My view of the world this week...with a broken toe

Well, due to a cutting board incident, I have a broken toe. Thus, my view of the world was limited to looking out of this window from morning to night, this week. And, it was a pleasant view, at that, especially with the stained glass addition;-) I spent a lot of time icing and elevating my toe!

I am so bummed. It will be about 8 weeks until I have a fully functional foot, but at least mud season will just about be over by then!

Rotten Weather comes our way

Check out this mess coming our way. The snow has begun at 9pm!

This El Nino winter is the pits! We get a few days of great weather (albeit frigid), followed by snow, freezing rain, and rain and wind. UGH! I'm so glad we took advantage of today's awesomeness before this mess comes through!

Snow: We got 2.5" of snow followed by some icing today.

Caesar Pond walk

Looking toward the north end of the pond.

Immediately after arriving home from the Papermill Trail, I decided to take advantage of the nice weather and headed over to Caesar Pond. This was my first full walk on the pond since it froze over. This winter weather has wreaked havoc on the pond as far as making it accessible to walking, and I don't know when it will be in good condition again. 

I must say that I was chilled to the bone during my entire 1.26 mile pond walk. There was a light, 8 mph breeze from the south which brought the windchill down to 9F, and I just couldn't warm up.

Talk about a low contrast afternoon. The sky was clouding over due to the impending storm, and I had a difficult time seeing the variations in snow depth while walking on the pond surface. I had to tread carefully as I occasionally hit a raised area of snow without seeing it, and almost went down several times.

Snow beaver mounds in the distance??? What???

Snow beaver mounds up close.

I spied snow beaver mounds, and it looked like the beavers had flooded the pond surface in the center of the pond! (Oh...this must be the work of busy Newcomer beavers as they cleared snow to create a nice skating rink;-)

South facing side of the only active beaver lodge on the pond.

East facing side of the beaver lodge

I headed toward the north end of the pond to check out an active beaver lodge.

Then, I checked out a few duck boxes. This one is on the north end of the pond, just west of the beaver lodge.

The trail is now closed and we don't get the needed snowmobiles through
to pack down the trail. Thus, it is now too rough for me to walk on.
This really limits walking in the woods which used to be my
favorite wintertime activity.

I walked from here to the west edge of the pond, and headed toward the entrance of the snowmobile trail (which is now off limits to snowmobiles as someone has purchased quite a bit of acreage and has closed off the trail...bummer.)

My foot print where it broke through to water.

As I approached the edge of the shoreline, my foot broke through some slush into the water. I am always amazed at how much heat is generated at the water's edge (due to the sun shining on it all day long.) Be careful if you walk along the water's edge on the western shore.

I decided to check out one more duck box before heading home, and walked toward the south end of the pond. This tree has given me so many good memories as I have seen birds nesting in this box, and on the branches nearby, over the years.

Papermill Trail walk

We took our Greyhounds for a walk along the Papermill Trail today. This trail is easy on my wobbly knees as it has been packed down by snowmobiles, hence it is one of our favorite winter walking destinations (being only a 20 minute drive from home.)

View through the fencing alongside the trail

It has been so cold out for the past few days that I was expecting the Sabattus River to be more frozen than it was.

But, only small areas of the river had frozen over.

We were pleased to see chunks of ice coursing through the water as the current was swift. It was such a pretty sight. Check out all the sediment that is also being carried (eroded as my students would say;-) This is why the water looks brown.

Stained Glass - Kantyi

We finally got the stained glass piece, Kantyi, hung in the massage room window. It is beautiful.

Full sun through the window at 11 am.

And...

Kantyi with the blinds closed behind it at 11 am

And...

Center of Kantyi at 11 am

Happy Frigid Valentine's Day!

Predicted outdoor temperatures and windchill from
9pm Saturday Feb 13 through 9 am Sunday, Feb. 14.

