Kuro's First Snow

This morning was one of those rare mornings in Seattle when wet snow fell gently and stuck to all things available. Some areas got more than others. Here in Magnolia we managed to get enough to make life beautiful and miserable.

Beautiful for Kuro and me as we went out and enjoyed his first snow. Miserable for people who live on these hills and had to fight the slippery conditions to go about their business.

Kuro was a little puzzled but he enjoyed romping in his first snow.

Our black bamboo bends under the load but will recover as the snow melts and falls off.

Seen here from the west, my winter flag flies in all weather.

 My smaller flag (2'x3'), sometimes called "storm flag," flies during our rainy windy winter weather. Sometime around Easter I'll change it for the larger (3'x5') summer flag.

Same flag, seen from the east.

Our trees carried a load of snow but nothing like that being experienced further north in Whatcom County where they have been suffering from a "silver thaw." 

For those of you who don't know, a silver thaw is an adult's nightmare and a child's dream come true. Cold rain falls into a ground-level below freezing zone and freezes on everything. Trees and power lines fall, branches break and all surfaces freeze. 

In this case, my sister in rural Whatcom County reports almost an inch of ice on the roads. Great for kids to skate on but not so great for drivers and emergency vehicles.

This flowering cherry shivers now but will burst into flower in April.

 I prune our Chojuro Nashii (Asian pear) back to maintain an open and easy to pick shape. Now it's cold and bare but come the end of September we'll enjoy lots of its fruits fresh and I plan to make more of the pear-lime marmalade that I made last fall.

It's good to think about the coming warm weather on a cold morning like this.

This shot was taken from our kitchen table. Note the reflections
of the light fixtures, about the only color in the black and white scene.

The bird feeders saw lots of action this morning. If you look carefully, you can spot nine birds in this photo. We have a family of Northern Flickers (a kind of woodpecker) that likes the suet in the second feeder from the front. They flew away when I went out to take pictures, but they'll be back. Even though they are very cautious, they can't resist that tasty suet.

After his romp in the snow, Kuro was happy to come in and warm up. He's still a little damp around the edges but he keeps a careful eye on me just in case I decide to go back outside.