Tuesday's Top Two Headliners

As all the major news outlets made clear, there were two huge newsmakers in North Carolina Tuesday; the first big snowfall in five years and the presidential inauguration.

Because I have my priorities right (and all of you watched the inauguration anyway), I shall blog about SNOW!

Judy and I looked outside about 3 a.m. and saw a light covering of snow. Good start. We went back to bed, and when I woke up at 6:30, I had a sinking feeling that we hadn't gotten much more. Greg Fishel had not inspired hope in his closing remarks the night before. His telltale "hedge-my-bet" lines were, "constantly changing situation" and "a difference of 30 miles could make the difference in seeing several inches and almost nothing at all." Doom and gloom.

But, not to worry. The snowscape had changed for the better. We had four inches at dawn's early light and another inch was added during the morning hours. We had a nice early neighborhood walk, and a longer one later. I snapped dozens of photos (including the updated snow pic at the top of this page). We found the snow was not very good for packing; hence, no snowballs and no snowman. Today we found it was no better for sledding. It's just too soft, and the sleds plowed into it. No problem. The walking is safer (considering my history) and the beauty of the winter wonderland is the main thing anyway. We had snow cream (and will have another round of it in a few minutes).

Here are some of my favorite pictures from yesterday.

The snow gave our local birds a greater appreciation for our feeder.

Obviously, there was no fire in this chiminea today.

To use the self-timer, I had to go "dashing through the snow!"

The prayer garden swing is waiting for warmer weather.

One of my favorite spots is our "tunnel."

Good thing this wood is for next winter!

Our shy neighborhood cat didn't realize I could follow its tracks. It really covered a lot of territory yesterday.

It may look like this tire is carefully balanced in the snow, but it's actually a tire swing gently resting on the five inch snow.

Still hard to beat the simple image of a snow-covered dogwood tree. In ninety days its white blossoms will replace the snow. But there may well be more snow before then!