February Weather?

[rughooker]

They all look like Volkswagen Beetles to me!

[GardenGoddess]

We're finally getting a good old fashioned snowstorm, the first one in about fifteen years. We're currently buried under 20 inches of snow and it is still falling. To make things even more interesting the winds have picked up and we now have blowing and drifting snow. We aren't sure how to get out of the house since snow is piled up about three feet against the doors. There are some great photo ops out there, if only I could get to them.

[rughooker]

Oooh, enjoy the snow! We got the light end of that storm, so we only got about 8 inches all told. Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, and the DC area are having the best of it.

[GardenGoddess]

It stopped snowing around noon, then the fun began! We've almost finished shoveling out the driveway (I'm taking a brief break), and I discovered that the huge pile of snow in the middle of it was really my car. An enterprising teenager was going from house to house looking for snow shoveling jobs. I guess he thought we looked capable of clearing out our driveway ourselves because he didn't ask us if we needed help. I am actually enjoying this, and it's a good thing too, since we will be moving to Maine in a few years. it's been a very long time since we've had a decent snow and it such a nice change from our usual monotonous winters. Later today I'll shovel out some paths to my bird feeders so I can refill them and maybe I'll take some pics. Tomorrow's entertainment will be to shovel out Bill's mother's driveway, sidewalks, and car.

[vtel57]

I'm dreaming of a white Christ... er, nevermind.

[chrisretusn]

[rughooker]

Here is our front yard on Friday at about 10 am...




and by Saturday morning:



That's Dan, my husband and shovel man.

And the tree in the front yard:



It's not liable to melt for a couple of days, but the roads are mostly all clear and people were out yesterday shoveling and getting their sidewalks passable.

Very pretty, very heavy snow!

[Urmas]

Here's Helsinki today... oh, and it's snowing again.



Remember Jysky ("Thumper"), the neighborhood cat? I just got in – I'm still laughing...

One of Jysky's favorite feline pastimes is to catch mice. He's a cat, right? The way he does it in winter, he lies down so that he looks like he's a part of a snow pile. Then he waits. And watches. And listens. Could take and hour. He's an arctic cat, non?

So... tonight I happened to be out just when he saw one... four-five meters from him. He went to "approach-by-stealth-mode" and was halfway there...

Did I mention there is also a neighborhood eagle owl?

I didn't hear anything. Jysky didn't hear anything. The mouse didn't hear anything. Dive. Catch. Pull up. Return to base. Mission accomplished.

Mouse gone. Ever seen a grown cat cry?

[Lex]

Ever seen a grown cat cry?

Funny you should ask, Urmas. As a matter of fact, ...

[GardenGoddess]

You got off easy, Donna. Around here it looks more like Helsinki.

This is my car, shortly after the snow stopped on Saturday, before we dug it out. Our neighbor across the street is having fun digging out their driveway. Notice the snow nearly touching the bottoms of the mailboxes across the street.

More snow is in the forecast for Wednesday. I'm loving this!!!



Somewhere under all of this snow is my fragrance garden. The weight of the snow pushed the glider into a somewhat reclining position.



This is our backyard picnic table, we won't be using it anytime soon.

[rughooker]

It's beautiful! I wish we had gotten that much snow. But the little bit we did get was enough to cause panic around here. People are so freaked out by snow, even though we do get snow every winter. The worst snow I can remember was in 1977. There was snow on the ground for almost two months, it was so deep that people's houses were almost buried, and it was actually a very dangerous situation for a couple of weeks. I think the temperatures were below zero for a record length of time.

They have mentioned us having more snow on Tuesday, but I doubt it will be much of a problem or much accumulation.

[GardenGoddess]

We have many winters when we get no snow at all. Those winters are very drab and monotonous. Most winters we only get about 6 inches total for the entire winter. The last big snowstorms here were in the winters of1993/1994 and 1996. In 1993 the snow began on Thanksgiving Day and continued right through April. Christmas decorations were buried under many feet of snow and were still there for Easter. The snow was so deep that mailboxes along the streets were buried. One family down the street from us set out an old toilet to use as their mailbox. When the lid was down this was the signal that the mail had arrived. In January1996 we had several feet of snow on the ground and the river was frozen solid. There was a very sudden heat wave and melting began in earnest. Flooding everywhere. Power outages that lasted for a week or more. At our house we had no running water because our local water company's pumping station is near the river and it was flooded...completely underwater. We get frequent ice storms here, too. The latest really bad one was the Valentine's Day ice storm of 2007. Two inches of ice covered everything. Trees fell down from the weight of the ice and pulled power lines down with them. Bill and I couldn't get to work that day because my car was buried under the ice and was frozen to the driveway. It took nearly two days to chop it free. I love winter!

[vtel57]

That first picture you posted looks so gray and cozy, Donna. The others not so much.

One thing I've never understood is why do people dig out their driveways at all? Just leave it there. It'll melt eventually, right? Besides, you weren't planning on actually driving somewhere in that crap, were you?

Oh, and don't worry, Jysky. There will always be another mouse.

[Urmas]

Helsingin Sanomat proudly presents:

Snowy Pics from '30s to '70s

It's a Flash slide show... to start it, click on "Katso kooste" (located in the lower left corner).

[rocco]

Great shots, Urmas, GardenGoddess and Donna! I especially liked the black and white photos of Helsinki from days gone by. Here in New York we got about an inch. But our offices in Richmond, Philadelphia, and Arlington got hammered.

[GardenGoddess]

Thanks for the slide show, Urmas. Nice images! Another snowstorm is in the forecast for those of us in the Lower Susquehanna Valley of South Central PA. Snow beginning Tuesday afternoon, continuing through Wednesday night. An additional twelve to fourteen inches of snow on top of what we just got on Saturday. Winter is finally here.

[ChipDoc]

You're getting ANOTHER 12-14 inches of snow up there starting tonight? I've got to say that I'm glad I live in Tampa at the moment! Have fun up there!

[rughooker]

I'm jealous! But even if we aren't going to get the big totals that the east coast gets, we're still getting snowed upon here. It's snowing right now, as a matter of fact. We picked up about two inches overnight and they are calling for another four or so during the day. I shouldn't have to go to work this afternoon, so I'm all happy about that! And I may not have to go in at 6 am Wednesday if we get everything they've talked about: more snow, high winds, zero temps...it's winter!

[rughooker]

As of 11 am, this is my back porch:



and out front:



and my van:



and we're not even close to matching what they're getting on the East coast!

[rughooker]

uh-oh! In the photo above, you can see a bus stop bench. Just about an hour ago, a city salt truck with a plow came around that corner, turned up onto our street, and...got stuck! He was rocking that truck back and forth to no avail. He got out, shoveled some of the salt out of the back of the truck under his rear tires, tried again, failed. Then he managed to get it out of that rut, moved ahead about ten feet, then SLID SIDEWAYS backwards. He got out, shoveled more salt under his tires, and finally chugged up the street.

It's pretty bad when the snowplows are getting stuck!