Winter Scenes

First off, I wanted to show off the potted canna lily that's growing so nicely in my bedroom. At this rate, it'll be ready to bloom as soon as its warm enough this summer!

On the subject of killing two birds with a single stone (no offense, starlings!), I've also heard from a few of you requests for what the recent painting project entails...so I managed to work in the recently painted walls as the background here.

The pale blue walls already existed...on Sunday, I added the darker speckling, which has sort of changed the character of the blue walls a little. Now just wait until I've got a little time to do some stenciling.

Today I thought I would share a few random winter scenes with you, taken along today's more circuitous route to work. First, is this frozen pond and house in North Chatham, overlooking Pleasant Bay and the Atlantic Ocean beyond.


Next, I stopped along the road to capture a flock of assorted waterbirds who were splashing and feeding in the open water where Tar Kiln Creek feeds into Pleasant Bay. Of course, they flew off as soon as my camera was ready, but the ice formations along the shoreline were still pretty cool.

Today's final image is this frozen fishing boat, at Rock Harbor in Orleans.

Three Winter Views

A banking visit to Eastham today (delayed by the storm)allowed me to capture this wintery view of First Encounter Marsh.

Found these red berries (i think they may be bitter sweet) in a snowbank outside of work this afternoon.

And then on the way home, I visited Skaket Beach for this sunless sunset.

Sunday Snow

Well, the last few winter storms to devil New England have visited us almost entirely as rain, so perhaps balance is restored to the universe with the knowledge that today, we are getting the snow.

At first, it just seemed like a few flurries. After all, they had only been calling for a possible inch or two of side effect for a storm passing us out over the ocean. But then the storm track shifted and suddenly there were storm warnings. But those weren't even necessary, from the speed with which snow began accumulating.


Outside the kitchen windows, about half a dozen dark-eyed juncos dug and pecked in the snow for the seed I'd thrown out earlier, with a frantic energy that foreshadowed my afternoon visit to the Stop and Shop.

Some birds, like this woodpecker, seemed undetered by the weather.


Although it'd only been snowing about an hour or so, the roads were a bit on the slick side and there were lots of folks out driving. In fact, I got the very last cart available inside the store when I got to the market. Aisles were crowded, all of us seemingly stocking up on the same things.

And then, a cautious ride home later, I was back at home and ready to stay there for the storm's duration.

Slushy Shoreline

I had the oppor
tunity to visit Eastham early this afternoon and couldn't resist a slight detour to my old favorite spot, First Encounter Beach.

Our temperatures rise and fall this time of year on the twin influences of warmer ocean temperatures and cold winds sweeping out off the mainland. The shoreline is where this is most visible, as the edges of the bay turn to a slushy machine.

Tide was coming in as I visited the beach, but the sounds and the movement of the water have changed from the summertime. Each successive wave pushes against the dryer snow/ice at the water's edge...slowly moving this little piles of ice further across the beach.

I couldn't resist stopping by the bridge at Boat Meadow Creek, when I spotted these gulls trying to stay warm on shifting ice floes.

And we think we have it tough in the winter!

Frozen

It's no secret that the convergence of moving and the holidays have taken a lot out of me, so I'm glad to have January here when I can just enjoy a bit of downtime and try to catch my breath from December.

I'm still taking photos as I explore our new environment (like this one of the Chatham Town Boat Landing at the end of Quanset Road, looking out over a partially-frozen Pleasant Bay)and will post-date them so they appear on the date they were taken.

But you may find that I go a few days without posting anything, before back tracking to share the photos. After all, January's designed (I think so, anyway) as a time for gardeners to rest...and that's what I'm doing!

Icy Saturday

I had originally thought that I would spend some time Friday night unpacking some of the recently moved boxes, so as to bring the empties back to Eastham for reloading.

But by the end of Friday, there was really no energy to spare. I was thinking just illogically enough to know which six boxes I had to visit in order to set the bathroom up for a nice hot shower, before collapsing in front of the television before falling into bed a little while later.

Morning came quickly and after a cuppa joe, I got to work doing some unpacking and then heading off to Eastham to load up some more stuff. Temperatures had dropped into the 20s and stayed there on Saturday, so the driveways were a bit icy and tricky to manage, even with four-wheel drive.

Still, I was able to get another big truckload delivered to Harwich before needing to head into work for the night's festivities there.

When I got home around midnight, I discovered that Owen had found the box containing our Christmas inflatables, and they were dressing up the front of the new house, along with Granny's Christmas ball.

First Snow

What remains of the shrinking pond has frozen over now, I'm sure to the dismay of the ducks, who've gone into hiding. It has been cold, down in the twenties, but not for all that long, so I'm sure it'll thaw out pretty quick if it warms up again.

Although we had a few very light flurries in the air this past Sunday night, this morning saw our first real dusting of snow, though it remained fairly light and never really accumulated much.

I'm sorry I've not been writing more. With just a little over a week until my forty-third (gasp!) birthday, I've recently discovered my warrantee may already have expired.

It turns out that last week's regimen of daytimes spent decking the halls at work and evenings packing boxes at home was perhaps a little over-doing the multi-tasking. Or at least that seems to be the case, having caused myself some back and rotator cuff pain that made last weekend's busy schedule a bit of a challenge.

I had a bit of massage therapy yesterday, in hopes of working out some of the kinks, and it may well have done so. However, in the meantime, I'm even more sore from the treatment.

While I recover, I thought you might enjoy looking at some of the festive displays that brought us to this moment!

Icy Sunshine

Another cold morning for us today, though we were happy to wake up and see no snow out the windows. The sun made a rather tepid appearance this morning--you can kind of see its influence on these golden crocuses, who still knew better than to open themselves.

I'm sure the birds weren't expecting to need a zamboni for the birdbath on this morning the day before Easter.

Here's that silly blue primrose which tried to bloom in January and has come into its own and already gone past a little during our chilly first week of April.

I am happy to see, though, that it has begun to spread itself out a little bit...despite its experiences with unpleasant weather and bad timing.

After the morning, this was the most sun we saw. But again, we're grateful that the predicted snow showers have continued not to materialize over the course of the day. We'll see tomorrow morning if Mother Nature has given the Easter Bunny any assistance in hiding the Eggs.

I've got a few more Easter-themed links to share with you today. Rather silly, things, at that, but fun just the same. The first is more on the theme of Hanging With Your Peeps, courtesy of Lili. And then, for a change of pace, we thank Jenn once more and offer her the Midnight Garden Pullet Surprise for passing along the link to this Chicken Chapel.


Despite the lack of sun, there was a still a little something in the way of a sunset on the way home from a long day at work, as you can see from this shot looking out on Cape Cod Bay from First Encounter Beach.

Valentine's Storm

It was a dreary Valentine's Day around here, at least as far as the weather was concerned. While much of the northeast saw great amounts of snow falling, we got about a quarter of an inch, before temps rose up into the 40s and gave us a day of torrential rain and high wind.

Recently popular for skating, today the pond is only collecting more water.

Seasonal Sightings

A visit to Rock Harbor on Saturday afternoon. The overnight's cold temps were making things sort of slushy-looking.

Glad to say that our temperatures moderated back up into the fifties today. After all, the cold is nice and snow festive...but there's no reason we can't have a little more pleasant weather while we're shopping and hanging lights. Here's some late afternoon sunshine streaming through our side yard.




Above there's a shot of our neighbors, the Eastham Elks Lodge...who as you can see are dressed up for the season.

In preparation of tomorrow evening's soiree (amazing though it sounds, the Midnight Gardener will turn 42 close to midnight on Tuesday), I added some lights and pine roping around the kitchen door.