Icy Tuesday

We have been home all day, the school announced last night that they would be closed today. Otter was happy, she got to sleep in. I didn't, the doggies still think that they should be fed at a regular time so we got up around 5:00 and had coffee. We have mostly been hanging out in front of the fireplace. I did manage to get out and refill my birdfeeders and we brought in some more firewood.

Here are a few shots from today. Not in any particular order. Captions are below the pictures.

This is the swing on my front porch. It's covered with sleet that has blown up onto the porch pretty far. The porch is long and the sleet managed to get pretty far up it.

Front yard, taken from the porch and looking east. It looks like snow, but it's all ice.

One of the many cardinals, there were 12 at one time. Both male and female, several of each.


When we went outside, the birds left but they didn't go far. This georgeous fellow is sitting in the tree above the feeders, waiting for us to get out of his way.

I think this is a type of sparrow or chickadee, I looked it up once but I can't remember. It's small, white belly with a black back, sides and head. Larger than a wren but smaller than a sparrow. We've also had regular sparrows and the sparrow that has side stripes on it's head, as well as woodpeckers, starlings and one very fat squirrel. No sign of the doves today.


Ice hanging off the front of my car. The car looks white in the picture, but it is actually silver.

From the front porch, looking west. That's my car that is beside the Cool Baby/whatever he changes the name to! His impala is behind the El Camino but it's not visible in this picture. It's about as covered in ice as my car. Otter's school has already announced for tomorrow, and I will probably stay home as well. I don't know how long it would take to de-ice my car, but the temperature has never gotten to the mid-20's even and it's been sleeting all day.

One of those birds I can't remember the name of! I was actually taking a picture of the ice on the branch, I didn't even realize that the bird was in the shot until just now. The ice is pretty thick.

The fence in the back yard, the same one the neighbor's dogs come through, with one of the many cardinals sitting on it. He was also waiting for us to move so he could get back to the feeders.

The view from my back deck, Otter was filming with her video camera and Maggie was just standing there. The tree to Otter's right is the one the cardinal was sitting in, and the wooden fence is just to the right of it. The darkish area at the bottom of the feeder is spilled seed. I also threw quite a bit of seed on the ground and put it up on the dining room window sill.

The seed on the ground was not meant for this particular birdbrain! Notice the white stuff on his nose - he'd been nosing in the ice to find more birdseed.

Playtime!

Maggie looks like she is scared, but she was actually playing with Frasier and was about to jump up at him.

They zoomed off into and around the yard after this, they kept jumping back up on the deck and then running around like headless chickens. Eventually, Frasier tired Maggie out and he kept running for a few minutes. Then he ran, full speed, around the yard one more time and then zoomed into their gate. We heard the dog door flap, and he went straight to his blanket where he just collapsed and took a nap. Maggie stayed out for a few more minutes before she followed his lead.

Our paper was never delivered today, which I'm glad about actually. The roads are bad, nobody needs to be out if they don't have to. Bill was over 2 hours getting home yesterday, instead of the usual 20 minutes. His school district is also closed tomorrow, but at this point it is just the schools and not the offices so he might still have to go in. He might take a personal day instead, if they are not closed. They should be closed, but they might not be. Just about all the school districts are closed tomorrow. The library announced it was closed today and so did the big mall, which almost never happens. There have been some isolated power outages, but not anything too big.

As icy as it is here, south of us got a lot worse. The sleet was only supposed to last a couple of hours, according to the news this morning. It's been falling all day and doesn't show any signs of stopping any time soon. It was a good day for chili, so of course I made it for lunch. But then I make it just about any day, it's in my Texan blood I guess!