Snow Day

We have had a rare snowstorm this week, and are enjoying being home in the snow. Our area will often get a bit of snow each winter, but we usually only get an inch or two before it melts and goes away. In our yard we have over 7 inches, and it is supposed to stick around for another day or two. We continue with some of our book work, but we also took some time out to learn about snow and have some fun.

5 1/2 inches above the 2 we had from earlier

We've really been enjoying watching the birds at our feeders. We enjoy them from inside the warmth of our home but also sitting quietly outside in the snow and watching them fly over and around us. We can hear the whoosh of feathers and the calls and chirps they make.

We've had a Townsend's Warbler around, which we don't see very often. We like their bright yellow colors and their black masks.

Lots of little footprints in the snow on the porch.

Snow science

We found a neat website that explains how snowflakes form, and all kinds of information about their shapes. We read about how they are usually 6-sided, because of the bonds of hydrogen and oxygen in water. We tried to interpret the chart explaining which snowflakes form at which concentrations of moisture and temperature. Then we took our printed snowflake chart outside to catch snowflakes on black card stock, to try to see what we were getting. Our snow was tiny needles.

Tiny needles of snow on black paper

The kids pulled Daddy on the sled

Finally, we made maple syrup candy, just like they did in the pioneer days (such as in the Little House series). We boiled the maple syrup to the soft ball stage, then poured it into waiting pans of snow. It hardened into candy! Not that great for fillings or braces, but oh, so yummy. I used quakerfarm.com for the recipe, since it seemed to be the most basic.

Boiling maple syrup

Poured onto cake pans full of snow

Our finished candy, on paper towels to soak up the snow bits

We've had a great day! Now I need to stoke the wood stove again, and get some warm stew cooking for dinner.

Neglect

Rose hips covered in snow

Oh, my poor, neglected blog! It sits here, quietly waiting, while I am off living life and giving my love to my Hiker Mama website and blog. Yet I feel the stirrings of more to come. I haven't wanted to shut this space down, even though no one except my Mom reads it, because I feel I am not done here yet. Can I keep two different blogs going? We shall see. I do want to spend more time here, though, capturing our days, especially the ones that don't make it onto thehikermama.com.

Dude, you need a bigger shovel

We've had snow this week. This is pretty special. We don't have snow every winter here in Puget Sound, and when we do it is often a dusting one day and gone the next. We've been enjoying a few days of fluff in the yard. It should stick around for a few more, and then turn back to good old rain. We'll enjoy it while we can!

The giant snowball that Daddy made

Snow thoughts

It's snowing here again.  It's been snowing since late this afternoon, and we have four inches.  The flakes are big and fluffy, moister than the snow we had before Christmas.  The trees and bushes are all decorated again, and look pillowy in the ambient light of the suburbs.  I stood outside for a few minutes as I was gathering firewood.  I stilled myself and listened.  It was quiet except for the roaring of the furnaces at the pool on the other side of the green belt.  The snow made soft whispering noises.  Occasionally a brief puff of wind would stir the trees, causing lumps of snow to plumpf off through the branches.  The large conglomerated flakes tickled my face.  I felt if I stayed still for even a short while, I would be covered, camouflaged.  I wondered briefly how long I would be able to stay still, but I could feel moisture seeping through the seams of my shoes.  I decided reluctantly to go back inside to the warm fire and the cozy blankets on the couch.

Let it Snow!

It snowed all afternoon and evening yesterday.  We awoke to 8" of fresh powder.  In a normal year we are lucky to get and inch or two that lasts for a day before turning to rain again.  It is rare to have wintry weather like this for so long.  Everything is covered in white and that excitement is in the air.  We are hunkered down and enjoying a quiet Sunday at home together.  

Here are a few photos from this morning.

Snow on dried lily stems

Annika eating snow - again

Clematis Cap

Snow on Bird Bath

Looking up into the Deodora - red, green and white

Bird footprints

Cat Footprints

We got to watch our red-breasted sapsucker at work today.  We sat only a few feet away, and quietly watched it feeding.  Annika wanted to hold it.  We could hear the soft pecking noises and the scratch of its claws on the tree bark.  A few times it made an alarm call, which sounded like a dog's squeaky toy.  It made Annika laugh.

What we've been up to this week...

I've been taking pictures all week and meaning to post, but somehow by the evening I don't feel like it, and need to work on the handmade gifts I am madly crafting before the Big Day. So here is the condensed version of our week.

We had snow last weekend.  Then the weather got clear and cold, some days not even making it above freezing.  We had school delays in the beginning of the week.  This rock was interesting to me.  It is in the front yard at Gabriel's school.  I don't think I noticed it before, but with the snow all around it I could see the pretty designs in the stone.

Annika will not stop eating snow.  She is obsessed with it.  It took us forever to get to school and back, because she keeps reaching down and grabbing snow to munch on.

We finally got our Christmas Tree Tuesday evening.  Gabriel really wanted a two-foot tree that was just his size.  I wanted a big one that almost touched the ceiling.  We compromised.  It smells wonderful.  The kids decorated the tree the next night all by themselves.  I put the lights on, and they went to town on the decorations.  I just sat back and watched as they picked out the straw ornaments I brought back from my semester in Vienna in 1990.  They also picked out the ornaments that they have made or that were given to them.  Because the tree is small, we only put some of the ornaments up this year.  But it is special, because they cared so much about the ones they were placing.  Gabriel put up the angel he made in preschool a few years ago.  It is made from a paper plate, and most of the glittery details have fallen off.  I don't care if it's tacky, or if the ornaments aren't spaced artfully all around the tree.  I love our tree this year.
This is what it looked like outside while we were decorating.

On Thursday the kids and I walked up the street to the park behind the school, where we did some sledding.  The kids had fun.  It snowed the whole time we were out.  The hills are small and short, but enough for the little ones to feel like they are going fast.  I felt fine letting them go down by themselves and trudge back up the hill themselves.  I mostly watched and chatted with the other parents, though I did go down a few times, too.

Today we watched a red-bellied sapsucker working on our deodora cedar in the front yard.  This photo is taken through a window with a point-and shoot, so it's not the greatest, but if the bird comes back tomorrow, I'll try to get outside and get another shot.  The bird was drilling holes in the bark to get to the sap.  I haven't seen this species in our yard before, so it was fun to identify it, observe it throughout the morning, and learn a bit about its habits.  We pulled out the Sibley Guide, which gives more information than the Peterson Guide.  The kids and Aaron all enjoyed the bird, which makes me so happy.  My little naturalist family!

We have more snow tonight, a light, dry, powdery snow that nevertheless in relentless and thick.  It is filling in all the footprints from the past few days, and covering over the grasses and bushes that had begun to peek out from the last snowfall.  I look forward to seeing what the morning light brings us.  Then it should warm up over the next week.  That's good, because the ice is making it difficult for everyone.  But sometimes I wish we lived somewhere that got snow for more than a few days each winter.   Of course, then I'd have to learn to drive in it...  I guess the rain isn't so bad after all.

Stay safe and warm everyone.