A nice day to sit by the fire and visit... Come sit a spell

Pod..don't know how you have daffs so soon in winter. Can't decide whether to envy the blooms, or the gorgeous greenhouse. Sure looks great....

Sharon....the photo above is calling to me to try to paint again. I loved being surprised by the lone red cardinal in a sea of brown birds. Had to click over and see the rest of your pics...and they are great...but that first one just seems to tell a story. Loved it!

We must have had that same snow storm here in '85. We'd just returned from 3 yrs in Hawaii and had to rush out and buy some warmer clothes than what we had...including the lastest rage....moon boots for DD and me! We live on a steep hill, and all the kids spent the day sliding down the hill in the middle of the street since all the roads were closed except to emergency vehicles. Don't think we ever wore the boots again....never had that much snow and ice again. I also remember that our garage was where the kids went to warm up....and all my ferns froze because they opened the door so many times..... Would love to have it snow here again....just for a day, tho!

oooo how I would love to paint the beauty here..........can't, so I takes tons of pictures. Every season here is like a different world

Ouch!!! Bite your tongue on the snow here. LOL!!!

DH & I agree, it is fun to look at snow while sitting in a warm home watching it on tv or a computer monitor. Maybe even looking at it thru a car window providing the car has warmed up. Keep those photos coming Sharondippity while I put more logs on this fire.

Not daffs but related... those are paperwhites ~ Narcissus and usually bloom end of Dec, beginning of Jan. The daffodils arrive in Feb which is not soon enough for me!

I read on another thread the old axiom ~ as the days lengthen, the cold strengthens. Glad of one but not the other. Going back out to sit in the 75° sun of the greenhouse. What an addiction!

same area just a couple of months back.....Oooooo spring that's what keeps me going

Bubbles, that was the same storm! I don't think I've ever seen that much snow in my life!

We are in Tulsa at our son's home. Lots of snow in Dallas but this is the most I have ever seen. Temps in the teens and official snowfall 10-12 inches but it has drifted and banked 3-4 feet just here at his home. Supposed to have another system moved in Tuesday and Wedneday. We may be here till spring.

Christi

Really nice pics, Sharon. I'll look through your pica book IF I can remember to when I take my computer to my son's IF I do remember the computer. My kids have fast 'net connections and are vexed when computing here, using our slow speed.

Our daughter is here from OK and son's spending nights here even though he lives 20 mins away. It is so nice to have everyone under one roof. We're in a sweet spot where the kids and I have had hormones settle so there's some peace!

Looks like y'all are gettin' some more snow up around the Dallas/FtW area....might wanna move a little closer to the fire!

We're gettin' more rain down here in the Willis/Houston area....cold & wet.....wonderful!

not here yet but lookin' kinda gray and forlorn

still have big patches left over from White Christmas

welllllllllllll, it's coming down real hard right now. It is beautiful. We are right at the freezing mark, hope it will stick

Cold (41°), ugly and wet here. I want my normal Southcentral Texas winter back! Not the drought however....never, ever!

still coming down and this fella has his eye on my birdfeeders

Cool photo! That is called hunting over a baited field. What type of hawk is it? Or should I say is it a hawk?

Speaking of birds, neat eagle Antiquedrose... Christmas gift?

I'll deal with the rain and muck up to the ankles. Just promise me you northernmost Texans will keep the white stuff and cold up there?

DH got this fire going so I am off the start the GH fire.

Oh I am jealous y'all got the snow and didn't' leave any for me over here in east texas LOL

It's been quiet here with just Dh and the dogs and I
but I'll have to take some pics and share my present from my folks since the portable one they got me the first year here has dry rotted I get to step up to a somewhat real greenhouse just home made LOL

My folks showed up last night so I am planning on taking them to canton so they can see first monday compared to the flea market in Donna before they leave to go on to Mission area for the month.



This message was edited Dec 30, 2009 9:41 AM

Red Tailed Hawk.........protected in this area, there are several pairs on our property.


I have been trying to capture a good picture of the pileated woodpeckers. We have 2 or 3 pairs of them as well...and many of the little black and white downey woodpeckers


snowfall was beautiful, stayed around for several hours, but most was gone this morning

It snowed most of the afternoon yesterday, but thankfully didn't stick and create travel problems. It wasn't really all that cold either, another added bonus. Here's the view across the parking lot from work taken around 3pm.

The eagle is part of my every changing yard art. This item won't last a season as the materials are cheap. Fun while it last.

Sharon! Your hawk photo is beautiful! What a beaut, all fluffed up. I hope you get photos of your woodpeckers.

And Willis guy, we lived in Willis 4 years a while back. Beautiful area. I don't know if you were kidding about wet wonderful weather, but I really like wet overcast winter weather, especially these days. We don't get too much of it here and it's not extreme. Anything gets old, but the hot summer sun get more horrid to me every year.

I'm enjoying everyone's winter pics.

I can do without snow. What I want is some warmer days. Still trying to watch the vacant house next door. I called the Sheriff's dispatch the other day when there was a car there and somebody had covered the windows from inside so light from candles or whatever might not be visible. We never heard what the deputy found or did. We suspect neighbors are involved in some way. Anyway, the car was gone the next day.

