Morning Snow

It snowed late yesterday so when I woke up this morning everything had a pretty white coating of snow. Naturally I had to go out on the porch to see for myself.

I am fine, just not blogging so much, so don't worry about me. I'm not going anywhere.

Well, maybe back into the house. It's below freezing out here.

A Week

Wow! What a difference a week makes.

This was the view outside the side door last Saturday.

And here is the same view this morning. This is much better. I spent some time on the front porch this morning, and that was really good. I will be spending a lot more time out there as the weather warms up.

Out in the Snow

The front porch is screened in, and that means if the snowflakes are small enough, and it is a bit breezy, we can get snow on the front porch.

Of course I had to investigate.

Snow is cold. I knew that.

Snow is WET. I did not know that. I do not like wet.

I went back into the house.

Family Sunday

Mr Karate, Rubylocks and Little Miss went to the Botanical Gardens yesterday.

This is what it looked like out back on Friday morning. We got about three inches more snow yesterday. Today we are supposed to get another 3-5 inches and overnight, another 8 to 12 inches. We might have another 1-3 inches Monday. (Did you add that up? It means 12 - 20 inches before the end of the day on Monday. Add that on top of the 17" we already have. And we are supposed to get more on Wednesday and Wednesday night.

Mom did the groceries on Friday night, but decided she wanted to cook some lamb shanks today, so she ran to the store just before dinner yesterday. It was a madhouse. The place was jammed and there were long lines at the cash registers. This is because everybody and their brother was there because they wanted to stay inside during the snow on Sunday.

Have I mentioned lately how glad I am to be a cat?

Snowy Day, Exciting Evening

So we finally got enough snow to really call it SNOW. The weather guys said we were going to get 4 - 8" the day before, then the night before they changed it to 6 - 10" and then yesterday morning it was 10 - 16" (that's 25 - 40 cm for my Aussie and NZ pals).

Here are the front steps looking down from the porch. Notice you cannot SEE the front steps.  Yesterday was the first day I looked out onto the front porch and decided NOT to go out. Mom was a bit surprised.  Anyway it started snowing around 9 AM and didn't stop until after 5:00 PM.

We are outside of Manchester, and they got 13" of snow. That's a lot. It was good that everybody stayed home. Mom worked in the sewing studio, I napped on my kitty condo in the front room, then in my tent. Mom and I had dinner and then we were watching TV when all of a sudden everything shut off and the house went pitch black.

It was dark for a few seconds then it all came back on. Then it went out. Then it flickered and went out for good.

Damn! It's dark with no lights on anywhere.

Mom called the power company to report the outage, and then went to get her battery powered lamp, radio and flashlights. I followed her around. We opened the doors underneath the sinks so the water pipes wouldn't freeze. Mom put an extra quilt on the bed. Our driveway had not yet been shoveled, so we couldn't go anywhere even if we had wanted to.  Mom folded some laundry, and put the dinner dishes in the dishwasher.

After about an hour, the power came back on. It's a good thing. Yesterday when it started to snow, it was about 29F. When the power was out, it was 10F and getting colder.

That's enough excitement for one day.

Snow, Go, No Go?

 It's snowing out there, and sometimes I have to be really sure if I want to go outside on the front porch to check it out. So this morning I took my time.

Eventually I decided to go out.

Hey, I can do what I want.

Lucky me!

Formerly Feral Friday

Mom is home with me today. She will be doing errands and sewing. I got to hang out on the front porch for about half an hour this morning. It was 22F outside, and I was perfectly comfortable. We got a little bit of new snow yesterday, so it looks like we should have a White Christmas.

Snow

This is what it looked like on Saturday morning.

Mom did what Mom does on a cold day like this. Bake. She made biscotti, pizza dough and three loaves of her special bread. She also made two batches of cookie dough to bake tomorrow and a gigantic pot of soup.

And guess what else she did?

She took a quilt outside in the snow and took pictures of it. 

Me? I napped in my new Holiday tent.

Tuxie Tuesday with Snow

We got enough snow to shovel yesterday. It was 10F when Mom got up the other day, so she didn't let me go out on the front porch. That's minus 12.22 for my pal Megan in Sydney Australia. 






Hey Megan, um, I'm out of the kangaroo treats, and I really love them. (hint, hint.)

Tuesday Tuesday with White Stuff

Yup, that's me on the front porch, looking out at the snow yesterday morning. It wasn't that cold out, so I got to get up close and personal.  Today it is very windy, so Mom didn't let me out.

Sigh.

Snowy

It snowed yesterday. We were only supposed to get a little bit, but we got about six inches of the heavy white stuff.

It sure is pretty.

Wordless Wednesday

Snow, Snow, Snow

It's snowing, as you can see, and it should snow all day today, all day tomorrow, right into Tuesday.

And this is really the only way to deal with it.



