Finally! Snow.

I was beginning to think we were going to make it through another winter without a decent snow. My theory is if I have to put up with the cold I should at least get to enjoy one good snow each winter. Last Friday night it started sleeting about 8 PM, then snowed during the night. I awoke to five inches of dry snow covering the world and it was beautiful! We continued to get flurries off and on Saturday and then Sunday we got some additional sleet. Needlesstosay, it was a slick world come Monday when the temp got up to only 30 degrees F.

But now that it's gone my mind has turned to spring! I'm thinking about planting my garden and spending more time outdoors. I'm dreaming of dewy mornings, long sunny days and beautiful night skys. I suppose I always overdo it at this point. I kind of forgot it really isn't spring and ran around in my short sleeved tee yesterday until I realized it really wasn't warm at all. But the weatherman says we will see temps near 70 by week's end so maybe I'm not so far ahead afterall.

Crocus

After an early start to what appeared to be a winter with snow, it has instead been unseasonably warm and dry. We were some 15 inches behind in rainfall at the end of 2005. We finally got a decent rain in late January but it still hasn't been enough to lift the burn ban. Beaver Lake was about 15 feet below normal when I went out to see what interesting things had turned up where the water receded. Monte Ne's amphitheatre was close to half out of the water that day. It's been underwater since the lake was build in the 1960s, save one time in the late 70s when the water levels were very low. I've pretty much given up on the idea that we could get snow. It's not like it's really as much fun as it was growing up now anyway. If the roads are even moderately passable I still have to be at work. So I don't exactly get to play it in. But anyway, because it has been so warm, I've spent time working on the flowerbed out front and noticed that we have Crocus and Tulips up on the edge of the house where it's warm that shouldn't be up for weeks. Yet the last couple of nights the temps have gone back down and now the blooming Crocus look sad and frost bitten.