Linda, you've got a regular soap opera going on next door, don't you?

Yes, I'd rather have Desperate Housewives around here, but I'm stuck with the vacant house that isn't always totally unoccupied. Never had these kind of problems before. It's scary.

Happy New Year everone! Hope you don't mind me poppin in again in 2010. At least this year I am bringing warm winds from AZ instead of a blizzard from CA (tee hee) as we are in the south. I thought the spring bulbs might be up in TX and I see podster that you have some LUVLY daffs blooming already! Hope you all/y'all will share your spring blooms again this year on the Bulb Forum so we northerners can drool. Thanks muchly!

Listen to you... lol I loved AZ this time of year. I know you are enjoying that balmy Arizona weather with blue skies, green grass, oranges on the trees. Got any Yule logs to throw on our fire?
Life IS GOOD! Happy New Year!

Mesquite anyone?

Yum... I'll toast brats on my long fork over it. Thanks for the donation.

Mesquite burns so hot. Years and years ago DH got a cord of mesquite for *free*. That is *free* until we had to have the fireplace rebuilt as it burned so hot it burned out the grout around the firebricks. That cost a pretty penny to have repaired.

Christi

:O Good to know for a future AZ/NM homeowner! Thanks LouC.

best in the BBQ grill......makes the most deliciously flavored steaks

We had leftover turkey from the freezer...leftover from Thanksgiving. It was nice, since we didn't have turkey for Christmas. Hoping for a good year. I heard that many local businesses actually did better in 2009. Not all, of course.

Boy, the last two mornings have been airish with a heavy white frost! I have a fire in the fireplace and another in the heater in the greenhouse. I like stoking the fire but the old timers around here have a saying that if you play with the fire, you will wet the bed. I'll take my chances ~ lol I do need to stay out of the greenhouse though. When the sun is out and the fire is going. I want to just sit down, stay there and soak up the warm. Can't get away with that. We had a house full for New Years Day dinner and am now getting ready for snowbird company shortly here. Also need to get on the bookwork for the accountant.

pod ~ who is wondering if things will ever slow down?

I'm now wishing we'd bought a house with a fireplace! I think it would help take off the chill from the air on mornings like today.

I'm starting my year off with a week of vacation and I'm so very excited! I get so worn out from the Christmas season that it does my body good to get some rest. I have lots of projects to work on this week, so it won't be a totally do-nothing week, but at least I won't be at work! I want to get my WS containers started this week and get the rest of my veggie seeds. After this, NO MORE SEEDS!! I have them coming out my ears! LOL I have some inside chores to take care of as well, mainly cleaning. I really don't like cleaning.

All right ~ piddling with plants and seeds may be work to some, childs play to others. What a fun vacation. Hope you enjoy nice weather and accomplish all you want to get done. Ya want some seeds??? lol

Actually, I do need some broccoli seeds and Purple Hull seeds, as well as a few others. I just ordered a bunch of herb seeds on NY's Day! LOL Most of them are for companion planting.

Did y'all hear the weather guys are predicting more snow for Houston on Wednesday? We're supposed to have lows in the 20's and highs in the 30's for Thursday and Friday. That just figures. I jumped the gun because all the freeze damaged plants just looked so scraggly and pathetic so I had a guy come in and clean up, prune all the dead bits off, cut everything back to green stems or branches and now they're going to get zapped again. That'll teach me. I always have such a hard time with leaving things alone this time of year. It's so nice and cool outside and I want to run around "tending" to stuff that should be left alone until the 1st of March. I have a few things that are total goners and will have to be replaced. I really hate that I lost my hamelia patens. It was huge and had such a pretty form.

Glad to see y'all are keeping the fire going. I haven't been checking in as much lately since we're having so many doctor appointments. DH's next chemo is Tuesday, so y'all make sure not to let the fire go out while I'm gone :)

Crow

Bless your heart. I am so glad the snow is staying south of us for a change but sorry you have to deal with it. I have no doubt impairs the traffic there. Hard not to clean up after a frost but harder on the plants not to leave the dead foliage for protection. Now, I wonder if my meager Hamelia patens will be counted amongst the living. Glad you checked in. You've both been on our minds. Puttin' another log on this fire...

Only a slight chance of ice or snow here. One site says 17° here for Thursday night. That's what you need to look at...not what's coming in the current 4 to 5-day forecast, but what's going to get there when the arctic lows hit after that! Of course, they can't really forecast that far ahead, so it's all speculative right now. But be prepared for the worst, then it doesn't sneak up on you. That's my motto.

I heard that we might have wind chills down in the single digits (as cold as 0) by the end of the week. So glad I don't have to get out in it!

My weather site says 15° to 16° in Dallas/Ft. Worth area for Thurday night. That's actual temps. But this could all change, either way...hopefully for the better.

Thursday's actual temp high is only predicted to be 31º. Yuck!

Oh boy!!! it looks like I will have to bring all the small potted plants into the garage, and I have many trays at least 75 of them, so we will have to leave both cars out of the garage.
So far I have been putting a tarp over them on the patio, but the teens is just too cold for small pots.
It seems we have had a lot more of the below freezing temperatures this year, it must be the global warming, don't you think?