SNOW DAY!!

Well, we finally got some snow today!

There were about 4 or 5 inches when we left for church at about 10:00 this a.m.  We needed to go a little bit early as we had a special guest from Oklahoma in the pulpit this a.m. and we wanted to make sure we were there . 

These first two pictures are of our church.  It almost looks black and white, then you notice the green band below the siding. 




I love how the snowflakes look like little balls of light falling out of the sky! 

Church went well - our visitor was a wonderful speaker.

We had to stop in Ferndale at the store because we forgot to get potatoes Friday night - How can you make stew without potatoes??

The freeway was fine, but the back roads to our house were a little bit sketchy - sloppy and slippery!  







And this is what greeted us when we got to our drive way... that's about 10 inches of snow in front of that gate. 












So, luckily The Shepherd had brought a shovel with us - he had to dig out the driveway so we could get in to the house! 











After getting more snow this afternoon & evening there is about a foot of snow on our dumpster now. 











Bella was very interested in something that was happening outside the window.  S/he got way up on the window sill, tail twitching -












This is all she could see - I don't know if there was maybe a "burdie" in the tree, of if it was just the falling snow flakes that were getting her attention.















Out the front door -















and "plink" down over the edge of the deck.  That's George who just went over  the edge (tip of his tail, center of the picture)  - We couldn't get Gracie off of the big bed for love nor money. 

The forecast from my little "weather machine"  - although Weather.com says it will be 48 degrees by Tuesday! 

The Shepherd took this picture out in the pasture when he did chores this evening - the little wires that the snow is perched on are only 1/4 inch in diameter - how's that work? 

We hope you are all in a nice cozy place this evening! 








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Looking back Sunday & some Random Thoughts...

03-01-2007

No snow for us in the far north corner of the Pacific Northwest in February 2013 - but not so in 2007.  That was the year that The Shepherd hurt his back at work and was bedridden for several weeks.  I took this picture one morning as I went out to feed the flock.  It was beautiful and peaceful out.

03-04-2007

And four days later - all gone and the crocus was up and blooming like nothing had ever happened. 

03-01-2008

It didn't snow the last week in February 2008 and the Shepherd went to a church meeting in Tacoma,  I stayed home to farm-sit.  This was my "reward" - a beautiful bowl of spring flowers for the back porch. 










 But I had other things to do that weekend here at home - I was just learning how to spin.  Sinda is wondering what this fuzzy stuff is - it is the first bump of roving that I ever spun - Blue faced Leicester

Oddly enough, the yarn that I made from this roving ended up being part of the crocheted shroud I wrapped around her body when we buried her in Feb 2011.   

 

02-26-2009

A heavy late night snowfall on Feb 26, 2009 blanketed everything in several inches of the white stuff - are you beginning to see the common thread here? 

02-25-2010

 
Feb 25, 2010 was shearing day.  Remarkably it didn't snow, but it got real cold right after - of course all the sheep were nekked.

Since we aren't having any lambs this year, he hasn't sheared yet, but the sheep are starting to roo (a genetic thing with Shetland Sheep where their wool comes off naturally - probably from all those hundreds of years of living out on the wild coasts of Scotland.)  I just found out today that the shearer we've been trying to get hold of is not an appropriate shearer for a handspinners flock.  We won't continue to try to reach him.

02-26-2010

It was, however,  nice enough in the greenhouse in 2010 that his little bonsai forsythia was blooming

02-25-2011

For some reason I can't find any pictures that I might have taken in Feb. 2011 - Sinda, (my 21 year old kitty) died on Feb. 5.  I think that I just didn't see much beauty in the world that month.

The Shepherd took this picture up at one of his customer's job sites though - notice the date - our end of February snow struck again. 

02-26-2012

The 2012 snow didn't stay long, but it sure looked fierce coming down. 














While somekitty had found a warm place to sleep.  Jeepers creepers he has grown a lot this year.  He doesn't sleep up here much any more because he "flows over the edge" and it's not really very comfortable.  His new happy warm spot is the heater vent in the bathroom. 





And there is nothing better on a cold snowy weekend (or even one that isn't cold and snowy) than to snuggle down with a good book.  Nora Roberts' publisher is raking in the bucks re-releasing some of her older (and far less "racy") novels.  And even though I've read them before - - can't put them down -

I got Maeve Binchy's last novel "A Week In Winter" last week - I stayed up WAY too late several nights in a week - "just one more chapter" - I will really miss her writing.

February 2013

So this is what it has looked like for much of February 2013 - Grey and soggy.  But at least it didn't SNOW!  Sorry Boston...

What do you mean, IT"S SNOWING!!!

