Winter snow over Pittsfield pond

Contrast this photo of the frozen pond with the two photos taken from the same spot earlier this year during the autumn colors http://tinyurl.com/frozen-pond

A New Hampshireman's Prayer

Well, it didn't take long for snow to move from being beautiful, to being a LOT OF WORK!

It's still beautiful, though I do have some thoughts for the Good Lord, on improving on snow.



The trees in our back yard are now really showing the signs of winter. On a clear day we can see through them to the very top of Mount Washington, 60 miles due north. In the 1930's my father walked up it one day. It's pleasant to reflect on that -- that Dad was out there 70-some years ago.

This photo was taken of our back deck from the upstairs window. That big pile of snow is 4 feet of snow heaped on top of our barbecue grill! And since that grill is our emergency cooking source -- our house is completely electric except for that grill, and New Hampshire has power outages when ice storms come -- I have now cleared a path to it. And for the first time since I was a kid, icicles off of the roof!

This shows that having snow isn't all fun. And it brings me to my comments to the Good Lord, on improvements He might consider making to snow:

That pathway through the snow -- which is only a foot of snow at present, and is likely to become 4 feet before long -- so that Vickie can get out to where her fabrics are kept in the shop out back -- that thing was hard to cut, because the snowblower can't get traction on wet snowy grassy ground, and I had to muscle the thing all the way. (Sound of violins.)

So, Lord, I wanted to make a comment. Because, You're really, really good at some things. Sunsets at the beach-- you just can't improve on them.

And rain -- you did a good job on that. We need the rain, and you have arranged it so that when it rains on cars, and sidewalks, and driveways -- it flows down off of them, and into the ground. Which I think is just a terrific arrangement.

Now we come to the snow, which is a different arrangement, because the snow does not fall off of the cars, and the lawns, and the driveways. And, I know You can do it! Because it just doesn't seem fair for me to have to move all that snow. I didn't put it there.

If You catch my drift.

One of God's Little Creatures Lives Under Our House

Last night we had our first snow. I injured my leg so this time Vickie had snow duty.


One of God's little creatures crawled out from the basement of the house next door, walked under our back stairs and over to the barn, and back again and left a really interesting trail. Can anyone guess what it is? We've seen an animal that looks sort of like a big gopher or beaver but with a small tail and big back haunches. I've thought it was a marmot, but the local residents don't think we have marmots around here, and the New Hampshire wildlife website doesn't mention them. Do these tracks identify this fellow? Click the images for a better look.

This photo shows that porcupine tracks in the snow look pretty much like this, so maybe that's what it is: http://tinyurl.com/porcupine-tracks

This is a photo of blueberry hill about 5 miles away:

First light snow on trees in our back yard

The season's first snow!

It's December 5th, and we're finally getting the season's first snow. Still just a couple of inches, but quite beautiful. And this evening, a red-letter day: The first snowplow came down our road. Vickie quickly went out this afternoon and got these shots. She said that the snow was coming down in big clumps. "It was like somebody was having a pillow fight in heaven."

Late Autumn Frost on the Leaves

Vickie took her trusty camera out the other morning and caught these lovely images of frost on the leaves, before the morning sun burned it off. Please click photos for larger images.
Brent

Late Autumn Leaves

Photos Vickie took recently. (Click for larger images)

Leaves on the Lawn

What autumn's beautiful colors look like when the leaves have all fallen to the ground (click photos for larger image)