It’s the day after Snowmageddon and unfortunately Mother Nature is not quite done with us yet.
This was the biggest snow storm to hit SE Michigan since the Super Bowl Blizzard in 2015 where we got a foot of snow.
Yesterday’s grand total was 9.2 inches of snow. What made it so bad was we had new snow nearly every day this past week, starting with last Sunday’s 5-inch snowstorm. I sure am glad I got out while the gettin’ was good the past two weekends.
This morning, I peered out the front door before venturing outside. I saw humungous hills and valleys of snow and it looked like skiers might come schussing down the street any moment. I didn’t see any neighbors up and digging out yet, so I decided to take the camera and capture some images of that pristine show for today’s blog.
I suited up to head outside. The snow had drifted against the screen door; good thing I had a big breakfast so I could give that door a little oomph to get it open. The sweep had also frozen to the stoop, but luckily it didn’t tear it.
Wow! It’s a good thing it was a gloomy-looking sky because all that snow would have been blinding. The sidewalk leading to the backyard had not been shoveled since I finished up yesterday at 9:00 a.m. As you see in the above picture, snow drifts settled against the fence or blew into mounds along the garden. Those mounds of snow are not bushes, but mini-mountains made by Mother Nature.
I was wearing knee-high boots and the snow came up over them in some places. The backyard looked beautiful. I wonder who visited on the back patio in the wee hours of the morn?
Maybe it was the squirrel who clambered down from that nest way up high in the tree.
I was looking for the blue jay to take a picture of him, but he was MIA. Then, all of a sudden snow flurries erupted. I wanted to take more pictures, but didn’t want the camera to get wet, so I hustled to the front yard to take them before a full-fledged blizzard ensued. There were two City snowplow drivers having a brief rendezvous out front.
Suddenly, one drove off and the other guy came tearing down the street a few minutes later, blading away all those inches of snow and simultaneously depositing ice-filled crud onto the apron of each homeowner’s driveway. Nice!
That heavy mess gave me an extra hour of work for both driveways. Our City declared a snow emergency from 9:00 a.m. Friday through 9:00 a.m. Monday, so no one can park on the City streets. Some people try and do it anyway and usually get a ticket.
Camera in hand, I paused and looked for some interesting shots to best illustrate this massive snowfall. I meandered over to my neighbor’s house, and, in doing so, put the first footprints of the day on the snowy sidewalk between our two houses. “Walking in a Winter Wonderland” may be a beautiful Christmas song, but I’d rather be walking on the perimeter path at Council Point Park on a Winter’s day, than on this loooooong length of City sidewalk which I have shoveled nearly every day this week, and countless times already this season.
In the driveway, their car was groaning under the weight of the snow.
The BBQ grill was barely recognizable – after all, we’d had about 10 inches of snow this past week before Snowmageddon. The backyard looks frozen in time .. just like it usually does all Summer, except blanketed in snow and ice.
Speaking of frozen, check out these lethal-looking icicles which I elaborated on in yesterday’s post. They look like translucent daggers … or stalactites. I quickly took the photos, then steered clear of them in case one broke and fell down on me. It wasn’t until I looked at all my photos tonight, that I noticed some icicles on my own house, despite me crowing about having none yesterday.
This backyard was always a haven for birds, but the neighborhood birds may not feel too welcome right now.
These bird houses, as well as the various garden knickknacks sitting on the wooden rack were similarly dripping with icicles.
I’m sure the cardinals are drawn to this feeder with their likeness on it, but unfortunately it is nearly empty right now. I like how the feeder nestles right into the bare tree with its branches laden with snow. I heard the distinctive tweet of a cardinal, probably in my own barberry bush where they usually build their nests – that beautiful red bird would love to feast on some safflower seeds – I just know it.
And out front, that birdbath was topped off with more than a foot of snow, so no baths or drinks today for our fine-feathered friends.
Tea for two? That table and chairs sure aren’t occupied these days.
I finally decided to quit fiddling with the photos and get crackin’ on the snow shovelin’ – ugh. The snow is piled as high as my waist in some spots and throwing the snow to the side is getting more difficult. I have to walk a fair piece just to dump it off the shovel.
We’re getting freezing rain right now, followed by 2-4 more inches of snow.
Somebody up there please make it stop!
