Our Week in the Snow

I love it here. There's so much variety, so much to see and do, even if you're not overly physical—I'm going to admit that I consider walking my biggest physical endeavor. I'm not doing a slide show this time, but showing big photos of this last week, three outings including my early morning walk today out in the snow with the camera.

I want to say up front that I thank God every day that I live in these beautiful surroundings with my good husband in my comfortable home. I am blessed.

The first day's snow was a surprise. It hadn't been on the forecast, and trust me, I look online daily, and John checks the paper. I'm one of those people who lived without four seasons for so long that I celebrate each one (except Summer—I had enough of that one). I look for the signs and watch for snow. Also, since we do live a way from the stores, we only shop about once a week, and keep a list of what we're out of the rest of the time. If we see that snow is expected, we'll go ahead and shop early for things like eggs, milk, and bread.

I took a few photos from the decks, first the back deck, which is by the front door (above)...

Then by the front decks by the slide doors (below)...

I started some laundry, and then we headed out with the grocery store list to make sure we weren't going to run out of anything. It's silly, since we don't get all that much snow, but we like to be cautious. We also like to take the camera along. We ran into a small herd of elk right down the road, so I was glad we'd headed out with the camera in tow.

The next morning we were a little more prepared to see that it had snowed again, but I was a little amazed to see that it was still snowing. It snowed all day, in fact, and although our little community has its own road plows, the highways leading up to us didn't get cleared until very late in the day, so we were technically snowed in for part of the morning. (Did I care?) The overnight difference in our patio furniture's coverage was comical, but we won't be using it for months.

I enjoyed watching the snow come down all day. The great thing about living where we do is that through all the big windows we have an incredible view, and it never stops changing.

We had visitors, as always, and they never seem to mind if I take a photo or two (or ten).

They sure have grown this year. These are two of those that were born this Spring, believe it or not.

You can hardly see the fire pit, and I think it'll be awhile before we have any s'mores out here with our friends.

I went around and turned on the inside lights so the house would glow in the pre-dawn light. I love the camera I use because it's so good with low-level light. (It's a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18.) These next photos were all taken just as dawn was breaking this morning, after another night of snow.

John was really pleased with me because when I was done tromping around with my camera I brought in his newspaper. I guess we each have our own priorities.

This is the deck on the other side of the house, and we're not likely to use it until Spring, either.

Nobody uses the swing, but I'm not climbing up there to take it down. Besides, it could be considered "atmosphere." I'm willing to share my atmosphere... It's supposed to keep snowing through tomorrow. I love this. I'm not saying I'd love it so much if I were raising little kids who had to be carted to school, or if were heading to work in it. I'm not dumb. I'm retired. I can sit back and enjoy it.