Big Snow Storm

Today is Kristen and my 44th wedding anniversary so, hopefully, the roads will all be passable so we can go out to dinner tonight at he Gardner Ale House.

It snowed all day yesterday and most of last night. This was easily the largest snowfall that we've seen and it was the heavy, wet stuff so it really piled up in the trees. When the leaves are on the trees, we can't see any of our neighbors. This time of year, we can ordinarily see them all. This snow has taken us back to our summertime level of isolation.

I'm not sure how much snow we had. The forecasts varied between 3" and 2'. I get different measurements depending on where I measure but I would guess that it was around a foot. I cleared the driveway just before dark yesterday and then did it again this morning.

We haven't seen many birds at our feeders lately but it was amazing to see how many we had during the storm. I had always thought that the birds headed South for the cold Winter but some species are out there year round and others seem to think that this is South.

The cardinals (my favorite) are here year round.

Got this clip of it snowing last night after the snowplow went by and triggered the motion sensor lights. Vehicles on the road don't normally set them off but the plow will do it every time.

I bundled up and went out to take some pictures outside the house before breakfast this morning:

Looking up Coldbrook Rd. toward town center (Church is on the left).

Across the road in front of the house.

We went for our daily walk after breakfast and took some more pictures:

This is from the Coldbrook Rd. / Barre Rd. corner of our property. The house and trailer are barely visible through the trees. Kristen stuck her hand in at the last second to suggest another shot.

Kristen's suggested shot.

Looking up Barre Rd. along the property line.

Approaching the school on Coldbrook Rd.

Going up Deacon Allen Rd. (the school driveway).

The bandstand on the town commons.

-JC-

Christmas Eve 2016

Merry Christmas!

We finally treated ourselves to real stockings this year. My Mom needlepointed stockings for Briar and Grant (and her other grand kids). Kristen needlepointed stockings for our 5 grand kids. Briar found that she could order a reasonable facsimile online for Gus  We did the same thing this year for Melissa and ourselves.

We've been having the kind of weather that we didn't get until later last season. Even the days when no snow is predicted usually have a flurry or two. It's supposed to rain all day today but we just had an unexpected hour or so of pretty heavy snow. The flakes were the largest that we've seen, some the size of maple leaves.

We had some "warmer" weather after the last snow but still have a layer of snow. If we do get that rain today (which just started, by the way), that may end our chances for a white Christmas.

Gus' folks are visiting them for the holidays so we've been staying out of their way. We will be going over tomorrow for Christmas dinner.

The town ice rink (visible from our kitchen window) is now in place. They put up the wood frame 2 Sundays ago. Last Sunday, they added the plastic liner and the Fire Department used their tank truck to fill the rink with pond water. It now appears to have frozen solid. People have been walking on the surface but we haven't seen any skaters yet. We'll have to get Niko and Maya over once their other Grandparents leave.

All of the local rivers and ponds have frozen over (if I haven't mentioned before, we have no lakes here - they are called ponds no matter what the size). I'm not sure how thick the ice is but we haven't noticed any ice fishermen yet. When it gets good and thick, they'll be setting up their huts and fires out on in the middle of the ponds.

Today, 12/26, was the first time that we've seen skaters. This kid's mom was playing goalie and he was slapping shots at her (brave Mom).

Ice fishing on Long Pond (our favorite kayaking spot in the summertime). Not a great picture (the sun was in my face and I couldn't see the display). A couple of ice fishing sites are back against the trees. Today, 12/26, was the first time that we've seen ice fishermen. I talked with one and was told that the ice is 4" thick (2" is the cut off)

-JC-

Local Rolling Stones Sightings (1981)

As I'm sure that I've mentioned once or twice that one of our neighbors hosts an open house every Friday evening so we've had a chance to get to know quite a few of our neighbors. Recently, they got to talking about the summer that the Rolling Stones spent in town. Many of the long term residents had stories about seeing them walking along the road, etc. Out of curiosity, I looked it up on the internet and it really did happen.

First, let me mention that North Brookfield is one of several small towns that abuts Oakham. It's a bit more populous than Oakham and is where we do our marketing.

It was the Summer of 1981 and the Stones were preparing to go out on a stadium tour to promote their recently released "Tattoo You" album. For whatever reason, they set up their full stadium stage in a barn in North Brookfield and rehearsed there for 6 weeks before setting out on tour. During that time, they also played a small club in Worcester billing themselves as Little Boy Blue and the Cockroaches.

Some of the neighbors thought that they had recorded the album there but, from what I've read, "Tattoo You" was a collection of recordings from old sessions that didn't make it onto the previous albums (can you believe that "Start Me Up" was a reject?).