 Wowee, is it ever cold outside. I took the dogs out for potty at 1:30 am, and the windchill was -30F. I could see tiny particles of frozen moisture flying through the air, and the sky was clear. My advice is to stay inside and hug your honey! Here's what the weather service is advising with their windchill warning:

3:32am EST, Sun Feb 14
... WIND CHILL WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 AM EST THIS MORNING...
* HAZARD TYPES... DANGEROUSLY LOW WIND CHILL READINGS.
* WIND CHILL... AS LOW AS 34 BELOW DUE TO TEMPERATURES 2 BELOW TO 10 BELOW ZERO... AND WINDS NORTHWEST 10 TO 20 MPH WITH GUSTS UP TO 35 MPH.
* TIMING... SUNDAY MORNING.
* IMPACTS... FROSTBITE AND HYPOTHERMIA IF UNPROTECTED FROM THE COLD. LOWER VISIBILITIES IN BLOWING SNOW ARE EXPECTED ALSO.
* WINDS... NORTHWEST 10 TO 20 MPH WITH GUSTS UP TO 35 MPH.
* TEMPERATURES... 2 BELOW TO 10 BELOW ZERO.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
A WIND CHILL WARNING MEANS THE COMBINATION OF VERY COLD AIR AND STRONG WINDS WILL CREATE DANGEROUSLY LOW WIND CHILL VALUES. THIS WILL RESULT IN FROST BITE AND LEAD TO HYPOTHERMIA OR DEATH IF PRECAUTIONS ARE NOT TAKEN. 

And here's how the rest of the day is going to shape up. Whooo Hoo! The afternoon temp. is going to rise to a high of 6F with a toasty windchill of only -9F! Heat wave;-)

Predicted outdoor temps and windchills for Valentine's Day!

Stained Glass - Art mirroring nature

Kagiso (which means "peace" in Swahili)
is one of Roberta's earliest pieces, and is my
favorite.

Our dear friend, Roberta Walbert, has taken up the art of stained glass mosaics. We just purchased two of her pieces, and have been coveting several more. When I initially looked at her art, I was reminded of the kaleidoscope art that Drew created from some of my photos of flowers and fields. I love stained glass, yet have seen so little of it in my lifetime, and then only in churches. Much of Roberta's work is of star bursts and floral patterns, often with an influence from different cultures. I am fascinated by the unfolding of the patterns as they expand from the center of each piece. And, each piece looks so different when backlit by sunlight. We still don't know where we will hang the artwork, and that will be accomplished this weekend. What we do know is that each piece is all the more special because it was created by someone whom we treasure in our lives. NOTE: I just took quick photos, which do not do the artwork justice. See better representations of them on Roberta's website!

Kantyi (means "simple" - an Australian Aboriginal design)
This photo was taken with no light behind it.

Kantyi will be hung in a window, probably in my massage room, which faces south. We are thrilled with the change in color that sunlight will have on it as the sun progresses through the day. It is gorgeous!

Kantyi was held up to the ceiling light with the upper half
of it illuminated. I can't wait to see it in the window!

More Snow

Snow Total thus far: 35.5"
Snow from this storm: 5.5"

Snow Total

Snow Total thus far this winter = 30"
Snow total from this storm = 9.5"

Snow Day # 1

We were in the 3 to 5 inch range at 7am. Then, at 10 am, we were in the
4 to 8 inch range. Finally, at 12:30 pm, we have been upgraded to 
the 6 to 10 inch range for snowfall.

We finally have our first snow day of the year! It has been a long time coming with all this warm weather we've been having. This was such a pleasant surprise as I was needing an extra day off due to working too many long hours of late.

We were getting almost exactly 1" of snow per hour from 7 am through 12:30 pm, but now we are getting over 1" per hour and had 6.5 " of snow at 1 pm.

We are back to 1" per hour and have 7.5" at 2 pm.

We have 9" of snow at 3:30 pm.

We have 9.5" at 4:45 pm. A snowmobile just went screaming by, at quite a fast speed, on the road.