Daffodils breaking ground today.

Lots to say. Just no words. In case anyone was worried about us with all the press about flooding in New Jersey and, more particularly, Wayne (where Rick works) we are safe, sound and dry. The same can’t be said for our neighbors, or those “down the mountain” from us. Let me just say that it’s mostly downhill from our house to the Atlantic Ocean. Wayne is at the confluence of three rivers, plus they are really low in elevation. Rick had an interesting drive in to work today taking alternate routes as many roads were closed due to flooding and downed trees.
Anyway ...

The heavens opened up and we got 3.5 inches of rain from Friday night into Sunday noon-ish. Add into that the melting snowpack we had from almost two weeks earlier and you have saturated ground and water with nowhere to go. Our yard is smooshy and gooshy. The dogs don’t even want to be out and laying on that damp junk. Who would? Trust me; it’s gross.

The skunk cabbage seems to be in its element though. Mother Earth is stirring. We can only hope she doesn’t drown as it’s still raining a little.

I promise, much more to come.

I love seeing a tree’s shadow on snow. Somehow it’s stronger, sharper, more clear than just on plain ground. This is a sight I doubt I’ll be seeing again this year. This photo was taken a mere three days ago, and now that snow that helped cast such a wonderful shadow is gone. Melted away with the near 60 degree temperatures we’ve had this week and the ever strengthening rays of the almost-spring-sun.

Not only will I not see snow shadows anymore, but soon the tree will be wearing its new leafy green garb that conceals its true shape. No longer will its limbs be bare for all the world to see. It will not be casting this same shadow again until next year.

The birds are saying it’s time to move on too. I wake up to their sweet, varied songs every morning. Just yesterday I saw the little fox sparrow, my very own spring predictor, back scratching around at my feeding station again. He’s late this year. I’ve not seen any robins as yet. When we lived in Colorado the robins were full time residents, but here they leave for the winter.

This weekend we are expecting between 2 and 4 inches of rain! That’s a lot of water. They say that if it were snow it would be three or four feet! I’ll be glad for the water this time instead of snow. At least I don’t have to shovel it!

I do believe spring is on it’s way!

Mr. Cardinal is ready too. (Taken during our big snow storm.)

Well, it looks like an entire week has gone by since I last posted. Some things have changed.

Last week:

Today:

Our big snow storm seems like a dim memory now except for all the slushy snow that is still left. Our deck is grateful that it’s melting. The forsythia hedge is springing back (mostly) although it does have quite a few broken branches. The burning bushes in front of the house seem to be very resilient as well. Once the snow is gone we have some major yard clean-up to do with all the big branches that came down.

But ...

The birds are singing in the morning, the squirrels are chasing each other around and around the tree trunks and it go up to 52 degrees with sun this weekend! The air feels different. I think we may have turned the corner towards spring at last. The turkeys are back out walking around too. The other day I saw Bella at the edge of the yard staring into the woods. When I went out I heard flapping noises and squawks. The silly turkeys were airborne and sitting in the trees! Now, mind you, they don’t fly very well at all and are very clumsy off the ground. I have no idea what they were doing, but they kept flop-flying from tree to tree.

My favorite little bird of all is the Carolina Wren. Such a beautiful repertoire of songs! I’m glad they’ve decided to make their home around my house.

Also adding joy and beauty around my house are my Thanksgiving/Christmas/Easter cacti. Both these cacti are blooming now but they have very different blooms. Beautiful just the same. The first one is a very old cactus that was started from my paternal grandmother’s. It reminds me of a Chinese pagoda.

I got quite a surprise as well when I trimmed back the dying leaf fronds of my amaryllis. A new bud was breaking out of the bulb! This amaryllis was given to me by my neighbor two years ago and this will be the second time it’s bloomed for me. Amazing. It’s not quite out yet, but here it is the first year.

And speaking of differences that one week can make, take a look at the wheel of Blue Cheese that Rick made last week.

Here is the same cheese one week later once the molds have started to take over. Amazing, is it not?

Still to come: Behind the scenes of Chopped and Home Cheesemaking!

When the snow stopped and we had a good handle on the clearing of the driveway and front steps, I took the camera and headed down our road to document this big snow.

Our neighbor’s big wooden bear that stands by their driveway is a little buried. Good thing he’s still wearing his scarf.

Our other neighbor has a problem to clear up before he can get out of his driveway!

A look down our road in both directions. The guy who was awarded the plowing contract from the town did not do a very good job on our road this time. He’s turned it into a one lane road!

Our neighbors at the end the road have quite a wall of snow from plowing out their driveway, wouldn’t you say? I think it’s going to be there for a while.

The trees were wearing heavy robes of white.

We were lucky we didn’t have too much damage to our trees. Several large limbs came down and our forsythia hedge is more than likely ruined (it needed a heavy pruning anyway), so we were lucky. Until the snow melts we won’t know just how damaged the hedge is, but it doesn’t look promising, does it?

We never lost power which really surprised me! We decided not to clear the other part of our circular driveway since we don’t use it very often anyway. Johnny will have to stay in his spot next to the garage until the snow melts since there is no way to get him back down to his covered spot below the deck. A whole lot of melting is going to have to go on here! We’re supposed to get another small snow (1-3 inches) in a couple of days too. March is certainly coming in like a lion!

All I can is that it wasn’t quite the romantic picture I had in my head of being snowed in. Instead of sitting around playing video games or watching movies in front of a cozy fire, we were out breaking our backs trying to clear snow, or as Rick puts it “moving snow from one spot to another.” It was exhausting!

Sidenote: At least one of my readers is having trouble with the word recognition necessary in order to leave a comment. She says it just isn’t working for her. Is anyone else having trouble leaving a comment? Please let me know if this is happening to you too! You can email me by clicking on the “Contact” button at the top of my blog in the bar.

... you just might get it! A little over 2 feet of snow fell yesterday and last night. The wind really kicked in last night and we couldn’t even see out the windows because snow was stuck to the screens. We were truly snowed in this morning and it took us the better part of the morning to get a path up the driveway. I’ll have more photos soon, but frankly I’m worn out!

During ...

After ...

An al fresco lunch by the pool anyone?