For Pete's sake, it is the 25th of February - our snow should be done for by now. But just after lunch it kind of started to hail, then it really started to snow, and by 4:00 when I checked with The Shepherd by radio he said it was coming down pretty hard in the North county and he would call me when he got home. (both companies we work for have the Nextel phones, so I can "beep" him during the day if need be - cool huh?)

At about 4:45, he called - "I think you'd better start home," he said.

I normally work until 6:00 p.m., but we were nearing white out conditions by that time and he feared for my safety - the Jelly Bean is not really the most reliable snow car, and, lets face it folks, we here in Western Washington are a bunch of weenies when it comes to snow.


So I got my stuff together, and started home. One of the fellows I work with helped brush the snow off my car - it was pretty much all covered in a thick layer by then.


Now,I grew up in Eastern Washington, where, in "the old days" we used to get a foot or two of snow every winter. I learned how to drive in the snow. But, it's a "different" snow over there - dryer and not so slippery - and the people who drive in it are not IDIOTS like they are here on the West side.











My normal 20 minute trip took about 40 minutes and it was just about as slippery as I can remember driving in. In fact, even though I had slowed down to about 10 miles per hour when I got close to our road, the knothead that was behind me was following so close that I couldn't brake to turn, it was so slippery - so I had to keep going down the road and come in the back way which involves going up one hill and down another - by this time, I was driving (spinning out) in a white out. Yikes.


Finally got to our driveway - The Shepherd was pacing back and forth - he had shoveled a path from where I park my car to the back door - (I wear Crocs, which inconveniently, at this time of the year, have holes in them....) He is such a nice guy!


Anyhow, all these pictures were taken just after I got home - it had snowed this much in an hour, and I was REALLY glad that I was home before dark, I am pretty sure that, as slippery as it was out there, that I would have ended up in the ditch if I had waited that extra hour to head home.







One thing that The Shepherd rescued off the front porch was my book order from Barnes and Noble - bought with the gift card that my younger sister gave me for Christmas.

I got three books -

#1 "The Crochet Dude's Designs for Guys" by Drew Emborsky - It has some pretty cool patterns in it and two that The Shepherd approved of - looks like I'll be busy, busy, busy -




The second book I got was Sys Freden's new book "Contemporary Crochet, 27 European Designs" -
Oh, man, this one makes me drool. Very, very cool stuff. I think it is going to make me get very serious about making something for myself.



I also got a new paperback, "Firefly Lane" by a local author (and a NY Times Bestseller) Kristin Hannah. I have always enjoyed her books - but it looks like it will be a while before I'm sitting on the front porch to read...

Well, I'm off to finish my church newsletter, and tomorrow night is payroll - so I'll be busy for the next few days. Have a great weekend.

Bored, oh, I'm bored!

We went to town today! First time I've been out of the house since Tuesday (seriously) Friday was so awful The Shepherd didn't even leave the house except to feed the critters.

We've had Chinook Winds since Friday afternoon tho, and the snow is GOING AWAY!!!

The British Columbian First Nations People have a legend that tells of a girl named Chinook-Wind, who married Glacier, and moved to his country in the far north. She pined for her warm sea-home in the southwest, and sent a message to her people. They came to her in a vision in the form of snowflakes, and told her they were coming to get her. They came in great number and quarreled with Glacier over her, but they overwhelmed him and she went home with them in the end (Leaving him to melt away in his tears, I guess - Wikipedia didn't tell any more of the story)

The Chinook (pronounced shinook - Chinook is a Pacific Northwest Indian word meaning 'snow-eater') winds can be explained with lot of meteorological mumbo jumbo - but basically they are warm winds that come out of the south (they have been known to raise the temperature from minus 54 degrees F. to plus 49 degrees F. in less than 24 hours (Loma Montana in 1972) - That's 103 degrees, folks - Chinook winds are not to be sneezed at (although they are tied to migraine headaches) - We can hear them coming - they literally roar across Bellingham Bay and for 12 hours yesterday it sounded like a jet plane was sitting on our roof, with the throttle open!. These warm winds can literally melt/evaporate a foot of snow overnight - which causes all kinds of havoc - urban flooding. roofs collapsing, etc.

So, all this free time has given me a chance to catch up on things like memes... here is the Eight Things meme that has been going around. So you can see a little into what makes my world go round...

