Since our snow is basically gone now except for a few stray patches, I am ready to move on to the next season. The dogs aren’t quite as happy as we are about the changing weather. They miss their snow! Therefore, the iceberg that is still on the pool cover draws their attention. Here is Alex chilling out.

The other day I looked out to see all three of them laying on the icy pool cover. Of course by the time I got the camera out they had moved on to other things.

We finally got the last of our Christmas decorations down over the weekend. I can hardly believe this was pretty much our first chance since the day after Christmas. Last weekend the snow was gone but it was raining. But, it’s done now and good riddance! No more red-bowed wreaths over the windows. No more net lights on the dwarf Alberta spruces. No more outdoor extension cords. All gone and packed away.

The flooding has crested here now. Our closest mall, Willowbrook Mall, is under water and closed. Our TJ MAXX store that was flooded and closed for most of the year last year is now closed again. I don’t know if they will have to completely gut the store like they did last year or not. I was just thinking about going there when I was down that direction last week and then decided not to. I guess I should have since I haven’t been in it since they reopened! We are expecting nearly another inch of rain on Wednesday. I don’t know that will impact the current situation but it certainly won’t help it any.

Our weather has been cloudy and dreary, seemingly so for the past several months. Our temperatures have at least risen to the 40’s (and if we’re lucky we’ll hit 50), but it’s a chilly and damp 40—not a warm one. We managed to grill steaks outside last night but it wasn’t really grilling weather.

The trees have not budged since releasing their catkin pods. All it would take is a little warmth and I think they’d start popping. Goodness knows, they’ve certainly had enough water!

I am so ready to move on! Ready to put my fig tree back outside. Ready to retire Johnny to the back yard and get him out of the garage. Ready to take drives in Mia. Ready to go to the farmer’s market in Warwick on Sundays. Ready. Ready. Ready!

How do you spend a rainy Sunday?

Try sticking your feet out (similar to putting your feet up) and taking a snooze like Sam.

Make a delicious Salad Lyonnaise for lunch. (Made with fresh croutons from bread baked on Saturday.)

Simmer a tomato sauce that will be used in your dinner.

Play Alan Wake on the Xbox 360 and finish it.

Enjoy a fireside (and much needed) massage. Sorry, no photo of that ...

Sit down to a dinner of braised lamb shanks with parmesan polenta, just right for a rainy day! Yum, yum, yum!

Mother Nature is a fickle sort. She’s been toying with us. Saturday was a pretty nice day for a change and I was able to get out and do a few things in the yard that needed to be done.

Yesterday and overnight we had 2.6 inches of snow-melting-get-rid-of-that-damned-old-snow rain. The weather was warm-ish yesterday, topping the chart at around 58 degrees F, but still we had a fire going to keep the dampness away. Sometimes it was just a gentle rain, but at others it was a downpour. The dogs did not want to go out. Every time they went to the door and I opened it, they just turned around and looked up at me as if to say I am NOT going out in that and turned around and walked away. This morning I awoke to a covering of snow and it was still lightly snowing at 29 degrees F. Just when we were looking at bare ground! Our new little white cover won’t last, but still, forward progress was temporarily thwarted.

March can never seem to make up its mind.

Fresh covering of snow on my deck this morning with morning shadows and dog prints. Yesterday was the first day it was completely clear of all snow and ice.

This lovely herd of deer marched single file just outside our fence this weekend. They were having a rather slow go through the crusty snow. ‘Enough snow,’ they seemed to say. ‘We can’t find anything to eat in this frozen wasteland!’ The flick of their white tails were the only signs that they could hold up.

But it seems to have worked! We had some good thawing happening over the weekend. A little bit or rain helped with the melting process. And sun! And temperatures in the high 30’s! Woohoo!

Aren’t they lovely? We counted 18 deer in all. I’ve never seen such a big herd here before.

Actually we would not have seen them at all if it weren’t for Bella. She was on the deck and started barking. I always take note when she barks just in case it’s something interesting. Sometimes it’s only Finn (the dog across the street) out in his front yard that she carries on a long-distance conversation with quite frequently, but other times it could be deer ... or a bear.

