Snow and More Snow

I know, you're getting tired of my snow pictures, but there's not a lot else around here these days.  I've spent much of the past two-and-a-half days moving snow, blowing out the driveway, pulling snow off the roof, and pushing snow off the deck.  But it's under control, and there were a few bright moments in today's work.

This was actually Monday morning, as the sun rose on one of those beautiful sunny days.

Today, after several hours outside pushing snow, suddenly the sun broke through the clouds, and shone brightly through the snow-covered Hawthorn and Wild Apple trees next door.

The Chickadees are getting used to me coming out to feed them, and being on the deck, so I'm getting some close pictures.  Liked the interesting silhouette of the Chickadee on the left in this one.

Meanwhile, the snow is everywhere.  We only got about 16" in 24 hours this time!

Linking to: 

Another Snow Day!

The snow started before we woke up, and continues still this evening.  Twice one of those lake-effect streamers of heavy snow parked itself over us, and dumped a lot of inches fast.  I spent more hours than I'd like pushing snow off the deck, and snowblowing the driveway, in the swirling wind!

It's that dark green streamer passing overhead, then east to Barrie and on toward Peterborough that dumped the most snow.  I find this radar map on the Environment Canada weather site to be both really useful and accurate.  I use it year-round to check what weather is actually approaching.

I know you like pictures of those bright sunny days, but I don't want you to get an unrealistic vision of what winter is here.  So I've paired up some pictures from that sunny Sunday 3 days ago, with today's blowing snow, for your viewing pleasure.

Not a good day for driving here, several highways closed, and lots of local roads impassible.  Haven't seen a snow plow all day; they're busy on more important roads!

After spending several hours in the above freezing temperatures yesterday clearing at least some of our back deck off, I had to do it all again today to get rid of the 8 or 10" of light fluff that accumulated on top.  I'll probably have to do the same thing tomorrow morning again.

I finally went out and snowblowed the driveway even though it was still snowing, because I was afraid it would get too deep for my snowblower to handle.  It was drifting quite a bit in the wind, and I could hardly see what I was doing in the swirling snow.

Snow on our upper roof slid slowly off the edge yesterday, until it was a 6" thick curved curtain of snow, but this part never did break off and fall.  I'm sure it will come down some day soon.

In the meantime it's making the sewing studio very dark, hanging almost to the bottom of the window.  Those are two of Mrs. F.G.'s dolls guarding the window.

I enjoy winter, but I have to admit that I don't like being stuck at home all day and I'm getting tired of blowing snow!

Sunny Winter Sunday

We had two more brilliant cold but sunny winter days, the kind of days that make winter worthwhile!  On Sunday I got out with a friend to tramp through his property just south of Kimberley.  It was more bushwhacking than following a trail, but it was a great outing.  I love exploring off the beaten track.

There's a small orchard in one corner of the property where I've often picked a few apples in the past.  Those are the old ski hills of Talisman in the distance.

This is just a small hobby orchard, but he really enjoys it, and is planning on planting some more trees this year.

We headed down the hill and came to the wetland, with a tiny stream meandering through.  We stepped over it with our snowshoes, and headed into the woods.

We were walking into the sun part of the time, and the fresh snow was sparkling on the trees and shrubs.  The stream shows up in the lower left corner.

Then we got deeper into the cedars, where the deer yard up over the winter.  We saw lots of tracks and spots where a few deer had spent the night.

Along the south border there are a few big old Sugar Maples.

Other parts of the property are young hardwood forest, all young White Ash and Sugar Maple, growing fast.

Mysteriously, up on top of the hill, there are several very small woodland ponds.  There must be enough clay in the soil to hold the water in these small depressions.

I've known Peter for nearly 30 years, and have walked this property often in the past, but not often in the winter on snowshoes.  He has planted hundreds of trees; I may someday write something about his love of this little parcel of land, why he bought it, and what he's done with it.

White bark in a grove of poplar trees.

He keeps a small odd-shaped area mowed, and you get a nice view of the cliffs at Old Baldy.  He's hoping to build a barn up there in the open patch; maybe I'll have some comparison pictures in a year or two.

We walked on snowshoes in deep snow for about 2 hours; I was thoroughly worn out!  Some other neighbours had been in cross-country skiing.

A view over his neighbour's field, showing the long west slope of the valley heading north, the old Talisman Ski Resort in the centre.  Here today we've had a grey day above freezing, with thick fog as a result.  But some of that pile of snow on my back deck melted too, so I've spent about 4 hours today trying to get at least some of it removed.  I'll have a few sore muscles in the morning, but I'm very glad to get some of that done.

The three narrow horizontal photos, 8, 9 and 14, are not cropped, but are iphone panorama shots.

Snowy Trees!

A selection of snowy trees from that snowshoe walk two weeks ago on a sunny day after the big storm.

Linking to:

Shadows in the Woods

Two weeks ago, on our last sunny day, was my big snowshoe walk in the woods next door.  Today the sun appeared again, and it was another spectacular winter's day.  But on that first hike, there were lots of interesting shadows across the trail.  Here's a selection of winter shadows.

 

And this was the valley today, just a perfect winter's day.  Snowshoed with a friend for 2 hours.

 And just because I couldn't resist, a shadow selfie.

Linking to Shadow Shot Sunday