Mick and Keith were on the outs at the time so recording a bunch of new material wasn't in the cards. It was years after the "Tattoo You" tour before they got back into the studio.

-JC-

And Twice More Today! (Snow Blowing)

It's been cold.

Thursday night / Friday morning, we had 60 MPH gusts and we woke up yesterday with the thermometer reading -1° F (and you can imagine what the windchill was - something like -20°). -1° is cold but it doesn't compare to the -17° that we had last Valentines Day.

After that wind, we expected to find that all of our wreaths had taken off for parts unknown. All were in place but one bow was missing. We didn't expect to ever see that again but it had dropped straight down and was wedged between the granite slab that is our front porch and the house.

We walk every day but we draw the line when the temperatures get below zero. We attempted a walk yesterday after the temperature got up to 5° but headed back to the barn when we headed into the wind and it felt like our faces were going to wear off.

After and afternoon of melting followed by a very cold night, the snow took on an interesting dimpled look. I took these right before our 5° walk attempt.

This morning, we woke up to a fairly heavy snow with the temperature at about 17°. We took our morning walk in the snow and then, because it was about 6" deep in the driveway, I got out the snow blower. You might wonder why I didn't wait for the snow to stop falling. Much more than 6" and the blower has trouble keeping up.

Later, about 1pm, the snow stopped and I cleared another 6".  The forecast called for 3-6". Kristen measured on the front porch and got 6". I'm sure that I cleared 12". My theory is that we're dealing with some drifting. The driveway is low and collects more than average. The porch is higher and probably gets less than average. I'd bet that we probably had 8-9".

Kristen took these pictures of the second snow blowing of the day.

 

And I took this of a female cardinal looking for seed under the snow laden feeders. There's a male on the backside of one of the feeders, spilling a lot of seed.

The temperature's still rising and we're supposed to have some freezing rain a little later followed by regular rain. The next week or so will be above freezing and rainy so we'll have to see if we end up with a white Christmas.

-JC-

First Snow Blowing of the Season

Last year, it was January before we had enough snow to get the blower out. They say that we'll have a lot more snow this year and, so far, they seem to be right.

We had about 6" last night and it was immediately followed by a light rain which didn't do much more than pack it down and make it heavy. We've gotten above freezing today (for the first time in the last few days) but that's not enough to melt the snow. Left uncleared, the heavy slushy mix would refreeze tonight into something awful.

The snow plows have been busy since early this morning so it was time to get the snow blower out. Speaking of the plows, we figured when we moved here that being on the road to the school would be a sure way to get prompt attention from the plows. What we didn't figure was that, when there's snow, they close the schools so there's no need for that prompt attention. The early plowing this morning made us think that the schools would be open but, no, it's a snow day for all of the schools in the area. We have noticed that one of our friends is driving the plow today so maybe he's taking care of us.

Returning from our daily morning walk and looking up the driveway from the street.

Looking toward the street from the far end of the driveway.

Starting to blow the snow.

One thing that was interesting was that this very wet snow was very effective at clogging the blower. I had to clear the chute several times and I don't remember having to do that before.

-JC-

A Trip to Boston

We decided to make a trip into Boston this past week. We wanted to do a little shopping and see how Boston does Christmas.

We arrived early on Tuesday, stayed Tuesday night and headed home after lunch on Wednesday. I did my best to pick the warmest clearest days in the forecast but it ended up raining during the night while it snowed at home.

We stayed at a nice little hotel, just across State Street from Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market.

Our first destination was the North End where we did some sight seeing and had a great Italian lunch. After lunch, we explored the Public Market, Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market and accomplished all of our shopping objectives.

We had a great seafood dinner at Legal Seafood (across from the Aquarium). and then headed back to Quincy Market to see the light display.

This lighted arch was in a waterside park near the Aquarium.

Lights at Quincy Market.

Giant Christmas tree at Quincy Market. The tree kept changing colors but all I seemed to capture is white.

Our breakfast options on Wednesday were limited so we had some of Dunkin's finest and then took a very long walk. We explored the Commons and Public Gardens before heading farther East than we had previously ventured. We walked for several blocks through the park that separates the eastbound and westbound lanes of Commonwealth Avenue. We then cut South to Copely Square and Prudential Center.

The Frog Pond Ice Rink at the Commons.

Kristen and an interesting tree in the Public Garden

Trinity Church at Copley Square

Lunchtime was approaching so we headed over to Cheers (the former Bull and Finch that the Cheers TV show used for outside shots). We still had a long walk back to the car before we headed home.

-JC-