Even More Weather Changes

So we went from a sunny day on Sunday, gloomy on Monday (all sounds kind of appropriate, doesn’t it?)… and today… it’s snowing.

For a while it was coming down pretty hard.

A little snow, or a lot, it doesn’t seem to bother the cardinals.

Snowy days always seem like a good excuse to go walking in the woods and alongside the creek.

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Some of the snow was getting slushy and falling off the trees into the creek with little “splats!”

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There’s not really a lot of snow on the ground, but Toby had fun running around in the woods.

There was a little snow along the slews.

Spot decided to come out and see what we were doing when we got down around the pond.

The bottom pasture was also snowy of course.

By then it was getting so slushy, and so much water kept dropping on my camera lens, I just gave it up and went inside.

Toby and I were tired out anyway.  (Okay, maybe it was just me.)

Still Snowy. . .

Okay, so we still have snow, and still getting more snow. Granted, around here it doesn’t usually last long. It often snows in the morning and the stuff is gone by the afternoon.

Still, I’ve seen enough white stuff. We’re in the south. A little bit goes a long way.

Of course, I’m grateful we’re not getting dumped on like our relatives in West Virginia or Virginia and the D.C. area!!!  That’s way more snow than I want to handle these days!

Spring is coming. . . I just know it is… but to be the shortest month of the year, February sure seems to last a long time!

It’s snowing!

It started snowing here a while ago, and it’s coming down pretty FAST for our part of the world!

This poor cardinal is braving the snow to wait his turn at the feeders.

And there’s snow on the ground around the pond…

But the snow doesn’t keep the sheep from getting out!

And the chickens are standing around under the bird feeders hoping for a treat…

Even Toby likes to play out in the snow!

That’s it for now!  If it keeps snowing like this, I might have to go out in the woods later and get some pictures!

Enjoy your weekend!

Southern Snowstorm

We don’t get a lot of snow here in the southeast, but Saturday morning when we got up, there was a dusting of snow on the ground.  So here are the promised snow pictures!  Those of you in the deep south, eat your heart out, we actually saw snow!

Those of you further north, try not to laugh at the piddling little bit of white stuff we call a snow storm!

Looking out in the backyard, I saw. . .

. . . a little snow, a lot of poultry, and one dog carrying around a HUGE stick!

The bottom pasture was dusted with white, instead of the usual all drab brown.

From there Toby and I headed for the woods.  Of course, it too had a bit of snow on the ground, and blown against the tree trunks.

We always check out the creek when we take a walk in the woods.

My other “dog” followed Toby and I into the woods.  He likes to rub up against every twig and tree.

The real dog, Toby, would rather hike his leg and pee on every twig and tree, but I spared you a picture of that, ha, ha!

The creek floods frequently, and the banks are eroded, so the exposed tree roots held a drift of snow on them.

Even the slues looked pretty with snowy banks.

By the way, I don’t know if I ever called these little areas of backwater a slue until I met The Farmer.  I thought it was just an “Okie-ism”, but he has it right:

Slue: a place of deep mud or mire (also slew or slough ˈslü)

1. swamp
2. an inlet on a river; also : backwater
3. a creek in a marsh or tide flat

Toby crosses these slues wherever it suits him, sometimes at a narrow place, sometimes through deep water. 

He loves splashing through water wherever he finds it.

The other “dog” that follows me around, however, is not so keen on the water.  He sits on one side of the bank and watches Toby wander.

In fact, Spot just isn’t any too keen on walking through that frozen stuff called snow.

He makes faces and shakes his paws frequently.

I’m afraid Toby laughs at Spot’s squeamishness over snow and water and all things wet.

Then Toby proceeded to show off a little and went through the water in the slue again.

But Spot wasn’t buying it.  He promptly sat down in some leaves and declared he was NOT going in that water!

By then I figured it was time to head back towards the house.  In the front yard, the holly looked pretty with a little snowy white alongside the green leaves and red berries.

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But it was warming up some, and the snow wasn’t going to last much longer.

It was forming little ice drops on the tips of some of the leaves.

However, in the shade, the camellia bush still had snowy blossoms.

And since the Camellia ‘Winter Star’ bush is in the flower bed by the front door, I was ready to go back inside and end my picture taking for the day.

Frosty Morning

After spending time in Florida, we’ve come back to FROST.

That’s not to say it was warm in Florida while we were there.  Nope!  Here I was worried I ought to be digging out our short-sleeved shirts to take, but that wasn’t an issue.  Wouldn’t you know, when we go to visit, they have a cold snap.

Just not as cold as it was here this morning!  In fact, the sheep were sporting some pretty frosty fleece.  It’s most noticeable on Papaya, since she has black wool.

However, I never could get her to turn her head and look at me.  There was a lot more frost on that side though, than the other.

Valrhona had a bit of frosty fleece, too.

She’s probably the most photogenic of the sheep we have left.  I love her moorit colored face.  Her wool isn’t really the reddish-brown of moorit, however, but more of a mioget or light fawn color.

I also noticed this morning that it’s high time to put the heater in the birdbath.

The water buckets and pools were in the same shape.  Time to plug in ALL the heaters to the water supplies!

There are still a few frosty buds and blooms on my camellia bush, but it won’t be long until they’re all gone.

I guess I can’t complain considering the bush bloomed for about two months, through October and November.

The buttefly bush blooms are long gone, but there were some frosty skeletons this morning.

I need to do some serious trimming on these bushes before spring!

Some of the leaves on the Arrowwood Viburnum in our front yard are a pretty orange-red color.

They looked especially classy with a glaze of frost.

Neffie, our Maremma, patrols the farm no matter what the weather, so a little frost didn’t stop her from making her rounds.

I guess I might as well get used to this. It is, after all, December 1st, and time for some cold weather!