Linda Schaub
WALKIN', WRITIN', WIT & WHIMSY 
Lovely pictures. So much snow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Thank you! I sure hope the snow stops soon – they say after today, it will be dry for awhile and we will get 40 degrees on Wednesday, but that will not chase all this snow away. In my opinion anyway. Much as I hate dealing with the snow, when it is fresh and clean like this, it sure is beautiful.
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It does look beautiful
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The weather report now goes like this … have to share with you. No more snow for at least a week, but … in the 40s on Wednesday and a heavy rain on Thursday. Isn’t that crazy? I’d like to look outside and see clear pavement again. I try to keep it clear to the cement so I can take my car out and at least run it in the driveway. But, I can’t see the pavement for all the ice. The poor car will stay in the garage a little while longer. Since I work from home, I don’t need it for work, have groceries so am okay there. The car has a trickle charger on it, so I just run it every morning in the garage if I can’t take it out. The Groundhog was right … sigh.
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Wow you do sound desperate for the snow to end. I don’t get the Fahrenheit scale, I’m used to Celsius. What is 40 degrees in f
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I heard this morning that we got 52 1/2 inches of snow from 12/01 to 02/11 … that is double our usual amount. I cheated and had to go to a site to convert to celsius … (“calculateme.com”) … 40 degrees is 4 degrees celsius and 52 inches of snow is 132 centimeters. I’m originally from Canada and I would be using the metric measurements had we stayed there, but we moved to the States when I was 10 years old. Do you have snow where you live?
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Well I never stay in a single place for long. Last time I was in a snowy area it was the Himalayas in my house there. Very cold indeed
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I think the snow-covered Himalayas sounds a lot more beautiful than lowly Lincoln Park (in any season). 🙂
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🙂 🙂
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Have you made a snowman?
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No, I didn’t but the Friday snow would have been good for it I think. I went out to shovel this morning and the snow that fell after I went inside yesterday was about an inch, then freezing rain and it was slick and a glaze over the snow – it was treacherous! I have to start my car every morning and can’t get to the garage from the house and so I went, little baby steps, all the way and was glad to plant my feet in the garage where it was safe, then made the trek back to the house again … took a long time to do that … tons of accidents as the roads were full of black ice. 37 more days til Spring I heard, but that doesn’t mean anything as we often get snow and ice in April. Must get a lottery ticket soon!!
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Sounds pretty terrible. This year is way worse than normal right?
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Yes, we only had 30 inches altogether last year – I walked a lot in the Winter. I miss the walking and I don’t have a treadmill, so if it goes much longer, I’ll have to start out low mileage again – I pity the poor people who have to drive in this. I would have a headful of gray hair by now. 🙂
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Oh, my gosh, Linda! Your pictures really tell the story! Look at those icicles! Stay warm and cozy
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Thanks Jill – I took your advice and let my pictures tell the story, along with my narrative. I may not be a fan of snow like you are, and I attribute that mostly to my hesitation to drive in the Winter weather, but I sure can appreciate the beauty of the newly fallen snow. I just had to take the camera out and capture some images – those killer icicles especially. I shoveled this morning, a mixture of snow and slush and boy was it heavy. I think the rest of the snow that was predicted has fizzled out – yeah! I will keep my fingers crossed that is it for awhile.
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Oh, my! Gargantuan Icicles longing to stab the ground,
and hopefully not falling on an unsuspecting passerby.
That’s a helluva lot of snow, Linda. Good show! 🙂 Good grief, though.
The pangs of Spring your pictures bring are melting within me,
as fast as they are born. Enlightening mounds and drifts shiver me timbers.
My Grandma Dot loved Cardinals, and my Dad was the biggest fan ever
of the St. Louis baseball team, so my affection for them runs deep in my roots.
Cute birdhouse! I bet they love it. Redbirds are standout creatures, no doubt.
Hang in there! I pray the skies cease dumping on you all real soon.
Best wishes and good luck with your trusty shovel. Take care, too. UT
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They sure are gargantuan icicles Uncle Tree, and dangerous too. A few of them bit the dust and I saw them broken apart on the snow this morning when I was outside (again!!).
The mounds of snow are incredible, and, like you, I hope the heavy snow, combined with the freezing rain, does not break off any tree branches. Ouch! But seriously, during freezing rain and ice, plus wicked Summer storms, I worry about that tall tree in yesterday’s picture as well as two old, very large trees in the yard behind, which not only host many squirrels’ nests, but have roots coming out of the ground bigtime. These trees have not been attended to in years.
My mom loved her blue jays and cardinals and this house has many figurines and also Christmas ornaments collected through the years with these birds featured on them.
