The Big Chill

I feel kind of like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz -- "Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."  Wow, what a snowstorm!  It just stopped snowing here about an hour ago, so we had 24 straight hours of snow, at times mixed with sleet.

I can't pretend I didn't enjoy it -- I've been longing for a pretty snow this year.  

I was fortunate not to have to struggle out to work, and I knew that all my loved ones were safe.  But I know this snowstorm was a big aggravation for plenty of people, and we owe a big thank you to all the emergency services people who worked round the clock to help stranded drivers, repair power lines, drive the snow plows, respond to health emergencies, and monitor the weather changes on television, just to name a few.

If you're sick to death of the white stuff this winter, you might want to come back in a few days.  :)  This is the first snow to actually stick on the ground that we've had in three winters, so we had to get some pictures.

    

We live on a cul-de-sac, and this is looking down to the bottom of our street.

...and at the top of our block.

My little bird bath is made of stone; I turn it on its side before the first frost to prevent it filling up with water, then freezing and cracking.

This picture came out blurry, but I love the effect.

This big mess bunch of branches you see here is called Cotoneaster.  We had it planted about ten years ago, and it has flourished gone wild.  I was following a landscaping plan that I found in a regional gardening book.  I would not recommend planting this anywhere near your house.  No explanation needed when you look at these pictures.

You can see it in this picture, too.  This spring I'm going to have to cut it way back, and we may get it removed altogether.  There's a nice holly tree at the lower right corner of the house; you can see it in the previous picture, along with the leafless branches of our David Austin "Gertrude Jekyll" rose.

The other shrubs are Cherry Laurels and 'Helleri' Japanese Hollies.  Our David Austin rose grows against the front of the house.  In the above picture, we're viewing the house through a very old Redbud tree at the top corner of our front yard.  It still blooms every spring, but it's become very misshapen, so it needs to come down too.

The Tulip Magnolia has buds on it.

Our bird feeders out back -- these are the ones we can see from our kitchen and den windows.

We were able to capture some decent birds pictures today.

The Tufted Titmouse...

...and the beloved Blue Bird.

He's adorable, yes?  :-D

Those pictures were taken through the screen porch, so that's why there are so many dots.  But there's also snow mixed in, and the white stuff at the bottom of the pictures is snow.

In yesterday's post, I mentioned that we had seen some Dark-eyed Juncos, and I had to borrow a picture from Wikipedia.  Today, we took some of our own pictures of the Junco in our Tulip Magnolia tree.

...a female cardinal in our Sweetgum tree.

In flight...

Don't those little spiky gumballs look like ornaments hanging on the Christmas tree?  The snow even makes our Sweetgum tree look pretty.  :)

This picture isn't very sharp, but it was the best we could get in a hurry.  This is one of the many little Carolina wrens that live here around our house.  He's so puffed up, he looks like a brown tennis ball with feet and a pointed beak.  :)

These pictures are looking out our living room window at the front of the house.  One of our Red-bellied Woodpeckers.  I think he's so cute -- I call him "The Big Guy."  :)

The birds left some little tracks on our front porch.

I love this garden bunny -- I'm thinking about cleaning him up and putting him on our hearth this spring and summer.

The birds and I thank you for your visit today.  :)  We're always glad for you to stop in.

We'll be partying with:
The Tablescaper for Seasonal Sundays
Mary for Mosaic Monday
Cindy for Amaze Me Monday
Marty for Inspire Me Tuesday

Denise