Winter 2015

Well, this winter started off pretty poorly.  It was cold, and then every time it would threaten some precipitation it would warm up and rain.  Pour, actually.  We received inches of rain in December, including a completely lacking-in-Christmas-spirit downpour on Christmas Eve.  The ground was partially frozen and there was nowhere for the water to go.  Then it would get cold again and the water would freeze.  We had weeks and weeks of thick ice that made it treacherous to venture outside.  It was awful.

But, our cries of despair must have been heard.  What a winter we have had the past four weeks or so.  We've had one storm after another, and unlike the coast which is buried in ridiculous amounts of snow, we've received a manageable foot or so at a time.  And, somewhat atypically, the thermometer has not ventured above freezing, and so we have feet of soft fluffy powder on the ground and snow sticking around on the evergreens.  It has been just beautiful.

Of course, it's been very cold too.  But you get used to it!  When I went out this morning in 4 degrees, it felt pretty balmy.  I skied without a hat and with thin gloves on.  Then I realized it was 15 degrees warmer than the previous morning.  So it was, relatively, balmy.  And yesterday we had a heat wave when the temperature hit the mid-20's.  We were all running around without hats or coats.


Oreo has been very happy with this snow.  We take him out snowshoeing or xc-skiing every morning.   The snow has gotten so deep that he's pretty much kept from running off on his own and stays right with us, eager to stay in the broken trail.  Lee and I are teaching him the command "Break Trail" to move him in front, because otherwise he tends to tread on the backs of your skis or snowshoes.

He loves jumping at the trees and knocking the snow off and then enjoying the shower of snow coming down on him, as shown below.  It's pretty funny to watch.

That is him in the middle of the snow shower in the second picture.