The snow since our ice storm has been unbearable. With a hard crust on the top of about an inch, you either slid along the surface or broke through. Not knowing if the snow was going to hold your weight or not, it was next to impossible to walk anywhere in the yard. When I went out on the deck to fill the bird feeders I had to hold onto something so I wouldn’t slip and fall. It was more like skating than walking! Here are a few photos of its glistening iciness.

I think we have finally broken free of that stormy weather pattern we were stuck in. Thank you, deer.

Here in the east we mostly use fuel oil to heat our homes. Our fuel tank is in our basement with the filler spout on the side of the house behind a gate on the opposite side of the house from the garage. About every five or six weeks we can except a fuel delivery. Which means I have to keep a path clear so that the gate will open and the poor man can drag his hose to fill us up.

Not being used to this kind of thing after living in Colorado where our natural gas was piped in via underground gas lines it took me awhile to catch on. I won’t easily forget during our first winter here we had some snow and then an ice storm. I didn’t do anything with the snow on that side of the house because, hey, no one ever went over there. The fuel oil delivery came and he could not get in the gate. I got the shovel out and there was no way to move that snow. I was pretty mortified when he finally just climbed over our fence. Lesson learned.

Our fuel tank holds 350 gallons. We usually get filled up at around half-way and are on an auto-fill program which means they schedule us when they think we need it. Our last delivery was five weeks ago and our fuel indicator was telling us we were below half. I’ve been anticipating his arrival for a few weeks now so I have dutifully shoveled a path every time it snows. He came Friday so that means I can relax for a while in hopes that whatever we get will melt before he comes again. Fat chance.

We are running out of places to push, pile and clear the snow from our street. Not a wide street to begin with, it has now become smaller and narrower with each storm. One more snow and most people’s mailboxes will not be visible. Snow is piled higher than the roof of my car in some spots where driveways have been plowed.

At our local strip mall where the grocery store is the snow is really piled high. It’s difficult to see beyond them to check for oncoming traffic before pulling out. Dangerous! Yesterday while picking up dog food at the feed store I tried going out one of their entrances and found I could not see, so ended up backing up and going out the other entrance which had more visibility.

Bella’s coat is soft and downy like a puppy’s coat. Every time it snows she comes in with huge snowballs attached to her chest, belly and legs. I towel her off which helps a little bit but the only way to get them off I’ve found is to squish them flat with my fingers and let her thaw. This makes a mess everywhere as you can imagine. The other day I let her in and got her towelled and “squished” and went off doing my thing. In the meantime she had gone upstairs and laid on our bed. Everything was soaking wet and I ended up putting Rick’s pillow in the dryer.

Where do I begin? Normally I try to scoop at least every other day when there isn’t snow on the ground. As it stands now I might scoop every four or five days depending on the weather. It’s more like playing a game of “kick the poop” than anything else because that’s exactly what I have to do to dislodge it from its icy prison. Of course, there is no getting the frozen snow/ice off that surrounds it so it has to come along for the ride too. This makes for a very heavy trash bag.

Since the snow arrived on December 26, 2010 we have not seen bare ground. So whatever did not get scooped before said blizzard is still under there. Somewhere. We’ll call that the pre-blizzard layer. That got covered by 20 inches of snow. Whatever the dogs did after the blizzard did not get scooped. Then we had two more storms of 5 inches and 7 inches and most of that is still on the ground. I tried in-between to scoop whenever anything surfaced but I’m certain most of it got buried. Then we have what I like to call the crustaceous layer which occurred after our snow, ice and freezing rain storm. On top of the crustaceous layer we have another 8 to 9 inches of snow. Are you getting the picture?

I am going to need a dump truck when it all melts or maybe I’ll just hook the trailer up to Johnny and drive around with a big shovel. Can’t wait for that event.

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Alex and Hailey serving out their sentence of 8-9. (Quite happily I might add!)

P.S. Do I dare mention that we’re having flurries again this morning?