Snow Days!

So if you didn't already know, I happen to live in the wonderful area of Northeast Ohio called the "Snowbelt". Actually now I live in the secondary snowbelt, but my long-arm machine is still smack-dab in the heart of it all.

We've been getting small amounts of snow just about every day for the last few weeks, but this past week has been especially cold. When it's this cold the snow is super fine and powdery which makes beautiful winter scenes like this:

This is the view from my quilting room. The best part about really cold winters are the absolutely gorgeous blue skies that pop up between snow storms. (Not fifteen minutes after I took this photo the snow moved in and the sky was a whitish gray which isn't so pretty) Oh, and if you noticed, that is a large flower pot on it's side down at the bottom of the picture...

Just a little ways away from the flower pot on the patio is the bench absolutely covered in snow. We got this snow during the past week but not all at once. The snow so far this year has been a few inches here, 6 inches there, a little more overnight, which isn't soooo bad, but it does add up. 

 So what do you do when you live in the country with almost a 400' long driveway in the snowbelt? You get an 8' PTO driven snow thrower for your tractor. This is my little brother clearing the drive.

 As I mentioned, this snow is so powdery that it basically dissipates rather than being thrown very far.

 And all the while, the puppies (who are older, not young, but puppies at heart) love to look out the front door and take in the view. If you open the front door, they'll sit like this all day.

 Here you've got Hershey, Tucker and Abby. I love when they do this, but I haven't had the chance until now to get good pictures of it.

 And there has to be a ham in every crowd, meet Abby Sue. The other two could care less about a camera or they'll hide. Abby on the other hand wants to be front and center. I think she was a model in a past life.

 One of the other good things about snowy days like this (yes, there are good things about snow!) Are the beautiful sunsets we can get. This one was much prettier in person, but occasionally this time of year we get skies with shades of oranges, reds and purples that will take your breath away.

So that's the snow for the last week, however like any season in Ohio next week is supposed to be completely different. Last week on Tuesday the high was 8 degrees. This week the high on Tuesday is supposed to be 52 degrees. And then two days later it's supposed to cool off and snow again. Go figure, weather can be so strange here, nothing seems to phase us anymore. Just keep calm and drive safe. That's really all you can do.

And for those of my friends who have packed up and moved south, we miss you! I know you miss weeks like this! :) j/k. Lake Effect snow misses you! Alright, now I'm ready for a cup of tea. That and I'm getting ready to try out some new soup recipes this week. Wish me luck! Stay warm and remember to listen to the Pat Sloan radio show tomorrow where I'll be chatting about my new book, Seamingly Scrappy! I hope I don't sound like a dork!