Winter Wonderland

Well, the first real snow of the reason (that little blip in October does not qualify) finally arrived on Saturday, the 5th. What was supposed to have been rain showers ending with a few snow flurries overnight ended up being two inches of snow. Not much, but it was enough to put a nice frosty glaze on everything. These pictures were taken the next afternoon. For the record, that is my wife's "dog", not mine.



Most of it was gone within a few days, but overnight from the 8th to the 9th, "scattered snow showers" ended up "scattering" 4.5 more inches. It apparently took the state by surprise as well, as after two miles (taking about 12 minutes) on a poorly treated Route 6 into my 57 mile commute, I had to turn back. It ended up being a blessing in disguise. School, which had first been delayed an hour, was canceled, and then around 9:00AM, rain began to fall on the snow. It knocked down about two inches of snow, but had I not cleared it that morning, I would arrived home that evening to two inches of skatable ice on the driveway - which would still be there today as daytime temps have been in the twenties.

Unbelievably, the broccoli plants were still alive this morning, even though night-time temperatures have been in the teens. I finally had to pick the heads though, as some critter had stripped down one of the plants to the stalk. Maybe next year I'll try some floating row covers. Looks like the season is finally done though. Time to start planning for the spring planting . . .