Snow And A Gift

Yesterday, we woke up to a cold morning with snow. 

Faith and I went out early. She played, I walked and took some pictures.

Trying for an artistic shot, here and there. 

I have a friend here in the canyon, Lisa. I don't see her often, but when I do there's a strong connection, lots of love and caring on both our parts. Lisa gave me the scarf I'm wearing here, a long time ago, when she was in her office in town and I came in to get warmed up, because the weather had suddenly turned very cold. Lisa rushed out to her car and came in with the scarf, gave it to me, and wouldn't take no for an answer. 

It's made in Peru of alpaca yarn and I feel like an idiot to have accepted it. But what can you do? You can't very well give it back, and it's really like the advice you, my blogger friends, recently gave me about accepting help. 

It made Lisa happy to give it to me. It made me happy to receive it. 

I texted this picture to her yesterday morning and I think that made her happy all over again. 

Me, My Dog And Snow

 

You know how much snow cheers me up, particularly around Christmas time. Snow is part of my childhood memories. The Swedish Christmas traditions I grew up with. I have no memory of a Christmas without snow.

The morning after our recent snowstorm, Faith and I went for a walk in the snow. It was still cold, the snow crunched under my feet and glittered in the sun.

It didn't take long for Faith to remember how much fun running and rolling in the snow can be. She's missed her brother and the snow was just a wonderful distraction for her. 

As we started downhill, toward home, Faith discovered this. A part of the divided trunk of one of our more fragile junipers had broken off in the storm.

Faith seemed to understand that something was different with this tree. I would perhaps give her too much credit saying she looked concerned. But she definitely alerted to a different scenario in our backyard. 

I'm sad, this is one of the two trees I visit regularly. It's the most fragile one in my yard. I feel it's a shame when these trees become part of someone's yard and must be trimmed back for fire safety regulations or other reasons. For now, there's nothing I can do, Mark will cut it up and cart it away later.

So Faith and I walked back home, where we found a near perfect row of icicles hanging from our roof. 

FROZEN!

This little house where I live now was built in 1977 and has floorboard heaters, which Errol felt were not safe. Since I don't like them either, we made do with space heaters and the wood burning stove in the living room. I turn off all heaters at night and go to sleep under an enormous feather bed my friend Carol gave me when I first moved up here. So I didn't feel cold when I woke up this morning, even though it was 16F outside and 50 inside. 

But as soon as I got up, I realized how cold it was in the house. Since one of the two heaters in the living room conked out the other day, I knew it would be a while before the house got warm. I quickly turned on the other heater and built a fire, then went back to bed and had my breakfast. But the house would not heat up. We have had wind storms here for a long time it seems, the latest with gusts up to 70 mph; it has been unbelievable. I dressed in thermals and wool, but my feet were still so cold. No wonder, I slept in summer cotton socks. Then I remembered I had some very ancient raggsocks (a Scandinavian wool sock that really keeps you warm) stored somewhere. It has been so warm here in recent winters, I had to think to remember where they were. Once I found them and put them on, my feet were warm again. The raggsocks above are from Google Images. I know I complained about Google in my last post, but say what you will, you can find just about anything there.  

Last week, the CERT team from our canyon toured the Lehigh Cement Plant, located outside the city of Tehachapi. The lecture was interesting, but not sure about those filters to screen out mercury the tour guide reassured us about. A couple of years ago, they had a high emission rate of mercury, or so it said in articles at the time. 

But it was great to see everyone. Here I am to the left, holding on to my hat since the wind was strong. Our canyon CERT leader Dave, who with his wife Bernice arranged for the tour is to my right and the Tehachapi mountain range is behind us. And check out that magnificent cloud!

The cement plant employs around 110 people and has an interesting history going back to 1909, when limestone was first quarried and used to build the Los Angeles Aqueduct. Even though I drive by here all the time, I had not realized how huge the place is. The walking tour took a lot out of me, we stood around listening to our guide telling us about all the different buildings and processes; it was very windy, and when we went up (in an elevator) to the ninth floor of the tower, the wind was unbearable. Still, I'm glad I went, it was interesting, and I appreciate that our CERT leaders arranged the tour for us. At the same time though, I'm so happy I traveled when I was young. I think my touring days may be over......

Then these yellow clouds appeared the other day. You know I get the best clouds up here, but I've never seen any this bright yellow. Orange, yes, and these turned to orange after a while. They were so pretty, I wanted to share them.

