end of February

We got about a foot of snow on Friday. On Sunday we got about another 6 inches. Pete said it's the most snow during the month of February, ever. Allyn went skiing yesterday, and I went snow shoeing. It was beautiful.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
Robert Frost

here

Here in the stillness
Of snow falling on snow.

Taneda Santoka
Zen page a day calendar

light

Crystal clear & zero. It is getting lighter on the morning walks. Leo, Cygnus, Venus & the Moon joined us for the promenade. Was out looking through the telescope with Pete last night. Bagged Messier's 1, 41, 48, 50, 67, & 79. M 79 looked like a little fuzz ball in the sky. Pete said it contained somewhere between 100,000 & 1 million suns.

now it's green snow

We've been having a lot of wind. Hundreds of branches cover the snow pack. Squirrels becoming more active. Received the annual newsletter from the Vermont botanical & bird club. Talking with my boss about the blue hour. She said it's due to the way light is refracted through the atmosphere at sunrise & sunset. The colors of the spectrum are: red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue & violet. She said all the colors can be highlighted during the course of the sunrise/sunset. When you think about it, that's actually how it seems to work. Sunrise starts bluish, and turns to the warmer colors. It goes the other way at sunset. I actually thought I saw some snow the other evening with pastel green highlights. I am either getting better at noticing some of these subtle changes, or crazier. Don't say it, Shawn.

veins of silver

Sunny & 2 below. Even on cold days you can feel the warmth of the sun as it reflects off the snow pack. The inside of the car is warm on a cold sunny day like this. Election signs are appearing at town meeting day approaches. Walking on the cross roads, ribbons of ice reflect from the roads like shiny veins of silver.

Life is denied by lack of
attention, whether it be
cleaning the windows or trying
to write a masterpiece.
Nadia Boulanger
Zen page a day calendar.

snow and sand

16 degrees and snow. The snow is taking on the scalloped appearance you start to see in the spring. The old woodchuck, Doug Blodgett, pointed out to me the similarities between snow and sand. Sand can also take on this same scalloped effect when blown by the wind. Snow drifts and sand dunes can look very similar. He must be smarter than he looks.

!!!

Yesterday it was 52 degrees. It's official. Spring came early this year. John and Ellen are getting married!

She moved so easily
All I could think of was sunlight.

Paul Simon
I Know What I Know

winter birds

quinnbike on flickr

Coming out of production, cardinals at the bird feeder. Starting to hear the summer calls of birds. It's hard to know if new birds have arrived, or if it's the same birds that are changing their calls, maybe to stake out their territory for spring. Ducks observed over the West Rutland marsh. Do I see them now because they're newly arrived, or because it's light when I'm heading home? In the fall, I would arrive at work at sunrise, and head back at sunset. It's pretty much the same thing these days. Back then I would see large flocks of crows heading home just at the same time that I was leaving. I am seeing that again now.

A nameless bird
looks cold
in the wintry blast.
Sampu
Zen page a day calendar

shark

blahhi on flickr

3 below zero last night. Back to winter. The color of Lake Champlain was a deep steel blue on a sunny winter's day the other day. Taking the compost out, the snow was up over knee level. In the colder months, the color of the water in lakes & streams is dark, almost black. In the fall it seems like a "warm" black because of the surrounding brown foliage. It reminds me of the color of a wood stove. When the snow comes, the same black shade seems colder. Reminds me of the eye of a shark.

kites

KentV999 on flickr

Temperatures in the 40's yesterday. Water splashing and ice crashing off the eaves at work. Puddles along the roads. Walking across the street at work without my jacket for the first time in a long time. Roar of the warm southerly wind through the pines. Thinking about kites.

turn, turn, turn

jlassen on flickr

Went to my first hockey game of the season on Friday, Norwich 5 Castleton 2. Temps in the 30's on Sunday. I can actually see parts of the roof as snow has melted off in some places on the front. Snow melt is refreezing on the walkway, out comes the salt & sand. People washing the salt off their cars at the car wash in West Rutland. Pitchers and catchers report today for the Giants in Arizona.

sideways

The results of a flurry coming in sideways.

vanilla ice cream

snowmobile in Maine on Google Images

3 degrees and clear. Driving back from the Zen Center, yellow light of the sun through clouds & snow flurries. The snow on the ground looked like vanilla ice cream. Snowmobilers racing through the same golden field. It really looked like fun.

sliver

Terry Tedor on flickr

Last Friday I was driving home from work, and saw just a wisp of the waxing crescent moon sailing along with Jupiter in the southwest. On Sunday they were even more closely aligned just after sunset. I remembered seeing just the faintest sliver of the waning moon along with Venus in the morning sky just a few days before. It was unusual to see so many crescent moons in such a short period of time. Crescent moon entries seem to appear here on a regular basis. I'm glad that they never seem to lose their allure.

The capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention.
Julia Margaret Cameron
Zen page a day calendar

tuesday morning

Tuesday morning on the other side of the creek.

candlemas day

omphale44 on flickr

32 degrees and snow. Turning colder again tonight. Leaving the door to my office just slightly open to help keep the heat in. The snow is 18" high on the picnic table in the front yard at work. Was out checking the wood pile when I was raking the roof on Sunday. I remembered the adage passed along to me by that old Vermont woodchuck, Doug Blodgett, half your wood and half your hay should still be left by Candlemas Day (Groundhog Day). I'm pretty sure I have enough wood left in the pile for this year...not a bit of hay.

slither

pbase.com on Google Images

29 degrees and cloudy. Thunderstorms over the weekend. Getting to the point in winter where there's more snow than places to put it. Lots of bucket loaders observed moving snow. People raking the snow off their roofs ( third time for me yesterday). Driving to work in the morning without the lights on. Drifting snow on the roads has a slithering snake like quality. Flock of ducks barreling through the sky at the Zen Center Sunday morning.

snow banks

Really not much more to say.

day after snow day II

doniguan on flickr

Digging out, and going back into the world. Snow plows busy all over the region. The snow bank out by Rte. 133 is so high you can't see any oncoming cars. Will have to deal with that this weekend. Valentine cards & candy in the stores. There's also a display of dozens of cases of beer set up to resemble a football stadium in "honor" of the Superbowl. Going from the sublime to the ridiculous.

snow day II

A day at home with the snow. Snow shoeing and cross country skiing. Sound of snow pelting the dried beech leaves. Trees creaking in the wind. The color turquoise hiding in the bottom of the holes that Allyn's ski poles left in the snow. Dried apples in the trees in the high meadow. The warmth of the wood stove. Crosby Stills & Nash. Hot chocolate, soup, and chili.
When I was rifling through the bottom of a storage area for some snow pants, out popped my baseball glove, still holding a ball from summers past. Pitchers and catchers report for the Giants in 11 days.

blizzard

Another snow storm. Part of the blizzard ranging from New Mexico to Maine. Allyn has a snow day, and I have one as well for the first time ever. We had french toast from the Zen Center for breakfast. I asked Allyn what we were going to do today? She looked up from her sudoku and said, "Shovel."

steam rising

Glenn Loos-Austin on flickr

Clear and three below. Steam rising off the Ira Creek and Lake Champlain. The blooms of steam off the lake looked at least 20 feet high. Water is freezing up in the creek. It almost looks like it's moving more slowly, like motor oil, but it might just be my imagination. Digging out John's old, blue, heavy duty winter gloves. Smoke rising from chimneys all over Rutland.