3/22/12

Hail Spring!


Not!  The weather is so strange this year.  It snowed all day yesterday, and clearly most of the night.  This morning I went out and filled the bird feeders.  It isn't terribly cold out, and this snow is heavy and wet.  It's very hard on the trees and shrubs.  If you'll notice in lower middle part of this image, just to the left of center, one of our flowering plum trees--the largest one we had--has broken off in the snow.  Bummer.  There is another one further down the driveway that has broken off as well.

I'm always amused at how different everyday objects appear when covered in a layer of freshly fallen snow. This is the fencing around our dogwood tree--to protect it from nibbling deer.  (Deer love dogwood even more than they love tulips.)


Our bird bath skating rink.  In case you're wondering, our bird bath is hooked up to a mister that sprays a fine mist over the surface of the water.  The birds never used it until we hooked up the mister, and then they couldn't get enough of it.  The woman at the bird store informed us that birds must be able to hear and see movement on water to know what it is.


Here is our deck railing.  The air has been very still for it to pile up on the narrow railing like this.


This is the trellis for our clematis.  The clematis is mere sticks right now.


Sidewalk lighting with icicles!


Yard art.  Rather ironic piece of art under the circumstances, don't you think?


Bird feeders and squirrel guard.  By the way, the squirrels have figured out that they can bypass the squirrel guard by simply standing below the bird feeders and jumping like Superman.  They can leap tall bird feeders in a single bound.


It is pretty, I'll give it that.  It would be prettier in December, however.  In March, it's just plain maddening.


This Japanese Maple tree lost a big trunk/limb from the weight of the snow a few winters ago.  We thought it might die after such a huge part of it split off and fell to the ground, but it has done fine and grown taller since then.


Is there anything more hopeful than daffodils poking through the snow?  They are trying to bloom with all their might.


Sigh.  Oh well.  I'll say this about Portlanders:  We are never happy with the weather.  If we're not complaining about the rain, we're complaining about it being too hot.  Or too dry.  Or too cold.  It is a rare day--no matter what--when we aren't complaining about the weather being too much of something.  If we weren't complaining about the weather, we wouldn't know what to do with ourselves.

Did you notice?  There are no cat tracks.  None.  Zip.  You won't catch any self-respecting cat tromping through the snow.  No way.


11 comments:

Linda said...

Nice. We've had exactly t wo snowfalls this winter, and one of those was before Halloween. Neither one of them was any more than an inch or two. Right now, it's headed for the 80's today. Way too warm for this time of year. Everything is blooming right now, a month ahead of time!

Linda

Aliene said...

I can't imagine snow this time of the year.. All our trees are in full bloom, garden is coming up and spring is definitely here.

Sarah said...

Your photos are gorgeous but it's sad to hear about the damaged trees. I'll send some of our 80F weather way. I'm half expecting that we will get snow again here before too long...when oh when to take the snow tires off...

Mrs.Pickles said...

yuck! its snowing here right now...stupid snow..lol

Snoodles said...

Yay! My kind of winter here in SC - no snow!! LOL
Can't George and Gracie use their super powers to glide over the snow without touching it? Heehee!

Stray Stitches (Linda G) said...

It is a gorgeous sight but I must agree with you - the middle of March is a little late for snow. Stay warm.

Lynda Halliger Otvos (Lynda M O) said...

So much going on atmospherically that the weather is impossible to predict-around the world.

Diane Wild said...

Alas, it'll be gone by the weekend. All you would see of George is the tip of his tail sticking out of the snow.

Teresa in Music City said...

My goodness! It's certainly lovely but I'm sure you are ready for it to be gone! Poor trees!!! I will be sending *SPRING* wishes your way! It's time for you all to begin to have some of what we, your southeastern neighbors, have been enjoying!

hafza said...

Beautiful scenery.. always enjoy looking at all your photos... Thanks for sharing!!

Teresa said...

Oh my goodness!! The pictures of the trees look like they should be postcards. They are just beautiful!

We complaint a lot here too about the weather. But I wouldn't want to live anywhere else.