Reasons to Rejoice!

Suddenly Spring seems about ready to pop out and warm us up.  The last of the 80+ inches of snow we had over the winter has melted, thanks to the four inches of rain we had between Friday and Monday evening (now the whole earth is squishy).  Today I spotted blooming crocuses, and the trees are showing large buds.  Hurray for Spring!  Our snowfall this winter exceeded our previous record by over 18 inches.  Enough already!

Our snow came mostly as three storms of 20 inches or greater, one near Christmas and the other two in February.  These pictures are from the first February storm.  The first one is the deck around 5 a.m., with the snow lit by the yellow bulb in the outdoor light.

Then comes the morning light and one can see what is happening.  The dip, by the way, is the result of the heated birdbath.

The birds don't know what to make of this amount of snow, and I had to wade through hip-deep snow to clear the feeders.  I managed to clear a spot on the deck for seed for the ground birds.

The the power went out, the birdbath froze, and we had a miserable 38 hours until the power came back. With the help of neighbors, I got shoveled out, and when I heard there was another storm coming, I escaped to NC.  Eight days later I returned to streets that were passable, a driveway one end of which was accessible, and the sight of a neighbor's house with a serious boo-boo.  The house was damaged in a major storm several years ago and had been under a tarp since that time.  No one lived there, thank goodness.

 

See why I'm so ready for spring?