January 2026

Hi Friends!  How are you today?  I hope you're having a good 2026 so far.  We have snow and ice in our part of North Carolina today, and it really is quite lovely.  Hal and I have been hoping for a pretty snow for a few years now, so this is just perfect for us.  I know a large part of the country has been hit with a major winter storm, and we were quite nervous a few days ago, I can tell you.  The forecast was for lots of freezing rain, sleet, and snow.  We were out there with the rest of North Carolina stocking up on food, bottled water, and gasoline in the car.  The worst part of our forecast as of Thursday and Friday was a good chance of losing power and we were told that the power outages might be for an extended period.  I know a lot of people who enjoy a pretty snow, but I don't know any who wish for their power to go out, especially as cold as it was here for the last three days.  Bitter cold wind and temps. in the low 20's down into the teens.  We were extremely fortunate -- our power didn't so much as blink at all during the storm, so we stayed quite comfortable.  Today is actually very pleasant, but the cold temperatures are supposed to return starting tomorrow.  Here are some pics from our front porch this morning.  Notice the blue, blue sky out there, often the case after a big storm.   

I was so happy to see this morning that it looks like my pansies survived the wind, sleet, and snow from the weekend.  Keeping my fingers crossed they survive the upcoming cold temperatures this week.

My mom made the snowman wreath for me a few Christmases ago. 😊

In autumn of 2021, we had a long strip of enormous, old, unhealthy, and unattractive trees taken down along the side of our property.  That sparked another landscaping project of planting new, more decorative and trees around our yard.  At the back of our yard, we had someone plant ten arborvitae trees to make a sort of sight barrier between us and the unkempt vacant lot behind us.  The lot behind us is wooded, and parts of it are pretty, but naturally the part nearest us is not pretty.     

These trees were not quite as tall as me when first planted, and I'm short.     

We had a total of ten of these trees planted.  This was the way they looked in April 2022, and here's how they look now in January of 2026 --   

We were told when we purchased these trees that they would grow about two feet per year, and we haven't been disappointed.  They haven't all grown at exactly the same rate because of differences in amount of sunlight, and the deer munched on a few the first year.  We spray them with Liquid Fence now.   

The one on the right above is much smaller because it was shaded from the sunlight by this evil tree on our neighbors' property (of course) --   

  The tree in the picture above was much taller than this, and it was most definitely dead.  There was no living foliage on the branches for a few years, and during that time, it came down in bits and pieces.  Unfortunately, at that height those "bits and pieces" could have seriously injured or killed someone.  I worried and prayed a lot every time Hal or Will was mowing down there.  Sometime last year, Hal came home from swimming, and the whole top part of the tree had come down.  I hadn't noticed, and when he came in the house, he asked me if I had finally given the tree a good, hard kick. 😄   

It doesn't seem to be nearly as much of a menace now, at least I hope not.  Anyway, when the top of the tree fell, it smushed the arborvitae in front of it, and it cost us $1,500 to have someone cut up the tree trunk and branches and haul it off.  Now we have eight healthy arborvitaes, one stunted tree, and a gap in the middle.  Not sure what we want to do about the empty space.     

So that's it for my snow pictures, unless we get more.  We were so thankful to have kept our power on all through the storm, as did everyone in our family.  Were you affected by the big winter storm where you live?  I hope you've all stayed warm and well-fed.  Thanks so much for your visit today, and have a wonderful week!