Snow and Ice

This is for Karis, enjoying the heat and humidity in Queensland. See what you are missing?

Seems to me we have more snow this year than we have for several years. Of course, the bottom layer here came before you left, but it just keeps piling up. Snowed from Sunday night until Tuesday midday. Very light snow, so not really that bad. I think we got maybe 14 inches total. But on top of what was already there...

Anyway, this is the back deck, before I walked on it to get the closeup of the icicles below. I thought ours was in bad shape, but I looked over at our neighbors, and saw it had collapsed. Oops!



I'm a bit worried about ice damming. Once many years ago, we had drips coming down the wall in the family room during the thaw. Hope this melts slowly and doesn't cause a problem!







This is the front from the street. All the snow from the driveway had to go somewhere!













Thought this picture would best show the depth.

Walking today was not so much fun. The city had plowed the nearby walking path yesterday morning (after I slogged through it). But that wasn't as much help as it might have been since the road plow came by later and threw chunks back on the path. Which of course was more difficult to navigate than the fresh, light snow had been. Sigh. Thanks so much for pulling the path closer to the street when they redesigned it a couple of years ago!

Then when I tried to cross the street at a low point in the plowed-up snow, I sank in past my knee and fell. And got a cramp in my left calf so that I couldn't immediately get up again. Fortunately, it was soft snow where I fell, I wasn't quite in the street, and the cramp passed fairly quickly (though Bravo standing on that foot didn't help).

Also, it was only 2 degrees on my walk. I made Bravo wear his booties:

In a Sunburned Country

I've been in Australia for 3 days now - this is day 4. I'm borrowing Karis' computer for a quick update. We've climbed the Harbour Bridge, toured the Opera House, seen tons of flying foxes in the Royal Botanical Gardens, and took the ferry to Manly to hit the beach. Karis has blogged about all of it at karisdownunder.blogspot.com. And I have some pictures up on Picasa online. I'll add yesterday' pictures later. Now I have to cede the computer to Karis.

Off for another day of adventure!

Snow Sparkles

Light snow - that's what Intellicast says about the current conditions. But the "flakes" are so small they are really just sparkles. Really beautiful in the light of the street lamps.

It's 4 degrees this morning - much colder and I wouldn't take my morning walk. Hard to believe that in just a few days, I'll be experiencing summer in Sydney. It's 79 there now. And Intellicast must be confused because under "Current Conditions" it says Thunderstorm, but the Hourly Forecast and the Observations for the last 48 hours indicate it's clear. Scattered Clouds at the most. Wonder if I should believe the temperature, then?

Morning walk

One of the good things about winter is that the snowy woods path is bright enough to follow on my pre-dawn walk. That's what I did this morning. I really wanted to pause for a while and just take in the frozen lake, the peaceful woods, the call of the owl and the hint of aqua-and-pink at the horizon without the crunch of my boots on the snow. However, I was too cold to stay still for long it was 13F this morning, and I haven't quite worked out the layers under my new, highly visible but not very warm walking jacket. My torso, head and feet were warm enough, and my legs only slightly chilly, but my arms were frozen...

Gifts for pets

Watching Your Pet Wants This on Animal Planet.

1. Sha-Poopie - telescopic poop catcher invented by Tony Shaloub's brother Dan. And it made it on to a Monk episode

2. Hamster car and race track





3. Go Dog Go - automatic fetch machine

4. Pet Cell Phone with GPS










5. Snuggie for dogs Actually not much different from a dog sweater.


6. Fling-a-ma-string for cats











7. Bird Diaper













8. Automatic cat laser toy.










9. Humunga Tongue - ball with attached tongue - for laughs











10. And of course, Pet Airways. So your dog doesn't have to fly as
baggage.







But the best? A prosthetic leg for three-legged dog Cassidy. Here's the youtube video.

Book ad

This is a first for me. I just saw an ad on TV for a BOOK! James Patterson's I Alex Cross. It's kind of a cute ad, too - you can see it on the author's website.

Interesting marketing ploy...

I don't think I've read any James Patterson. Are his books overly violent? Any advice for me?

Wildlife

Walking along the border of Bush Lake Park this morning I heard an owl call several times. Then just as we turned into the park, a deer darted across and paused at the edge of Bush Lake Rd. I froze and signaled Bravo to stop as well - I certainly didn't want to spook the doe into darting out in front of a car. But as car after car went by, I started to try to figure out when would be a good time to move so she would run into a safe gap. My timing's not great, so I was worried. Turned out her timing wasn't tons better, but fortunately the driver saw her and slowed while she crossed safely.

The lake itself was beautiful - smooth mirror surface with a little mist rising. A bit more frost on the trees and it would have been perfect. Maybe I'll get a good picture soon.

It's not exactly wildlife, but Bravo and I did meet a basset hound yesterday at the dog park. He stood there looking at me until I leaned down and then he lalloped over to be petted. When he shook his head, the lower half of those huge ears got covered in drool. He was just so adorable to watch. His name was Chumley - isn't that perfect for a basset?