24 Hours In

Snow?

What?

No snow....

Just lots of sleet

and freezing rain bending over the trees

even the little trees

big trees without leaves seem o.k.

this Mutabilis rose bush looks a bit cold

Hurry, quick... Mom's got the camera on me now.

Weatherman says we will see 70 hours below freezing this time. Brrr.  Again, this seems a bit early.

Tucking It All Away

My neighbor has switched out her "Happy Holidays" for these lucky paper cranes. (I am happy to see the "Happy Holidays" trinket go as it was always askew.  I constantly felt the need to put a sticker under a corner to keep it from sliding. Yes, I am one of them.)

Echinacea - Christmas Eve - thinks it is time to bloom

My sweetie has an endless loop of college bowl games on which give me enough noise in the background to do a bit of tidying up for the new year. Didn't I here some one say "what ever you do on New Year's Day you will do all year long"? Probably not a chance of that happening for me.

Anyways, the ornaments, tree, various holiday dust collectors are all dusted and put away for another year. I have rearranged a pantry/bookshelf with cookbooks and dishware and moved the groceries to a new shelving unit to keep the loft kitchen all organized this year. Fertilized the indoor plants I have managed to torture enough to call alive. Laundry is in the works. Probably have to wait until tomorrow after work to run the vacuum as that may be a bit too noisy for the sweetie's entertainment.

12/25 -  4 pm, we officially had a White Christmas. 

 Hamlet, the happy dog.

 Echinacea - not so happy

The weather has been more on the cool side these days. Seems to be running below average per the weather reports.  Our snow lasted for quite awhile as we stayed below freezing for a couple days.  No snow now, nothing in the forecast.

 Shadow enjoying the sun

The sun has arrived this afternoon but with it came a cold west wind. The temp is higher but it feels colder somehow.

No new resolutions as I have decided to stick with last year's. Filter through the thousands of photos I have taken and organize them into something usable. I made a start last year but instead of organizing myself I just took less photos. Seems like a step backwards? I may not make any advancements this year as my sweetie gave me PS Elements for Christmas. (Yes, I am the last one left on the planet to get photo editing software.) First things first, get the loft tidy and then I will have no reason not to play!

Now, tell me, what did you do on New Year's Day?

Hope you have a wonderful and productive 2013.

Spotted things

 ladybug!

 

 ladybug!

 

 ok, you get the idea

 

had a bit of trouble with white fly as it has been so warm. 

looks like plenty of reinforcements have arrived to help.

 

 lacewing!

 

 aargh! cucumber beetle

 

another one =  not a good thing to spot

 

a light dusting of snow in the parking lot this morning. my whining is over.

hopefully the ladybugs are snug in the salad greens by now.

spotted anything good/bad today?

The Sun Came Out and Then It Got Very Quiet

It happened within a few minutes. I did not realize it at first. It is so very quiet.

The heater that has been blowing for days is finally still. No rain drops, sleet or heavy flakes hitting the windows (from any direction). No more flapping of a tarp over the now completely frozen contents of a greenhouse.

Scraping of icy car windows in the parking lot has ceased. The crunch of ice in the streets has become a soft slushing sound. The sirens and life-saving helicopters rushing to and from the hospitals nearby has diminished.



In the place of the harsh sounds of winter comes song. Little birds appeared on the utility lines overhead. There are more now in the tops of the trees. All chirping in the warm sun rays.


Soft trickles of melting snow and ice from overhangs creating little spatters on the melting sidewalks below. Our dogs are sprawled in bright pools of light hitting the floor of the loft.

It is very quiet.

Snowmen and Cactus - No Place But Texas!

(and a really cold kitty)

So, what is happening to Texas? It is Super Bowl Week, why is it so cold there? Hmmm, maybe because it's February? Granted it is Texas, we can be 100 degrees on February 2nd but many years February 6th brought an ice storm. In Fort Worth, we have not risen above 25 degrees F all week. Normal high is 57 degrees F.

Frozen in Fort Worth

Currently at 8:10 this morning my outdoor thermometer reads 19.5 degrees F. Winds NW at 30 mph. My greenhouse thermometer is reading 23.3 F and I am pleased as punch it is still standing.

When my sweetie got home (from working second shift) he came in the bedroom and quietly said, "What do we need to get out of the greenhouse?"

I immediately sit up. "The greenhouse? Why?"

"The NW wall is gone."

I could be a fireman, except I forgot my gloves. Got dressed and immediately spoke my plan of attack without even seeing the situation. Got outside to indeed see the wind and the sleet were working on downing the whole structure.

Got (what I previously thought was) a ginormous tarp out of the truck and my sweetie found some rope. (These things come in handy when you move so much.) Got the gaping wound of the greenhouse covered with the tarp and realized my fingernails felt as if they were going to come off.

I yell into the wind and run to find my gardening gloves. I realize my fingers are useless at this point and run upstairs to bath my hands in warm water until the feelings return. Back into the wind.

My sweetie, who is prepared with his gloves, has tucked the tarp under the strapping and has the south side secured. I help secure the bottom and we are done. Except, now the wind is circling around and beating the SE side pretty hard. (I will insert here -- this is all being done in 6" of mud and rain run-off from the loft roof.) Re-adjust and re-attach - at this point I say we are done.

It's not pretty, it's not warm, but it's still standing.

This is pretty much the view out our window today. Temps are still falling and the wind is howling.

Hope y'all stay, warm where ever you are.

UPDATE: 1:30 PM

Just saw this on the national news. Super Bowl party tent at the Cotton Bowl in Fair Park (Dallas) has collapsed. They are not certain if it was due to the storm winds or weight of the snow. My sweetie points out to me, "If the professionals had a tough time, you know it had to be a bad storm." My sweetie knows just what to say.

Update: 2/4/11 - Greenhouse is standing but one wall gone for good. Some what intact but plants are history. Temps have not been above 19 degrees since this posting started. The "dusting" of snow we were to receive last night was 7" here. Crazy weather. Warmer in Alaska.

(First) Snow of 2011

Came to the house to pick up more things. Cable is not installed at the loft yet and my sweetie must see his Eagles play. I looked out and saw the snow. Nothing really stuck and it was all over about 2 hours later. I understand the folks east of us will probably get the bulk of this storm.

Fort Worth saw snow 3 times last winter. Maybe there is more to come this year. I don't mind.

Snow Cactus (updated!)

My Schlumbergera sp. is blooming. Perhaps better known as Christmas cactus but today it will be called a "Snow cactus".

Weather map shows it is over me but all I am getting is slushy sleet.

View out the back door.

I put a little piece of wood out so I could focus on some of the falling bits. I may have to go up the hill later to actually see some snow. Our house is a bit lower elevation being closer to the river. My sweetie says to wait until the afternoon for some accumulation.

FYI - on this date in 1996 it was 97 degrees.

Perhaps I will have more to show later....

Later, about 1 p.m. ...
Snow!

No time for snow on Tuesday!

I have to work tomorrow so I can not take another road trip. The mere thought that snow would be creeping down close to "my" neck of the woods is pretty incredible. Weather guy says it will be pretty far west of New Braunfels, but I saw how well they predicted "no snow in Dallas" last week. (Got 3 inches!)

"No frozen precipitation past this line."


We will see, John, we will see....

Then for sports. We will be looking for a copy of this coming out for January.



True story. http://www.golfdigest.com/magazine/2010/01/toc