My Sorel® boots have a permanent place by the sun room door. The small snow shovel leans against the wall just inside the front door. These are things I need on an ongoing basis! Another snowfall last night dumped about 4 inches or so on us. More shoveling. More plowing up of the white stuff. Our piles keep getting bigger and bigger. Sheez. We are beginning to hear rumblings about yet another storm on Tuesday of next week. Click here for the forecast as it stands now.

The snow did not melt with our freezing rain the other day. Well, maybe just a little. What it did do was add a layer of thick ice on top. That stuff ain’t goin’ nowhere! It’s like trying to move concrete. Plus, it’s not supposed to get out of the teens in temperature this weekend with our first below zero nighttime temperatures. Brrrrr!!

I’m not complaining; this is what winter should be like. This is the kind of winter that I had always thought New Jersey had but since we’ve lived here the winters have been pretty mild without a lot of snow. This is more like what I remember winters being like when I was a child growing up in New York.

Written on the back: Lynne, Blizzard 1961, Hyde Park, New York.

I am starting to feel closed in. I can’t really go for walks easily. Yes, the street is plowed but there are still some icy spots. The dogs have caused me more injuries over the years than I care to count, so having them pull me while walking over a piece of ice is not something I care to have happen. I can go for walks on my own but then I feel guilty that I am not taking them. All I see is their big noses pressed up against the window,  their sad eyes following me as I walk away from the house.

Last weekend we did manage to take them for a nice romp down the path in the woods. We didn’t go all the way down to Green Turtle, but it was enough.

This tree fungus still had a snow hat on!

Spring will be all that much sweeter this year when it arrives!