Tag: snow

ODE TO FOUR SEASONS – BY ELLIN CURLEY

Winter generally sucks in New England. But for me, there is also a bright side.

I love wearing my favorite winter sweaters. I love boots and I feel very fashionable when I can wear high boots over my jeans. Another thing I look forward to in winter is coats and scarves. I have a terrific wardrobe of colorful, textured scarves, many purchased at craft shows over the years.

So I’ve established that I like the variety of clothes that seasons provide. I would get sick of wearing the same clothes all year. If I lived in Florida or California, in order to get variety, I’d probably spend a fortune each year buying clothes. Now I spend very little on clothes because the four seasons (really three – winter summer and in between) give me ample variety in my wardrobe.

Another reason I don’t mind winter – once I’ve put on my beautiful outerwear,it’s not all that cold outside. People talk about the horrors of winter as if you had to go outside everyday wearing nothing more than your pajamas!

Snow is wonderful if you’re dressed to play in it and enjoy its beauty.

I have to confess that I’m not a heat lover or a sun worshipper. In fact, I get physically ill in severe heat. For me, it’s worse when it’s very hot than when it’s very cold. I can’t protect myself from the heat outside by taking off more clothes. I can only go down to tee-shirt and shorts or a bathing suit without getting arrested for indecent exposure. If I’m still roasting in those outfits, I’m screwed. But in winter, you can always put on more sophisticated winter wear. For example, you can put on ski clothes and go out and ski down a mountain in the freezing cold.

So I hate heat and can dress appropriately to stay warm in cold weather. What else do I like about having seasons? The variety itself enhances my life. I appreciate spring and summer because I live through fall and winter. I don’t take green trees and flowers for granted because I live through colored leaves, bare trees and the winter wonderland of snow-covered landscapes. I wouldn’t want to live in winter 12 months of the year any more than I want to live in summer all year round.

But for the three months winter lasts, I can appreciate what it has to offer. For example, we often have a fire going on winter nights. I love that. My husband and I enjoy our Jacuzzi more in winter. Friends seem to have more time to come over and hang out with us in the winter. I think it’s because they’re not outside doing whatever they do in summer (play golf, swim, take long walks, go on hikes, work in their gardens, etc.)

I’m lucky that I really love where I live and don’t dream of moving elsewhere. If I did move, it would probably be to another place that has seasons. I just can’t imagine a life without watching the leaves turn red, yellow and orange.

I can’t imagine a life without getting to watch grass grow, flowers bloom and leaves suddenly come out on trees, every single year. I can’t imagine everything in my environment staying the same, stagnant, year in and year out. Maybe it’s a lack of imagination on my part, but I’m happy dealing with a world that changes four times a year.

CEE’S WHICH WAY PHOTO CHALLENGE – Marilyn Armstrong

Cee’s Which Way Photo Challenge o4/17/2018

As I think – hope! – we are finally moving out of the end of winter slump into warmer days, perhaps this is a good time to show the roads of April. Good, not so great, and holy moly!

The invisible highway
Under the bridge on the Pike
And also, heavy traffic
Sweet sunset and home again

THE AMAZING CHANGING SEASONS: APRIL 2018 – Marilyn Armstrong

The Changing Seasons: April 2018

Speaking of changing, what a month! For that matter, what a couple of months this has been. Crazy weather.

The Nice Weather Gallery

Garry put Fred Flamingo back up in the garden
it’s going to be a big year for day lilies.

Not that crazy isn’t an inherent part of our New England weather. The northeastern piece of this continent has weather that is utterly unpredictable, especially as winter tries to turn into spring and generally fails.

Good morning little red finch!

Typically, we get winter. Then we get the end of winter which is like winter with occasional warmer days sandwiched between cold ones.

The Not Nice Weather Gallery

I suppose what has made this “spring” particularly difficult has been the cold. By this time of year, I’m usually turning down the heat, opening the windows. Cleaning out the garden. Getting excited about daffodils and glorying in the yellowness of forsythia.

As of right now, we have no flowers. We have had crocuses and they were lovely and we have a lot of growth — the beginning of what I fondly believe will be flowers in a couple of weeks. Maybe even less. But as of right now? It’s the end of the winter. Freezing temperatures at night, warming into the high forties or low fifties in the middle of the day.

