The S*** Word

I know, it' s an offensive, dirty word, but what can you do?  Snow happens.

I figure, as of right now, we've had the perfect amount of winter.

We had a really hard freeze with two cold, nasty days.

Just enough snow to give the Border Collie a bit of contrast...

so we could go out and take some pretty dog-in-the-snow pictures.

and show off the Autumn light in the Hemlock swamp.

That's enough winter for me.  I'm ready for Spring.

Snow Day

"C'mon guys, aren't you going to come out at all today?"

"Are you out of your mind??  We're not coming out there!"

"Aw, c'mon, you have to at least stretch your legs."

"Hmmmm, nope, don't think so.  You go right on and have fun playing with the snow blower thingy without us.  I'll keep an eye on things from here."

"Sheesh Em, you know I hate snow blowing.  Don't you think you ought to at least come out and supervise, make sure I do it right?" 

"Don't worry Ma, I'll be watching.  You know you can count on me!  Gotta make sure you get it right after all."  no way, no how am I going out there though...

***

Two and a half hours of snow blowing later...

"YUCK!  ALL THAT TIME SPENT MOVING THIS NASTY STUFF AROUND AND THIS IS THE BEST YOU CAN COME UP WITH?"

"Aw jeez Ramsey, you too?  I thought you at least would want to come out and play."

"PLAY WITH THIS?! ICK."

"Say Ma, why don't you just let us know when you get all this mess cleaned up.  We'll talk then, OK?  And HEY, we could use a bit more HAY in here!"

"Yeah, sure Em, I'll get right on that......" 

Woods in Winter

The weather here lately has been bad, very bad, and that's the kindest thing I can say about it.  All of the equines are staying huddled in the barn out of the wind and off of the ice that is covering everything.  I tried to get some pictures of Emma this afternoon, but the light was bad in the barn and I didn't want her getting cold, so I gave up, put all her blankets back on and left to put more wood on the fire.  You wouldn't really have wanted to see any of the pictures I tried to take today, they'd have made you cold just looking at them.  I did take some photos last weekend which, while intensely cold, are a little less bleak.  Since we are all hunkered down, waiting for the weather to break and not doing anything fun or interesting, I thought I would share some of them with you.  These were mostly taken a day after a snow storm.  The sky was intensely blue but very cold and the woods had the feel that we had just stepped through the back of the wardrobe....

First snow

We had our first real snow here last night.  We have been enjoying unseasonably nice weather the last few weeks and really, I wish it would stay that way all year.  I hate snow.  The snow we had last night was just about enough.  After all, it's obvious that it did snow.  It just didn't amount to much and it won't last long if we don't get anymore.  It's that "if" that's the problem.  It is only wishful thinking on my part that we won't get more, lots more, of the stuff.   Last year we had so much snow and then more and more on top of that......well lets not talk about that, I haven't fully recovered from the trauma of it.

This snow is about what snow ought to be; fairly innocuous, not deep, picturesque and followed  by a nice, calm, sunny day (where lots of it melts).  I went out and did what everybody does, I tried to take pictures of the pretty snow trees (what else would you do with a tree covered in snow?).  Tanner does enjoy the snow just as long as it isn't too deep.  Actually, he loves snow, even the deep stuff, but he gets bogged down in it and struggling through it makes him very lame. 

Tessa also likes snow but, Emma, I think she is on my side.  She would have been so small last winter that not even her ears would have cleared the drifts.  I am guessing that she doesn't have fond memories of last years trauma  er, um winter either.  She spent all afternoon wandering around rather dejectedly, looking for bits of grass.  They did both came over to pose for some photos (although Emma just wanted to go somewhere warmer and if that wasn't going to happen would I, "please just get the white stuff off the pasture".  She is a desert animal after all) 

"HOW long until Spring?????"