The top birdhouse is the one I’m guessing that you like. Funny story – that was a birdhouse I ordered from Gardeners Supply catalog. I was ordering some landscape items for the backyard and they featured that birdhouse made of repurposed wood and repurposed linoleum tile. I thought it would be nice in my garden. I opened the box when it arrived – it had the most-horrible smell and I ran it outside right away before it smelled up the house. Marge saw it outside before I found a spot to put it in the yard and remarked how cute it was. I said it “stunk to high heaven and she was welcome to it” … she said she didn’t smell anything and put it on the wooden rack where she displayed her garden knickknacks and it has remained there for years. Sometimes a wren family will make their home in it and she used to take photos of them.
I hope the end is in sight for this snow. I am writing a post now about the snow and celebrating my 5th year anniversary with WordPress – I came here to get my “sticker” from them. I hope your bad weather is done soon too.
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“It stunk to high heaven” 🙂 Now, that’s an old saying.
Cute story! My Grandma love Ginny Wrens, too.
Congrats on your 5th! 🙂 Good job! “Dilly! Dilly!”
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I love old sayings … I think my mom had a million of them. And, in college I worked at a diner, and was one of the few people who worked there who was not from the South. They had so many fun sayings and idioms and I worked every Summer and all weekends/time off from school and picked up so many of them, along with a faint Southern accent. I loved that job. Next time I shovel on Marge’s deck, I’m going to look at the linoleum roof on that birdhouse as I can’t remember what the print was – I didn’t get time to look at it as I rushed it out of the box and outside. Each birdhouse was unique and one-of-a-kind. It was one-of-a-kind alright. Gardeners’ Supply is employee-owned and they are all about serving and satisfying their customers. I called them the next day and said something was very wrong with the birdhouse as it smelled and where did it come from? They said “well, we advertise it is repurposed wood” … I asked for another one to exchange it and the employee I spoke with said “hold please” … he went to the warehouse and did a “sniff test” and came back on the line and said “Ma’am, they are all like that – we’ll give you a a credit on your next order, just keep the birdhouse.” Marge and the wrens thought it was okay-dokey, so maybe it was me?
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I think I’d like a birdhouse like that — one of a kind. (Smelly or knot)
As I wrote my long story about the hanging tree, I tried to remember and use all the old cowboys sayings whenever I could, southern as they may be. I do consider myself from the South, but I only talk like that when I go down yonder. Then, I love speaking in vernacular.
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I haven’t bought anything from Gardeners’ Supply in a while, but I searched there tonight to find out what the linoleum roof was made of … the print made it even more unique but it’s no longer available. That was about 8 years ago that I bought it. I will take a better pic of it when the snow and icicles are all gone. It was rustic looking, so would have looked great in my yard.
My mom and I took a trip to Kentucky and Tennessee in the early 90s – the people were all so nice and we talked about moving there … no jobs at the time from what I could tell. We should have made the move though as we had no relatives here holding us back and neither of us liked the cold Winters, though they are getting their share of bad weather there now. Southerners are warm and friendly and not like many Northerners. Most of our clientele at the diner were from the Deep South, and had moved here to work for the Big 3, then planned to retired “back home” when the time was right. My boss and his wife managed Carter’s. They were from Alabama. He was like a grandfather to me … I would break out in the Southern speak sometimes and he’d say “we don’t talk like that …” but you pick it up so easily. “It’s comin’ up a storm” was one of my favorites. He sounded like Jed Clampett as he always said “whew doggies!” Going to write a post about them some time – maybe this year as it’s 40 years since I left there. I stayed on after I finished school as Ann and Erdie were going to retire in October 1978, so they wouldn’t have to find a replacement for me on the weekends. I have some pictures taken with them in my cap and gown the day I graduated.
I’m not a big movie buff and I’ve never seen a John Wayne movie (probably the only one who can claim that) but my all-time favorite cowboy movie was the miniseries “Lonesome Dove” … I just loved Robert Duvall’s character “Gus”. I have to return to your blog from the beginning as I promised. I intend to read each post … there’s a lot of Winter left to do this yet.
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Thanks for the congrats on my 5th year blogiversary. You have four more years of blogging over me … and, you’re younger than me!
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Linda that is certainly a lot of snow! I don’t remember last winter as too bad here, but then I pay someone to shovel if it’s a lot! Your last comment re the weekend storm coming, went to spam so I am answering on this post. I don’t think our forecast here is as bad, they are now only saying 2 or 3 inches, but they could be wrong……we are way overdue….
