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.

According to Phil we’re in for six more weeks of winter. That’s okay by me since what we’ve had so far hasn’t seemed like much of a winter. We’ve had plenty of cold and wind, but not much in the way of snow. All the storms are tracking south of us, allowing those folks in Dixie to have some snow for themselves. I’m not sure how many of them truly appreciate it. We continue to get “coatings” that don’t even warrant getting Johnny out of his cozy home under the deck. Phil, could you please manage to send us some good snow? Please?

When I went out behind the house over the weekend to see if any good ice had formed on the little stream I found something that makes me question Phil’s prediction. Take a look.

A lonely little skunk cabbage making its way up out of the ice! Could this mean spring is not far behind? Don’t be in such a hurry little swamp cabbage, I think we still have more winter coming our way. At least I hope so. Your turn will come soon enough.

On the day I took my walk the sun was shining brightly. Everywhere I looked the crystalline quality of the snow was catching the light and acting like a prism. Just like someone had strewn jewels across its surface. It was beautiful. I tried capturing it so many times and each time when I viewed the photo back the colors were not there. The snow was glistening, but no prism action was happening through the lens. I took the camera off the mode I was using and tried a few different things. I finally got this image by using a slower shutter speed on the shutter priority setting at 1/320.

Well? What do you think?

The shadows this time of year are very long. Etched against the stark white background of snow they seem larger then life.

I was the only person to go down the forest path since the snow. The pristine surface so far had only been broken by the tracks of forest animals. Sometimes the shadows were combined with various animal tracks. These I think are rabbit.

These are possibly geese or swans.

Crossed paths!

Some tracks eluded me. Like these. A drunken mouse perhaps?

Other shadows were just interesting to me.

And to conclude, my prints and my shadow. How I hated to disturb the surface of the snow! Somehow it seemed as though I was an interloper here, but these woods know me well. They don’t always welcome me, but they know me.