 

And then the snow came and with it more severe winds. When I took the dogs out in the morning, one side of my road was clear of snow, then I stepped on to the other side and sank down in a snow drift way over my boots. But we love it, the dogs and I. 

This is Samson's tail after being out in a wet snowfall earlier this month. He just loves this time of the year. A true snow dog.

Only a few years ago, I know I liked cold and snow better than I do today. I still want it to snow and be cold, but I feel my age and I'm not as enthusiastic as I once was. Snuggling with Faith by the fire may just be more my thing now. 

Snow Falls On Our Daily Walk

I woke up wondering what to write in my blog today. It was gray and cold outside, but my husband wanted to walk the dogs anyway. So I had the idea that I would document our daily walk. While I complained about the cold, hubby said, "Just put your ear muffins on!" Well, he's from New Orleans, so what does he know about ear muffs?!

On TV they said snow to 3,000 ft (we're at 4,141) so that would be us! Finally!

Dark clouds covered the mountains that were covered with pogo nip yesterday. As we drove to town yesterday, without my camera again, we noticed all the trees in the mountains to the east were covered in pogo nip. It is a spooky looking phenomenon that I wish I could one day see up close. If you are interested, you can read about it here.

After we reach the mailboxes at the main road, we turn around and see this. A bit more actually since I'm already on my way back to the house here.

Soldier is doing great! See that big stretch in his hind legs. Last night he made it up on the dogs' love seat. And today he walked this walk three times around. Angel and I made it twice only. We're the oldest, that's for sure.

Hubby and dogs say, "Come on, we're supposed to walk together." I say, "I MUST take pictures, it takes time!" 

Here the road becomes private and leads up to our house. 

Past the house, it takes us to the barn. It's uphill all the way. Angel and I are panting. Phew, but we make it! 

The area around the barn is all fenced in with these great old gate posts framing it.

Around the barn we go.

It's lovely up here, quiet with nature all around to make you slow down and enjoy the peace.

And then it starts. It hasn't snowed here since the fifth of November 2011. 

Angel gets covered pretty fast. I take her in the house for a moment and dry her off, but she wants to walk more, so off we go again.

Here we are at the end of our driveway, facing the mailboxes over there by those hills you can barely see.

When Angel walks with daddy, she wants me and keeps turning around, looking for me, making sure I'm keeping up. When she walks with me, she can't wait to catch up with daddy and drags me down the road. 

Here we are, turning around and beginning our walk back home.

Back at the barn, something catches Angel's attention.

While the others continue walking, she wants to investigate.

At 13 1/2 years old, she is still the most attentive and observant of the dogs. Always the first to notice things. After walking around twice, Angel and I go home where we try to get dry. Daddy walks the other two around one more time. All in all this is probably a couple of miles, no more than three.

We used to go on long hikes in the mountains around here, but Angel is old and Soldier was so injured that this year we haven't gone. I am beginning to miss it. After everyone's back, hubby makes a nice fire.

And Samson and Angel watch the snow fall.

Samson Says: We hope you enjoyed walking with us this morning. I had lots of fun playing in the snow! 

THE END

April Fooled Me After All

Ready!

Steady!

Roll!!!

What a wonderful surprise! Both Princess and I just love the snow and even though I feel sorry about the reduced odds for lilac and daffodil blooms, I'm so happy that Princess is having so much fun. She's getting old and she is tired, so I worry about her. That's why I took her out alone with me early so she could get a good roll in the snow and have special time with her mommy. She was so happy! I was too!

While she was playing, I checked the trees that I posted such spring-like photos of the other day. This is what they looked like this morning:  The tree above, is the one with the big leaf buds. Now the buds are enclosed in ice, but they'll be OK.

But the lilac bush…..OUCH! I wonder what will happen to the blossoms now.

And here's my baby cottonwood tree -- full of icicles!

I had planned to hike up the hill this morning, to take a look at all the different kinds of yellow spring flowers that started to bloom on the hillside up there. I guess the spring flowers will have to wait for another day.

I thought it was going to be slush, but instead it was cold, with the snow glittering in the sun, and making those wonderful crunchy noises underfoot, as we walked up the snow-covered road.

                              

Thanks for visiting; I hope you enjoyed this spring surprise as much as we did.