Snow along the road

And then there were the super storms. We are not on the seashore, so we didn’t get the kind of battering people living closer to the ocean have gotten. During the past ten years, we’ve gotten giant storms, often stretching from coast-to-coast or taking up most of the Atlantic Ocean.

The scientists dealing with climate change believe these super storms are prime indicators of climate change.  It’s not that we don’t get strange weather in New England, but rarely do we get three super storms with hurricane-level winds in less than two weeks. With snow and rain and sleet and flooding.

Almost daffodils

It’s sort of like the weather we have always gotten multiplied by a factor of five. Very intense weather packed tightly together.

We will have spring and in many places, today was the day it seemed to show up. It was love here today. Blue skies, moderate weather and the song of the Carolina wren can be heard all around the property.

Christmas cactus ready to bloom again

Tomorrow, there will be rain and wind — but after that, I think we will have a few days of spring and then it will be summer. I’m hoping I can get down to clean up the garden before the flowers open. It’s really hard to rake when the day lilies are blooming and the roses are rampant in the garden.

A DRIVE THROUGH EVERY KIND OF WEATHER – Marilyn Armstrong

Cee’s Which Way Photo Challenge – April 13, 2018

We took a long drive through sleet and snow and rain and traffic jams. Considering it was April and not January, this was an awful lot of weather for such a relatively short journey.

These are some of the pictures. Are you impressed? You should be. It was a hell of a drive!

THE STRANGEST WEATHER OF ANY APRIL – MARILYN ARMSTRONG

Traveling from Massachusetts to Connecticut and Back Again –
Cee’s Which Way Photography Challenge

It really has been a totally wacko week for weather here in the upper northeastern quadrant of this continent.

On the road again …
Snowing!

We drove down to Connecticut on Friday. When we left the house, it was snowing lightly. By the time we got to the Mass Pike, it was snowing a lot more than that and a few miles down the road, it was close to a whiteout.

Route 320
Icy windshield

As we crossed the border into Connecticut, it changed to heavy rain … and as the miles past, it became cloudy and the rain went away.

Remi, Garry, Tom and sunshine

By the time we got to Tom and Ellin’s house, the sun was out.

Coming home at sunset

We drove home today in relatively mild weather with a bright blue sky.

APRIL FOOLS – THE SUDDEN SNOW

I was all ready to write about the return of the red finches and the day lilies pushing up their greenery into the warmer — but not yet really warm — spring air.

Good morning little red finch!

So, it snowed. It was supposed to be “a dusting” and I suppose it was, sort of. A very heavy dusting that was prevented from being a lot more than that because the ground was warm and it didn’t stick on the roads and walks.

Still, it was a bit of a shock. None of the meteorologists said anything about snow for this area and what little they said was “No big deal, don’t worry about it folks. Spring is here.”

From the kitchen …

It is  now almost 2 o’clock and the snow stopped. It is already gone from the trees and I’m sure it will be gone tomorrow, unless we get one more little surprise.

Meanwhile, though, the red finches are back and I think they are planning to nest right in front of the window.

From the dining room …

This would make for some really great photography, except that the window isn’t very clean because there’s no way to get to the outside without a two-story ladder — and we don’t have one. Someone stole ours a couple of years ago and it turns out, ladders are expensive.

From the living room …

So. Getting a reasonably sharp shot of the birds is difficult. I got two pretty good ones out of the more than forty I shot. The others were too blurry. Maybe a different lens? When birds show up, I tend to use whatever camera is nearest at hand, but this may call for something a bit more specialized.

In the meantime, please enjoy our entirely unexpected snow and a very pretty red finch!

THE GREAT SNOWS OF MARCH

A Photo a Week Challenge: Nature’s White

From Nancy Merrill: IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A NEW PHOTO OR TWO (OR MORE) FEATURING WHITE AS FOUND IN NATURE.

We’ve had an overdose of white around here this month. Three major snowstorms in less than two weeks and a few minor ones. Luckily, at this point in the year, the sun is quite strong, so most of it has melted quickly.

It is still cold. Until we are solidly inside April, we could get more of that white stuff. Not yet time to put the boots and overcoats away.

I have pictures of April blizzards from earlier years. I’m hoping this is not one of those years.

Icy rocks