So much for an early spring . . .

So, most years, those of us who are blessed to live in northern Georgia consider ourselves lucky if we have one measurable snow per year.  This year has been an exception to the rule!  We are now in the middle of our fourth (yes, that's 4th) measurable snow of this season.  If my memory serves (and it may not - just so you know) we've had between 9 and 12 inches total snow this year.  And to be honest, it's still winter here folks!!!

And yes, I am ready for spring, but not nearly as ready as these guys . . .

A pair of house finches - Mrs. on the left and Mr. on the right

A recent addition to the flock - a 'yellow rumped warbler'.  Do you see the yellow on his 'rump'???

Mrs. (l) and Mr. (r) Cardinal.  I love how she's looking at me!  Like "what you doin?"

And yes,  this is 'Woody' the lone wood thrush.  He/she is still here, overseeing things on the deck.  Somehow his presence is comforting, although I still haven't figured out why he's here all alone and out of season!

And here is Ethel, and best I can figure after perusing my Birds of Georgia book, she is a female (of course) red wing blackbird!  I've never seen one at the feeder, and it was obvious she wasn't sure how it worked, but she got the hang of it eventually and had a nice meal.

The influx of birds to our feeders convinces me that since we've had so much very cold and snowy weather, they are just plain hungry.  Another indication of that is our almost empty safflower seed bag!  In just under two months, we have feed them about fifty pounds of seeds!!!  I have two large, and two medium feeders for the safflower seed, two suet cake feeders, and two thistle feeders for the goldfinches.

Here's a list of all the birds I've seen so far today:

• goldfinches
• house finches (lots and lots of these guys!)
• titmice
• white breasted nuthatches
• brown headed nuthatches
• red bellied woodpeckers
• downy woodpeckers
• Carolina chickadees
• Carolina wrens
• cardinals
• song sparrows
• white throated sparrows
• Woody the lone wood thrush
• Ethel the lone female red winged black bird
• yellow rumped warbler
• dark eyed juncos
• eastern towhees
• doves

And yes, best I can count that is 18 different varieties of birds either eating from our feeder or the seed I throw on the ground for the ground feeders.  Amazing!  And so much fun to watch!  Anyway, it is still snowing pretty steadily, and tonight it's supposed to get down to the upper 20's, so whatever is here will still be here in the morning in the form of ice.  Fun.

So, as I head to the kitchen to check out my pizza dough, I'll leave you with a few pictures from our yard.  I hope you, wherever you are, are having a sunny and warm day!  Blessings, Becky

The Snowy South

So, let me say first that I 'KNOW' this isn't a lot of snow to some of you, especially my friend Jane who has been snowed in for weeks now in her mountain house in NC.  (Hey Mountain Woman!)  But . . . here in Georgia we don't get one this pretty very often, so when we do, I try to enjoy all the beauty!

The snow started about 1:15 - 1:30 yesterday (Friday) and snowed for about 8-9 hours straight.  We ended up with 3 1/2 - 4" and it's one of the prettiest snows I can remember.   It's light and fluffy and just gorgeous.  Enjoy the slide show.

Last night traffic in Atlanta was just gridlocked!  The roads were slushy and freezing fast.  I'm so glad hubby doesn't:  1) work in Atlanta, and 2) have to take any interstates to get home!  As it was, it took him about 1/3 more time than usual to get home.

Temps got down into the mid 20's last night, so anything that was on the roads froze solid.  The state had DOT workers out all night trying to keep the roads salted and graveled, but it was just too much.  Today all the roads in the area are just solid ice!  They are telling everyone to just stay HOME!  Hubby had planned on going to work today but that was a no go.  I had planned on attending my first ever meeting of the local Farmgirls chapter, but that is a no go as well.  Guess we won't be going out for Japanese for Valentines tonight, either!  Maybe we can do that next week.

This is our third 'decent' snow this season, and usually we are lucky if we get one!  And now they are saying Monday we may have another one!  Don't you just love El Nino!!!

So, since weare literally snowed in, I'm gonna be playing with paper today.  What are you doing??? Becky

And this is Georgia!!!

Well, you'd never know it from the weather, but I live in the southern US!!!  Most of last week our temps were extremely bone chilling cold, and then on Thursday into Friday we were visited by the 'Alberta Clipper' - an  Arctic cold front blasting through the US.  Brrrrrrr!

The snow began hours earlier than predicted, just after 1 PM on Thursday.  And it snowd, and snowed, and snowed!  Looks like I had the right flag hanging outside our front door, doesn't it?

It immediately started sticking, I mean the ground had been frozen for almost a week by now!  By 3:15 I called hubby and suggested he might want to head home, but as it wasn't doing anything at his office about 32 miles away, he chose to stick it out and work until 'quittin time'.  The snow was beautiful, and a mix of what we call 'hominy' snow, or a pelletized snow, and big light fluffy snowflakes.

The back yard - aren't our neighbors Leyland Cypress trees lovely!

Now, here in the south, when we get snow it is usually a slushy, wet snow, so it doesn't stay pretty for very long, but this snow was a dry, crunchy snow, and it just stacked layer upon layer of pretty white stuff .  We ended up with about 1 1/2 inches or so, and it sure was pretty.  These pictures were taken Thursday aftrnoon, so what you see was only about 1/2 of the total accmulation.

The woods behind our house.

Hawaii.  That's what I call the big island out front!  Don't you love my rosemary bush?

Friday morning the roads in our subdivision were solid sheets of ice, so hubby stayed home all day.  If this is what it's going to be like when he retires, I'm not so sure I like it!  He was either 'playing possum' on the recliner, traipsing in and out of the snow, playing golf on the Wii, or bugging me ALL DAY!!!  He has GOT to come up with some interests before he retires - period!  BTW, it will probably be about 4-5 more years, thank goodness!

Some very cold rose leaves!

Another view of Hawaii, and a neighbor's house.

Camellia Cottage

Then all day Friday and all day Saturday our temps didn't get above freezing.  Low temps were in the low teens, wit wind chill levels between zero and -5 degrees.  Yes, that is minus 5!!!  Some of the snow has melted where the sun hit yesterday, and now we have icicles hanging off the back of the house.  We probably won't be above freezing until tomorrow or Tuesday, but then by Wed. or Thursday we'll be back to more normal highs in the low 50's.

Today is the 4th day the snow is on the ground.  My Mama says that her Mama (Mama Medley) always said that if snow stayed on the ground for 3 days or more it was waiting for some more snow.  What do you think???

 Late Thursday night pic taken with the flash.  I love that you can see the snowflakes falling!

I have to tell you that when it's cold like this, if I don't have to get out into the weather, I don't!  I haven't been out of our yard in two weeks, and while I'm beginning to get a little stir crazy, it's not been too bad!  I've had plenty to do, and have played a good bit with my new Cricut.  (Love it!  Check here for projects I've made using it!)  I even trusted hubby to buy a few groceries yesterday - things like milk, juice, potatoes, cheese, you know - the basics!  But on Wed. or Thursday I'm going to take Mama to run some errands and bring her back here with me for a few days, and she is planning on making me a big pot of homemade chicken and dumplings - yum!

So, what do you do to stay warm and dry and to occupy your time in this kind of weather???  Blessings folks!  Becky

Wordless Wednesday - January 21, 2009

Wordless Wednesday Courtesy of French Lique, Texas

Theme - Winter

{Okay, so this is almost Wordless Wednesday. This pic was taken on May 17th, 2007 in the Yukon while we were on a tour from our Alaskan Cruise. That was the latest they still had that much snow in recent memory, and only 5 days before we were there they had 14 inches of fresh snow.}