I Spy---- the first real snow!!

The first appreciable snowfall 27 Nov 2013

And so it begins! 2013's snow season. I hope we get some great snow for pictures but not enough to interfere with travel in February or early March ;-) It certainly looks pretty this morning.

I have finished my "baby sewing" for now. I did a little I Spy quilt and offer a couple of pics of it for WIP Wednesday even though I FINISHED it last night- TUESDAY. It COULD be better . This is not my bag so much any more and I forget some of the tricks but , all in all, I like it and KNOW it will provide lots of cuddle and fun in years to come.

Here is the front

It is certainly bright and cheery!

Closeup of some of the fabrics used. What jolly fun!!!

And the back

I am going to post this to the needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.com. I hope you enjoy all of the posts there this week. It is getting close to Christmas so it will be harder and harder to get things done to post . Enjoy the bounty this week!

A gorgeous Canadian winter day

We have not had a storm like this for five years- or so "they" say. When we went to bed last night , after midnight, there was not a flake on the ground. I was up around 3AM and there was about 1/2 an inch. This morning... a good foot! It is cold. The snow is dry and fell hard in tiny flakes so it is REAL snow. LOVE IT! It has now started to blow so DH may have to be out again .

Cannot get this one to go to a sensible spot. Grrr! Why does that happen?? Anyway, DH blowing the snow out of our driveway.

DH in his snowblowing suit.

Way out of order but the BACK of DH.

If you look carefully, you can see the partial depth of snow at the end of the driveway. 

Early this morning, DH out feeding "his " birds. He fed the squirrels too and swept the deck between feedings. At that time, it was falling at about an inch an hour.



The Plough pushed a huge  roll of snow across the driveways - three feet high, five feet wide. GREAT fun blowing THAT out!

OK, has anyone else had this trouble with Blogger? I cannot return to regular text after captioning a photo and I cannot select my pics in proper order.

Bit of snow at last

Well, at long last, we FINALLY got a bit f snow. This post is especially for Monika K-W. Just to show you that we DO still get a bit of snow here on the shores of beautiful Lake Ontario. This week's WIP- for DH , at least, will be to clear the driveway so we can get out into the world.

Three minutes after I took this little picture out our front door- with the snow freezing my slippered toes- the plow came by and plowed a lovely fat roll of icy snow and stray gravel onto our driveway! At least our road was paved last summer so the amount of gravel will be minimal. Poor DH!!

The best thing about the snow is that we have many cardinals- both male and female, finches of all sorts, , sparrows (naturally) and- of course- the SQUIRRELS- black, grey and red.They are a ravenous horde at the back door feeders. Soon the deck will be patterned with all kinds of little prints from different hungry hordes. At the moment, it is still pristine- gorgeous!

So, yes, Monika- we DO get snow. This fell in a very few hours and it started out on a bright green canvas of bare grass so not bad for one short storm. Enjoy the weather and be careful shovelling! Too cold to make snowmen :-( Maybe next time !

I am posting this to needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.com   I have just checked the site and there are no posts for this week. We shall see when this does finally get posted. Meanwhile , hope the regular bloggers enjoy it !

AND NOW, HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL AS WELL!

The last post ( today!)

Here I am again! I have doodled all the doo dah day!Too darned addictive! Luckily I never tried drinking or gambling :-)I'd be doomed. On a serious note, I see some great potential for cool free motion quilting. We shall see.
AND, we have had an Alberta Clipper dump an inch or so of sticky snow, the sort that looks GORGEOUS!

Snowy garden

The getaway!

Look! A squirrel eating Finial!

Hairraising finish!

Benign morning sunrise on 14 Jan, 2011- very close to TN, KY border.

Parking lot at Wendy's, Geneva OH, later that evening! The snow was starting to mount up!

 We drove through fierce white outs, white-knuckled, as huge transport trucks hurtled past us, seemingly oblivious to the storm.

At long last, at Austinburg, OH, we took a hotel room for the night. The snow had eased  up by the time I took these pictures of the freshly plowed parking lot. The roads had not been plowed AT ALL! I was VERY glad to be inside, warm and dry at last.

The parking lot this morning (15 Jan) and brilliant blue sky. The gods seemed to be laughing at us all for our cowardice.

We headed back out onto the interstate this morning and the evergreens were PACKED with driven snow.

All along the highway until well after Erie, PA, the scenery was like a Russian fairytale! Magical, pure white, brilliant sky - and DRY ROADS- an American fairytale!

There IS, however, beauty in the bellow of the blast!  We thank heaven that we were alright and that we had a good sleep. Today's drive was a cakewalk.

Cold Morning

Zowie! Suddenly, it is winter, almost snowless but ccc c cold! It is -14c at our back door and there is no snow cover to protect the garden. Thankfully, most of what I grow is hardy.This spindly little Rhododendron at the front door is my barometer. Look at the little leaves , quilled tightly to prevent moisture loss and freezing. As soon as it warms up, they will unfurl and look pretty again.

Here is my other favourite weather shot! This is right out the back door into the north corner of the garden and it has been shot over and over again in all sorts of weather. Look! Little or no snow. Devoid of animals,((but the bird feeders are full) The garden in general looks deserted, sere and miserable. What joy when spring comes and everything turns lush and green and flowery out there again. We shall enjoy each day though, in spite of and because of the weather. Good weather for starting things up in the arty department again after a Christmas lull.

First snow

It snowed yesterday for the first time this year. It was just those little hard pellets we sometimes get and it did not stay on the ground. It sounds like they have some north of here though.

I am sick today with a horrid cold. We are NOT amused! I have been trying to concentrate on sewing but to little avail.It seems the thing I am most fixed on is my kleenex box: ( Boo!

The back garden is pretty bare now. We can see right through to the escarpment in some spots.Some oak leaves persist and there are a couple of Maples still burning gold but with polka dots of black Tar Spot fungus. Does anyone else feel like this pestilence has only appeared in recent years? I want to talk to some REALLY old people, even older than I , and ask if this is a new phenomenon.

Has anyone else noticed how prolific the wild grape is this year? Does that mean we are in for a wild winter? I guess we will have to wait and see. There are places in the countryside round here where wild grape hangs in huge blue-black curtains. I need to get some pictures.It is also time to start collecting more pictures of the skeletal remains of the summer of 2011. This is all that is left now of my hydrangea, Endless Summer. Too bad.