Baby, It's Cold Outside! Brrrrrrrrrrr...

The sky is as clear as can be.  The sun is shining brightly.  The ground, and all that is on it, is swathed in white.  Roof lines are dripping icicles.  It's really, really cold outside.  It's winter.

I love living where there are four seasons.  This winter has had its own special charms but it's easy to see that it comes with a price.  For all it's beauty, the snow will eventually melt.  Things that are white now will turn a dingy gray or worse.  The run-off will result in flooding.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that our basement will continue to be the dry basement we've come to expect and love.  The bit of ice you see below is what has dropped off the roof onto plant stakes.  Imagine that accumulation all along the eaves.  We've already sprung a leak along the valley between the original house and the addition.  I can only imagine how much worse it will be when this all starts to melt in earnest.

On the other hand, this is the view from my living room window.  Peaceful.  Quiet.  Clean.  I've only trudged through this a couple of times to refill the bird feeders.  They are enjoyed not only by the birds but also by the various critters who are brave enough to venture out now and again.  Squirrels mostly.  No one enters my yard without leaving a track.  The neighborhood cats, those pesky squirrels, a dog or two.  All have left prints.  And then there are those I can't identify. 



The chair below sits on our deck.  In the twenty years we've lived here, I've never seen our deck so buried.  That chair has never been so deep in snow.

The portion of the deck below is a bit protected by trees and a trellis.  Still, you can see the snow has accumulated here, too.

Below's a good example of the ice before I knocked it off.  I don't think we would have avoided the ice dam this year no matter what but I sure wish we had made sure that the gutters were clean and the valleys swept.

I am definitely looking forward to spring but in the meantime, a homemade soup, some warm cornbread from the oven, a glass of wine, a fire in the fireplace, good music and good company are all mine to enjoy, here and now.