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I wonder why it went to SPAM Joan? Some of the strangest things goes there sometimes – I don’t understand it. Well we never had any snow til mid-December, so all that 62 inches was just four months, but we still had snow in April – I thought Winter would never end. I did shovel last year and the last three years did next door and he did my lawn, but I think I mentioned he reneged on me this year since his mother died – grrrr. It is snowing a little today, after I got home though. The odd thing is that none of the newscasters on the radio and TV stations that I follow can agree for our area on the depth of snow … their predictions widely vary, so I’ll hope it is the lowest amount. They are calling for a lot of blowing and drifting on top of it – ugh.
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I love all the pictures! Was this winter as much?
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Glad you liked it Eliza – we had 62 inches (157 cms) of snow last Winter! We only had 1/3 that much this year – this year we had a lot of ice storms and also brutally cold weather, but hardly any snow. All that large amount fell in one day on top of it. And those icicles were amazing!
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They were amazing but if they’re sharp and can fall on you 😦
I’m glad it doesn’t get as cold here…
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I really worried this past Winter as we had the Polar Vortex and it got much colder than the last two we had. On top of that, one of the natural gas providers had a fire and they lost a lot of natural gas. As a result of that fire, they asked ALL Michigan homeowners and business owners to reduce their thermostat to conserve energy so they would not run out. It was an anxious two days for me because I was worried they would reduce the energy level drastically, or worse yet, run out … what if the pipes froze? I was worried and others were as well. Luckiy a lot of the larger automobile plants shut down for the day to conserve power and we were okay. I don’t like our weather now – any of the seasons. The last couple of years, the weather has been erratic and I don’t like this “new normal” at all, but you know what … it is like that everywhere, look how much snow you had in the UK in 2017-2018 and your Summer of 2018 was very hot. A fellow blogger in Sweden said it was the hottest Summer on record. Farmers had no grass to feed their livestock, no water to water the crops or give to them and they were letting the cattle go to the slaughterhouses rather than starve to death. This blogger is a photographer and took pictures of the scenery – dried up and yellowish looking. Very sad, especially for the poor animals.
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The weather is definitely weird nowadays.
Would you ever consider moving if you wanted to live in a different climate? (just wondering)
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I’ve thought about it through the years Eliza – my mom and I went down South many years ago (early 90s) and the people were so warm and friendly (and I had worked at the diner for years with Southerners who were all kind and friendly) and I wanted to move there at that time and there was no work for me and now I find all those Southern states are getting the same type of erratic weather – snow is more prevalent now, not just a fluke. I am not liking what I see all across the U.S. anymore – it seems all the states are battling some type of erratic weather, but I could definitely enjoy not seeing the bitter cold and all the snow.
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I loved the Canary Islands when I visited them (islands off Spain). The weather there stays around 17 to 23 celsius, some parts are warmer/some colder. Some parts get storms (mountainous regions) some don’t at all.
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That sounds like perfect weather – the Winter here and Spring are much colder than they used to be and the Summer even more erratic with storms … wishful thinking to go somewhere with perfect weather – sigh.
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No such thing as perfect weather always, but for some of the time, definitely!
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We have had some stormy weather on top of it – I’m behind in Reader as I’ve shut down early two nights in a row due to stormy weather, plus doing two back-to-back posts made me behind as well. SMH!
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((((((((hugs))))))) I haven’t read most posts in my reader for the week. Just yours and a couple of separate posts, but most posts are going to wait until after passover, when everyone here (brothers and sisters here for the hols) go back
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You’ll be even more behind – I am already behind about a day and a half. It’s hard to keep up sometimes – people won’t be posting as much due to Passover and Easter I would think.
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I’m seriously behind! Just looking at a couple of comments, but most not looking at as then I won’t respond.
I hope it’s getting to spring by you
(((((hugs)))))
Love, light and glitter
You’re awesome!
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I was caught up, but getting behind again – it is difficult to stay caught up and what messed me up last week Eliza was writing so many posts. The weather got back on track, now rain every day until next Saturday (maybe Tuesday we get a break) and snow on Saturday night. It will be the northern counties, but we might get some too – they say it will melt Sunday afternoon … but still!!!
I will return the sentiment to you Eliza:
(((((hugs)))))
Love, light and glitter
You’re awesome!
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