PS, for Ellen in Oregon (and others), you can find Mom's recipe for English Muffin Bread here:

http://cookswithlove.blogspot.com/2007/11/english-muffin-bread.html
Mom says the English Muffin Bread is wicked easy to make and doesn't require any bread making skill at all.

Mom had a cooking blog for a while. A lot of her favorite recipes are there.

White Wednesday

How much snow did we get yesterday? I dunno, but it was more than 18 inches and less 24.

This was lunchtime yesterday.  You can see how the wind was blowing the snow around.

This was dinnertime yesterday. See how the car on the right was almost totally buried?

Lookit the snow on the neighbor's oil tank.

In other words, we got a LOT.  We were furry lucky, we did not lose power.  Mom and I were comfy and cozy all day long. I napped and Mom watched the tennis and worked on her tippy-tappy lapbox. When I got tired of napping, I plopped myself next to Mom and got scritches. When I was done with scritches I went back to napping.

It ended up being a good day for both of us.

Blizzard Wednesday, updated!

We haven't had a lot of snow so far this winter, but today will be the day to change all that.

We live near Manchester, at the top of this map.

For my Aussie and Kiwi friends, 36 inches is over 91 cm. The weather guys think we will get between 18 to 25 inches (45 to 63 cm) before the storm is over on Wednesday.

The governor of our state has already declared a State of Emergency, which means if you are not "essential" you stay home. Schools everywhere have been cancelled for Tuesday AND Wednesday.

Snow is expected to fall at a rate of one to three inches AN HOUR, which Mom has never seen before. At that rate, the snowplow guys can't keep up. Not every snowstorm is a blizzard. According to Wikipedia (yes, I looked it up), "a blizzard is a severe snowstorm characterized by strong sustained winds of at least 56 km/h (35 mph) and lasting for a prolonged period of time – typically three hours or more." The biggest problem in a blizzard is that you can't see more than a quarter mile ahead of you (400 m), and it can get so bad it is called a "whiteout" which means you can't see anything. So it is unsafe to be on the road, and they want everybody to stay home.

Works for me.

Big problem though, is that those high winds can cause power outages. I do not want that to happen.



IF we have power, and IF we have innernets, I will post pictures of what it looks like outside as the storm progresses. Otherwise... well, let's not think of that.

this photo was taken Monday morning. It will be interesting to see how much snow there is on Tuesday....

Update Tuesday AM...

This is what it looks like outside the sewing studio this morning. It is snowing and the wind is blowing it around. It is hard to tell just how much snow we have so far, but it looks to be about six or seven inches (15 - 17 cm). The storm isn't done yet, and we will get more. We are warm and cozy, and Mom is watching the tennis in Oz while also keeping up with the local news.  Keep your paws and fingers crossed!

Snowy Saturday

If you were worried we won't have any snow for the When When Contest, take a look at this graphic:

We are in the Blue area, and are expecting 8 or more inches of snow.  That's 20.32cm for my Aussie and Kiwi pals. 

Mom has done all her errands. We are stocked up with foods. Mom has cleaned almost the whole house (she will finish the rest of it today.) We will watch the snow fall outside as we watch the tennis in Oz inside.  It will be a good day.

Don't worry about the When When Contest just yet. It usually doesn't begin until the end of February. 

Will There Be When?

Ayla, Iza and Marley (and TBT) keep asking if there will be a When When Contest this year.

Let's look outside and see...

this is the view outside the front of the house. (All these photos were taken this morning)

this is looking out from Mom's studio.

and this is looking out the back door, to our little shed.

It sure does look like it!

Thursday Two-fer

It is furry cold outside today. Mom says it won't get above freezing for about a week. 

This is what it looks like outside. Everything is frozen.

Will There Be When?

At the beginning of February, all thoughts turn to When.

Really.

They do.

Everycat starts asking if there will be a When When Contest this year.** 

There really isn't any way to tell. We'll have a When When Contest if there's enough snow on the first of March to make a contest successful. That's almost a month away.

This is what it looked like when Mom and I got up yesterday. Not a whole lot of snow. That's going to change today.

We're supposed to have between 8 and 14 inches of snow today. That's 20 to 35 cm.  The weather guys say when the storm is biggest we will get almost two inches (almost 5 cm) of snow per hour. That's a lot.

Mom has already told her day-hunting boss that she'll be staying home, so we will get a few pictures to update this post during the day.

Paws crossed!

Update: 7:30 AM. The snow has started to fall.

Update: this is about 10:30 AM

Update: This was taken at lunchtime, about 12:30 this afternoon.

Mom went outside and cleaned off about six inches of snow off the metal masheen. The plow guys haven't come by yet.



** What? You've never heard of the world-famous When When Contest? All you have to do to win is guess when all the snow will be gone when Mom and I look out this window in the morning.  It's not as easy as it looks.

Snoozy Saturday

Mom and I are both relaxing today. Mom finished her Chicken Quilt and is going to take it easy. We'll be watching the tennis, and the snow falling outside.