We had a little bit of weather the last weekend of January 2016. Record snowfall actually. The snow finally melted this week, but I'm still ready for more and having dreams of this past big storm. It started on a Friday afternoon and I took a walk over to Druid Hill to snap this shot of the Mill No. 1.
Nothing like freshly fallen snow. The quiet silence that muffles all sound. I saw neighbors begin to shovel even on Friday night and I wanted to gently remind them to calm down, rest, and just wait for the big snow. Looking back, there was so much snow it was truly pointless to try to get ahead of it.
Early Saturday morning E and I took a walk at 6:00 am! Yes, AM. I woke up like a seven year old on Christmas morning and said, "Let's go for a walk." Eric gave me a really sweet compliment, but he doesn't like to have everyone know everything so I won't quote him directly, but it was nice and we bounded out of bed, put on all of our woolies and braved the weather. The snow was already pretty deep that it was hard to walk. We even heard THUNDERSNOW. Which is scary if you have never seen/heard it before. Lightening and thunder during a snow storm is just weird. I've only heard it out east. That never happens in Michigan.
We decided to press on and figured if we got killed in a thunder snow our families would have the best story ever.
Jim Cantore's excitement is hilarious for thunder snow.
By 6:30 am (1/23/16) the roads in Druid Hill had all been plowed but there was no where for us to walk but in the street. It was so windy I wish we had ski masks to make it a little easier to walk. So our trip was short lived and we did a loop around Keswick to get back home quickly.
It just snowed and snowed and snowed some more all day that Saturday.
I made braised short ribs and buttermilk mashed potatoes. Recipe here.
Because shoveling is hard, cold work.
Right as the sun was setting on the windiest, coldest part of the day, I ran outside to do a snow angel. Terrible effort and photo, but looking up at our tree felt like meditation.
It was such a fine snow that it got through the screen on the front porch.
And then, on Sunday, like magic it was all over and the sky couldn't have been any bluer.
We only had one shovel so I went off for a photo adventure visiting neighbors and checking out the damage.
Nancy's dad got the bad end of the stick visiting from South Dakota.
Keswick Sunday morning January, 24, 2016, approximately 11:00 am.
Druid Hill roads were totally clear and melting fast. It was so odd. Three feet of snow and you could still see the road.
My favorite benches.
There were maybe 5 people total in Druid Hill that morning and these two were the luckiest on their snow shoes. I tried renting snow shoes earlier in the week but couldn't find a place to do so in Baltimore. I need to get the following:
- Snow pants...from TJMAXX...they always have great end of winter sales
- Ski mask
- Snow shoes or
- Cross Country skiis
Dad and I were texting and he wrote, "Don't forget the birdies."
I made homemade suet and dumped out the seed all over the ground. I didn't realize you have to wash out your feeders. Thanks neighbor Mary for the advice. My finch feeder was still full and the birds wouldn't go anywhere near it. I guess it was too dirty or clogged up. Either way, I dumped the seed out and took frozen bacon lard, made a ball, wrapped with twine and rolled it around in the seed. Voila. And all the birds came to the yard and hung out.
Even bird nerd Alice came for a visit and G&T.
Monday and Tuesday were snow days for me and the neighbors did such a great job digging out. I did help a tiny bit, but Eric gets the crown for most of the heavy lifting.
We tried to go for a coffee adventure at Dovecote Cafe. Driving through the park was a breeze in his big truck.
Once we got to Reservoir Hill however we were stuck behind an Uber driver. Heaven help us what was that guy thinking? The roads were only clear on 83. Keswick was awful and the side roads were insane. We turned around and headed to Spro. Delaying my first trip to Dovecote.
Mexican Hot Chocolate to the rescue.
The Avenue was passable but there was absolutely no place to park except The Wine Source. We bought cheese and bread and snuck over to Spro.
You can see all the little birdie footprints alone with ours.
It was glorious. Let's do it again.
Thankful for times of rest, snow days and snow covered fig trees.
Thankful for wonderful neighbors, walkable restaurants who stayed open in Hampden and sunsets over Stone Hill.
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