Entry #4: Snow Day

anitazachary
Jan 27
2 min read

“Oh, the weather outside is frightful…”

Snow covering grass and leaves, twinkling in the sun and shade. — We got about an inch of snow overnight! Jordan took this picture in the backyard.

Well, for my part of North Carolina it was! For about 17 hours.

At 7pm the call rung out: "IT'S SNOWING!" Which gave way to a mass exodus outside, phones clutched tightly in hand; no coats, shoes, or socks in sight.

Beautiful, tiny little flurries were dancing down. Sometimes you could only see them by looking at the streetlight, but others were heavy enough to hold their shape when they landed. There was yelling, laughter, and hoping around on our front porch; cries of: "I got one in my eye!" and "I tasted it!" echoed through the cul-de-sac.

Our neighbors probably thought we were crazy, hooting and hollering, especially since we just came off of a full moon!

That said, we do get every ounce of enjoyment out of our snow here, sparse as it is. My daughter and I get into our puffer coats, mittens and hats, and go for our 'snow stroll'; which is a walk around our neighborhood, soaking in the winter wonderland. We’ve done it for as long as I can remember, and is one of the best parts of snow days.

Me, walking up our snow-and-ice covered road for our snow stroll. Mailboxes have been censored with a light pink heart emoji. The image is cropped to remove identifying houses. — The start of our walk. Most of the road still had ice on it!

Taking our time, we look at our neighborhood covered in a rarely seen white blanket of diamonds. Even the neighbor's trash can looked so elevated and elegant. Just goes to show that everything can look beautiful with snow on it!

Footsteps /tracks in the light snow, in the sun and dappled shade. — Initial footsteps in the snow.

Another part of our stroll is to look for animal prints, guessing what each print is. Recently, I bought a book about animal tracks at a secondhand bookstore (a new one to us) and we put it to good use! We saw birds, squirrels, and two different types of fox prints wandering through the backyard (which is backed up to a wooded area).

Four fox tracks in the inch deep snow, mainly in the shade. — Fox tracks!

An innumerable amount of bird tracks on the road and the yard, all covered in snow. The bird tracks loop around in a circle. You can see a pair of brown shoes and black shoes (myself and my daughter) as we walked around the neighborhood. — Bird tracks that went in several loops around our neighbor's yard.

I was glad we filled up both bird feeders, and put out suet!

Two birds eating at a outhouse-style birdfeeder and a greenhouse style birdfeeder, with a hanging block of suet in between them. — Lunchtime for the birdies

The garden is asleep with her cozy white blanket. Fingers crossed my rosemary and lavender are still alive, come Spring!

8 or 9 green, steel garden boxes covered in snow. The boxes are mostly fenced in, some with dead plants in them. Behind the fenced in area is the greenhouse - which is also green steel - and clear panes of plastic/glass. Beside this is a black barrel for compost, also covered in snow. Behind that, further back, is a brown fence in the tree line, which backs up to a swampy/forested area. — The garden and greenhouse all covered in snow

A small lavender plant, dusted in snow. There are other plants covered in snow around it, namely green onions. Most of the plants look dead or are struggling. — My poor lavender and green onions!

On the backside of the garden, a thin wooden bench sits against the iron fence, covered in snow. Beneath it are pavers also covered in snow. — The backside of the garden and our bench

After the stroll, we had lunch, only to find the snow was almost gone. Only one tiny patch remained!

One last little patch of snow amidst dirt, acorns, dead leaves, and sticks. The snow is disrupted by sharp bird tracks all over it. — The last little bit of snow, covered in bird tracks.

Like I said, we really, really enjoy our snow. The Farmer's Almanac says we have at least two more chances for it this year (early and late February), so we'll just have to cross our fingers until then!