Even though I am not proud of this particular snow sculpture, I wanted to show you that I actually did go out yesterday and build this little squirrel. You probably could not identify it as such if I hadn’t told you what it was, right? I have to admit that I did not take a lot of time in its creation.

I tried to make the tip of the tail curl outward but it kept falling off.

My Snow Bear was much better a few years back. Take a look.

My father was the master snow sculpture person. I spent a good hour this morning going through the old family photos looking for one in particular. I finally found it at the very bottom of the last stack of photos. Here it is:

The back of the photo says that my father created “The Masterpiece” on May 22 (?) 1951. It must have been a late spring snowstorm or the date stamp is incorrect! I call her the Snow Lady. She must have been huge by the looks of her. (In more ways than one.)

He also created an igloo for my sister and me one year out of a huge snowdrift. We’ve both looked high and low for that photo, but it seems to have gone missing somehow over the years. A shame, that.

I’ll try and do a better job with our next packable snow. Until then the Snow Squirrel will probably be used as a leg-lifting post for Alex.

He came while we were sleeping. Softly. Stealthily. The visitor wrapped our world in a blanket of wooly white.

Our visitor, if you already haven’t guessed, was Mr. Snow. I hate it when he visits when I can’t watch. It’s like looking under the Christmas tree and finding the packages already open.

First thing I did was start a fire in the wood stove. There were red embers left from the log we put in just before going to bed last night, so getting the fire going was easy. When I looked up I saw its fiery reflection in the sliding glass door and snapped this photo.

At first glance the snow looks fluffy and inviting.

That was before I went outside to shovel.

That fluffy, oh-so-inviting-looking snow was actually about 5 to 6 inches of wet cement! Ugh! Snow is sometimes better appreciated from inside the house looking out, sitting around a nice little cheery fire.

As I shoveled (mostly pushing) it off the deck it was rolling itself into solid little balls. An idea immediately formed in my head. Something made from packed, rolled snow.

I am thinking a snow creature is in my future today. Stay tuned.

(photos: top; Snow Fire: bottom; Deck Steps)

Over the weekend we had fog. Pea soup. The trees loomed eerily out of the gray mist like lost soldiers that forgot where they were marching to or from.

The air oozed wetness. Drip. Drip. Drip.

Best to stay inside and finish our Christmas puzzle we started over New Year’s next to the cozy wood fire in the sun room. Not that it was that cold outside, because it really wasn’t. Just very damp.

Last night we were sitting there watching TV and heard it raining hard. Not predicted by our local weatherman either. This morning there was a tiny tiny spritz of snowflakes on the deck.

Tonight we’re supposed to get a predicted 1-3 inches of snow.

So, there you have it. New Jersey weather in a nutshell.

(photo: Out the Window)

Please join me in waving good-bye to the old, tired look of my membership-only blog! Bye-Bye, old ‘new’ Jersey Girl!

Welcome to the NEW ‘new’ Jersey Girl! I am now public again instead of by membership only. I hope you like the new & updated look to go along with my new chapter of blogging in 2013.

The content will remain the same as will the photography. I will be adding a weekly shot taken with my Lytro camera and I have not as yet determined what day of the week that will be.

You might notice the addition of a couple of different tab links at the top of the main blog photo. You can now click on “Weather” and be directed to our in-house weather station which will give you a view out our side window and also tell you the weather statistics as they are at that moment of your visit.

You can also click on the “Recipe” link and be taken directly to our cache of recipes that you can browse at your leisure.

Give them a try!

The “Archives” link will take you back to all the blog posts since the blog began in 2006. Some of these archival posts also show up in the right margin under “On This Day” and will show you any post I wrote on the same day of any given year. I always think it’s fun to look back and see what the weather was or what I was doing years ago. As always, the last years’ archives are also listed in the right margin, month by month.

Comment moderation is in place right now. I will turn on your comments on as quickly as I can. Old members of the private blog should be able to comment without comment moderation if they are logged in; otherwise you will need to go through the comment moderation process. It is not necessary to log in, but if you do your comment will show up immediately as the site will recognize you.

I hope you enjoy the new look and bear with me as we work out any kinks that might occur on your visit. Please let me know if you have any difficulties by clicking on “Contact Me” at the top of the blog.

Welcome aboard on my new journey!

(photo: Lost Glove: taken at Skylands)

I shot this photo of our pool cover after a heavy frost about a month or so ago before the snows came (and stayed). It looked like a smiley face to me. Or maybe the pool was taunting me (neh neh neh neh neh neh you can’t swim in me!) Either way, it caught my eye.

Hopefully this will be my last post before the new look for the blog will be revealed. We are getting so close! I’m so excited to have a new, fresh look. I can’t promise that the content will be new and fresh—just the daily life of a ‘new’ Jersey Girl as it unfolds day by day.

I did manage to go over to Skylands on Friday, but it was a rather disappointing trip. The constant freeze-thaw-freeze-thaw of our snowpack has left a solid sheet of ice in spots as I found out when I tried to go cross-country instead of keeping to the paved areas. I slipped my way to the slimy bullfrog pond only to find it with barely a covering of ice and looking very un-photographable. My next slippery stop was the koi and lily pad trench which I found out they drain completely in winter. Even the Duck Pond was boring as it was totally frozen over with a heavy sheet of ice and no reflections to be seen. I would have walked the loop but I didn’t have a hat on my head and a nasty little wind was blowing. I went home. This was the only shot I took the whole time.

With the warmer temperatures this weekend we hope to get down the Christmas decorations outside. I think the lights on the trees have unfrozen by now and the snow has shrunk enough to gather up the extension cords that are on the ground. I am tired of looking at them.

One of my amaryllis has a bud coming! I think it’s the oldest one of the three, and if so it will be its sixth year or so of blooming. It’s going to be a small one, but still—six years of consecutive blooms! The other two are still not showing any signs of a bud issuing forth but they still have nice green leaves. I was contemplating cutting them off with the thinking behind it of them putting all their energy into the leaves and not in producing a bud, but my master gardner neighbor Aileen nipped that idea in the bud (so to speak). She told me not to cut them. So, I guess I’ll wait and see what happens. I’ve treated them the same way I have every year so there should be no difference.

Next up: the big reveal!