the snow on the steps and railings build up as the snow came down faster than it could melt.

The camera lies. There was more than that.

No, thicker than that.

Yes, flakes really that big.
Coming down that fast, too.

Since the forecast is for temperatures below freezing for the next three days I suppose it will stay. I ought to go up to the road and see if the mail got through, and how the roads are likely to look tomorrow morning, but the fire's so warm.

wood storage

I had never intended to store the wood on the porches like this, and when I thought of it, I didn't want to do it until the architect had a chance to take pictures. So when I bought a rick last month, I finally applied the method. The recent snow has proven that it doesn't stay quite as dry as I'd hoped, but it's better than under the sky in the Future Carport.

I haven't managed to stack it as tightly as the man I bought it from did, but it fits pretty well.

I love the patterns cut wood makes as much as I love the flames. (Visually, that is. I love the heat more than either. All about the comfort, I am.)

Sunday morning coffee with new/old teapot

I had never used this tea pot before, and I don't remember ever seeing my grandmother using it or any of the set, but it used to be on the shelves beside her fireplace when I was a child. It has no cups, but I think it never did. The pot turns out to be easy to pour from while sitting in a rocking chair beside the stove.