Leaving Colorado and Arriving Home

 This was the scene as we pulled away from Russ and Carol's house...

 ...and this is what our yard looked like when I arrived home.

It was close to the same amount that they had in Colorado.

Going Over the Pass on Friday

 Friday, after lunch, we headed out to go over Stevens Pass to Wenatchee.  The roads were the worst between our house and the freeway, with the roads on the way up Stevens Pass a close second.  We didn't see a snow plow for a long time and when we did it was coming towards us, not clearing the road we were driving on.

 It continued to snow all the way to the top of the pass.

 There were lots of icicles along the road also.

Weird Sky

 This is what the sky looked like last night on our way home from church.

Which picture do you like better?  Ken likes one better and I like the other one better.

Rainbow

 Yesterday on my way to a meeting, it was raining with the sun shining, so when I got to the freeway entrance ramp, I pulled over to see if I could get a picture of the rainbow.  This picture shows the rainbow ending right where the red car is, so I guess it's the "pot of gold" at the end of that rainbow!

 More rainbow pictures.

Frosty Pictures

 I've enjoyed going out and experimenting with our new camera, trying to get some good pictures of the frost on different objects.  This is frost on a fern.

 Lots of frost on this plant.

 Another fern.

 A bush in the front yard.

 A dead hydrangea with frost.

 Another plant in the front yard.

 Our mailbox.

 More frost on leaves.

The handle on the front of our mailbox.

Mixed Up

My Thanksgiving/Christmas cactus is blooming in March, but notice that only one side of it is blooming. Don't understand it at all!

Neither rain nor snow nor cold, wet weather shall keep a gardener from planting his onion starts!

Snow on March 19th

This is what I woke up to this morning.

I can't believe we've had snow 4 mornings in March during a 2 week period and 2 of the days were yesterday and today.

This was a very icy snow.

Snow on the buds of my lilac.

Spring is on the Way!

Tuesday, our crocus looked like this.

Today, our crocus looked like this...

...like this...

...and like this. Spring is definitely on the way, in spite of the set back on Tuesday.

Snow In January

Fruit trees with lots of snow.

We got a total of 12 inches on Tuesday.

Shoveling the driveway for the second time with the power shovel.

After snowing most of the day, the sun came out for awhile, which just added to the beauty.

Gorgeous!

At least no branches have broken off this time...

...at least that we've seen so far!

Our neighbor's bird bath, I don't think any birds are going to be using it soon.

Spring (to My Mind at Least)

Our Life Group usually does an ice breaker question to start out the evening each week and last week's question was, "Name 2 things you enjoy doing as soon as spring (and it's not raining and warm enough to be outside, this is my definition of spring) gets here?" My answer was to go on bike rides together and to take the grandkids to the park. The next day, Monday, must have been spring, at least to my way of thinking and according to my definition, because it was sunny and warm enough to go to the park with Saben and Annika. Yes, I was still in my winter coat and Annika complained at first that her hands were cold when she grabbed the chain to hold on to the swing, but it wasn't raining and it was warm enough to be at the park, so my first day of spring was last Monday, even though the official first day of spring is still 11 days away.

Two More Snow Pictures

Another picture of my frog rain gauge, I thought it was funny that one day the umbrella was covered in snow and the next day the frog is covered.
Yesterday, it started snowing really hard again, I was afraid that we were going to get several more inches, but it quit after a while, so no more snow for now!

February Snow

We got more snow on Tuesday night and most of Wednesday, ending up with a total of 7 inches. This first picture is my frog rain gauge holding an umbrella of snow over his head.
A winter wonderland in the backyard!
Ken got to try out his birthday present, a snow shovel/blower, and it worked great! It shot the snow higher than the garage roof!

Thursday morning with the sun starting to come out.

A snow covered tree in the front yard...

...and the lollipop tree on the deck.

Lots of Rain

The new rain gauge I got for Christmas.
I was updating the records I keep about the amount of rain we have each month and each year this morning and I discovered that 2010 had more rain (according to my rain gauge) than any other year since I've been keeping records. I have been doing this since 2002, so the 58.2 inches of rain in 2010 is the most in 9 years. I don't know if having a lot of rain the first month of the year is an indication of the year to come, (I really hope it's not the case) but the amount of rain we had last month, also set a record for the month of January since 2002. We had 12.8 inches in January this year, twice as much as last year when we had 6.2 inches in January. February usually doesn't have as much, so hopefully we can look forward to a few more sunny days this month, I sure hope so!

Windy Day

Last Monday was a very windy day! When I got home our yard looked like a war zone, with branches everywhere. I couldn't believe how many branches had come down, it was almost like a tree had exploded, there were so many of them.
Today was mostly spent trying to get the branches all picked up. so we can get the lawn mowed tomorrow one last time before heading to Israel on Monday. Saben and Annika were supposed to stay with us over the weekend and we could have used their energy and strong little backs to help in picking up the branches, ours got tired pretty quickly! I figured Saben especially, would be willing to help since he loves to have us light a big fire in the side yard, from the branches that fall down each year. I had even gotten stuff to make s'mores after the fire died down a bunch. Unfortunately, Annika got sick, so our plans and Kari and Kyle's plans had to be cancelled. We will just have to do the bonfire when they visit us in June, I guess.

On a more positive note, my lilac that fell over in the snow storm of 2006 had one big bloom on it this year, the first bloom since the bush fell over. It just started growing again from the root that was left and now it's blooming again. Woo Hoo!!