My 8 favorite foods (not necessarily in order):
1 Mashed Potatoes
2 “Quality” Chocolate (dark is best)
3 Pop Corn (caramel or kettle corn best)
4 Tomato Basil Soup
5 Caesar salad
6 New York Steak
7 Arby’s Cherry Turnovers
8 French Onion Soup

8 Things I Did Today:
1 Slept ‘til 10:00 (hey, the sheep belong to The Shepherd, not me)
2 Took a shower
3 Checked my blog
4 Checked my email
5 Checked Miss Peach’s Blog
6 Went to town with The Shepherd, had lunch & got groceries
7 Watched NCIS marathon on TV
8 Washed the yarn for my last two Christmas hats (can anyone spell procrastinate?)

8 Favorite Stores:
1 Walgreens
2 PetCo
3 Haggen Foods
4 NW Handspun Yarns
5 Joanne Fabrics or Michaels Craft Stores
6 Village Books
7 Cresswell Boggs (a local gift store that is stupendous)
8 The Garden Spot

8 Favorite Restaurants:
1 Lorenzo’s (Mexican)
2 McDonalds
3 Café Akroteri (Greek)
4 Cliff House (local steak house)
5 The Hilltop (local family restaurant)
6 Panda Palace (Chinese, of course)
7 Hana Teriyaki
8 Applebee’s

8 Things I Look Forward To:
1 Days off from work
2 Weekends
3 Talking to my sisters on phone
4 Spring
5 Emails from friends
6 Comments on my blog
7 Black Sheep Gathering in June
8 Spinner Guild meetings

8 Things I Like To Do With Family:
1 Friday night dates with The Shepherd
2 Talk on the phone with my sisters
3 Talk on the phone with my nieces – “the Jennifers”
4 Parker’s Birthday party in September
5 Going to church with The Shepherd
6 Shopping with my sisters
7 Get togethers at holidays to visit
8 Go to “The Ranch”

8 Things on My Wish List:
1 Win Publisher’s Clearing House (no purchase necessary)
2 Retire in comfort
3 Get my left knee replaced
4 The book “Wrapped in Crochet” (actually that’s almost off the wish list since I ordered it yesterday from my book club)
5 A Maid
6 A new camera (but the old one still works great, so I can’t justify it)
7 A new car (as much as I love the Jelly Bean, it is 18 years old)
8 Win the Lottery so I could buy out the neighbors and give The Shepherd more pasture.

Sorry H.B.

Well, sorry H.B., Santy Claws couldn't grant your request to take away the snow, in fact, old Mother Nature brought us 6 or 7 inches more last night. The Shepherd spent all Christmas morning shoveling out the driveway AGAIN.











The girls are a little perplexed - they have been locked up in the barn most of the past week, so what is all this white stuff all over the ground?














This little one has been supervising The Shepherd and keeping the seeds cleaned up in the greenhouse and around the hay storage.




Do, de, doot do. So, Danny, what kind of trouble shall we get into today?

Let's go check out the Deodara Cedar. It's branches are mighty tasty...






(click to biggify this picture to see the thought process going on here)








Wait, I'm just trying to shake the snow off the branches....

Happy First day of Winter

Ok, so I'm a few hours early, but we have gotten more than our share of an early share of winter here in the Pacific NW - the temps have not been above 30 degrees for the past 10 days - mostly hovering around 20 degrees. I am not too fleet of foot anyhow, and snow adds so much excitement to walking. Plus, Crocs do not lend themselves to walking in the snow very well, and when I tried on my old snow boots - too small - so I'm stuck with the Crocs!

Nonetheless to say, I have been sticking pretty close to home, but here are some pictures that The Shepherd has taken around our place in the past couple of days.

I have the best husband in the world. He keeps the porch and steps cleaned of snow and the paths cleaned off.








H.B. & Buddy aren't too sure about all this white stuff - and what happened to our water bucket???
































Sinda says - "Wake me when it's over. It's too cold to go outside and the valet is not too good about cleaning out my litter girls box!



























Speaking of water buckets -see that little red spot in the middle of this seemingly black & white landscape? If you click on this picture to biggify it, you will find that it is Danny and Taylor's water bucket - they will not leave them alone, and seem to think that they are soccer balls - at one time they had two buckets and a feed bowl out in their yard.










The Shepherd didn't even have to shovel out this walkway in the front of the house - the wind did it for him.














The art forms that Mother Nature comes up with are really fun and beautiful.
























There are severe weather warnings posted right now for the whole Pacific Northwest - they are expecting anywhere from 2 - 12 inches of snow between here and the southern part of the state, plus winds up to 70 miles per hour in some areas.

The Shepherd, who is also The Minster of Music (really) for our church has been on the phone with the president of the congregation and the minister - We will probably have to postpone our Christmas service that was planned for tomorrow night. We have a lot of older members, and if the "younger" members (that would be us) don't want to be out on the snow and ice in this kind of weather - we certainly don't want these older folks out on the roads. The message will be just as pertinent next Sunday.