It has been quite the winter, wonderful for those of us who love snow. There has been, to put it mildly, lots of snow. Just look at how this season's snowfall has compared to average snowfall amounts:
| This season | Average | |
|---|---|---|
| December | 30.7" | 21.1" |
| January | 42.8" | 24.6" |
| February | 19.4" so far | 16.8 |
We've had 96.1 inches of snow, so far this season. And, maybe even more exciting, it has stayed with us - day after day of crystalline splendor. On Christmas, the snow depth was 5 inches. It had increased to 23" by January 26, and the lowest it's been since then was 21". Yesterday the depth was 27."
The Sunday before Christmas, we had an ice storm. Church was delayed one hour, and we just held Sacrament meeting. We had two Sundays in January when church was canceled completely (Jan 5, when we got 10 inches, and January 26, when the whole area was under a storm warning).
Of course, to keep that snow around requires cold, and we've had that as well. It's been cold - bitterly cold. Schools were closed multiple times, because of dangerously low wind chills.
Just yesterday we got another 5" of snow, and the windchill hovered around 0 degrees. But today, there's a change in the air - the temperature made it to 42 degrees! I shoveled a new path for Bonnie, and with the warmer temps, anything left on that pavement quickly dried up.
I'm sure we'll continue to see a mix of cold and warm, snowy and dry weather. But I think the end of winter is in sight. So let me bore you with some photos of the marvelous snow - but not too many (I hope), since I'm packing this into one blog post!
This is a typical scene - gray with snow:
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| December 17, North on Piccadilly |
Bonnie has always been game to just plow through the snow. There was a long stretch when we had to give up on the park, when the snow was just too deep, but here we were still managing:
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| December 18 |
This photo was taken the day of the ice storm, which caused our delay in starting church. The main roads were so-so, and the rest of the roads were an absolute mess. But the trees were beautiful!
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| December 22, the field at Drake and Croyden |
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| Frays Park, December 22 |
There were lots of days like this, as well, with brilliant blue sky:
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| Beautiful sky on Christmas Eve |
We had friends over for dinner on Christmas Eve, and managed to take No Pictures. But I did get a picture of Jim:
Jim and I drove to Indiana on Christmas Day, to John and Angela's home. We enjoyed the day with Karen & Vic and the rest of the growing VanderRoest clan (even though we managed, again, to take No Pictures). Driving home, we followed several horse-drawn carriages for quite a while. The roads were a bit dicey, so we just relaxed and took our time and enjoyed the scenery.
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| Christmas Day |
This is one of my favorite scenes, when walking Bonnie. There's usually not much traffic on Highgate, and the trees lining the road give it such a pleasant atmosphere. (And they hold the snow so well!)
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| January 5, Highgate |
Another sunny day, but still plenty of snow. We'd had thirteen inches of snow over a couple days. Our dead-end street is not very high on the priority list for plowing, but the street looks pretty tidy here!
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| January 8 |
Our street dead ends at the park, and lots of snow gets pushed and piled there. If you look closely, you can just barely seen the yellow "Road Ends" sign peeking out from the snow:
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| January 10 |
With the park fairly impassable, Bonnie and I took to walking down Canterbury, Donnington, Dunhill, and Greenway - the streets on our side of the park. Bonnie didn't really like this plan, but realized she had to play along. In this picture, we'd gotten a fresh 10 inches of snow over a couple days.
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| January 26, Donnington |
Here's a view from behind the breezeway, showing the path we shoveled for Bonnie, as well as the snow hanging down from our roof. Happily, we haven't seen any icicles this season (we must have finally added enough insulation to the attic).
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| January 28 |
For a while, Bonnie's outdoor adventures were limited to this path. When the wind chill was at its worst, we had to forgo her walks, and we'd only let her out for a minute or two.
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| January 28 |
Another of my favorite scenes: this is 7th Street, just north of West Main, by the vet's office. I always feel like I'm on a country lane here.
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| February 3 |
Finally, enough people traversed the park that there was a path packed into the snow (albeit a rather winding path). It was narrow, and while Bonnie did fine, I struggled. It was narrow, so a misstep would land me in 24" of snow that was not packed at all - quite a workout!
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| February 8 |
All this snow certainly put us in the mood for watching the Olympic games - although Bonnie really seemed unimpressed:
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| February 9 - watching the Olympics |
We realized we had no photos of people in this snow - so here is a token person (me). We pay Dutch to plow out our driveway, but we shovel the bit of pavement in front of the breezeway, as well as a path out back for Bonnie. Behind me is the pile of accumulated snow from shoveling that "bit" - it almost fills the area enclosed by that fence, and is about as tall as that fence.
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| February 10 |
More snow and blue sky. I drove out to PNC's campus facility one day, and took this picture in the parking lot by building C.
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| February 12 |
What nice photos of my two favorite residents of Canterbury Avenue! And our niece Kali makes a charming model for the hitchhiker. I know how hard you worked on that and am glad it turned out so well. Surely she will cherish it!
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