Too Much Snow

After several days of gray skies while the snow kept falling, I awoke to a blue sky and sunshine. It was the break between storms...a chance to get ready for more snow. The bucket loader arrived!

My bedroom window has disappeared! He is moving the piles back, adding space in the driveway. Griff can't find the snow rake so I'll get another one today, but he did climb up to clear the shed roof...

Notice the slats in the back of the wood shed. That allows for air circulation to help dry the wood. The fact that they can be seen means we have burned all the wood in that section of the shed...about 3 cords.

For a little com- parison, go back to the previous post to see how high the snow was just a week ago. Then come back to these pictures...

I can no longer stand in the driveway and see the gazebo and beaver pond.

To show how high the snow pile is in front of my bedroom, I went inside... 

The snow that slides off the roof is now in the shadow of the plowed snow pile...

There's the bucket loader raised arm and Griff on the shed roof. You could dance naked in my driveway and I'd never know it!

Winter Beauty & Family Silliness

We had a foot or more of heavy, wet snow that stuck to everything. The white branches in the background I find glorious against the blue sky.  Come spring, when the hemlock branches rise from the ground, the green dog run cable will once again be under them. For now it's protected by the upper deck. I've learned the hard way that it has to be moved away from branches loaded with snow.

 Poles get "planted" each fall to give the snow plow boundaries...

William, my English shepherd, creates paths. Eventually he gets them packed down so I can use them.

This is the house from the road. We put up the roof extension to protect my large rhododendron bush, but it also protects the doggie door entrance for William and gives us a place to stash the roof rake.

The chickadees were hungry enough to empty a feeder each day. I put the second one out so they wouldn't run out of sunflower seeds if I didn't get around to filling their feeder first thing in the morning.

Since gas prices have dropped, Ursula is getting her wish to visit Grandma's house more often. She was giving Jenny a belly rub when her dog Chase decided to get one as well.

We thought of visiting the ice palace at Stratton Mountain, but it was too cold to stay outside for very long. We put that off for a slightly warmer weekend.

Meanwhile, I had heard that Mother Nature was building an ice sculpture by the side of a near-by road. Ursula and I went searching for it. Then we returned home to get our cameras and the rest of the family!

The shape reminds me of a bull walrus ready to defend some territory.

Gregg decided to see if his tongue would get stuck on the ice. Then Ursula had to try it...

 

Museum of Natural History

Mimi found a parking space on the street not far from the museum. It was an easy walk, but cold. 

There were only a few areas with carpet on the floor. My walking sticks don't have rubber tips and slide on smooth stone floors so I checked them along with my coat and sweater... no need for layers of clothing in the museum.


I was offered a wheelchair, but declined out of pride. 

In one corner of the Museum of Natural History it was still Christmas.

These musk ox along with the following pictures are scenes I remember from visiting as a child.

The next diorama shows how some of our Indians were able to build homes underground. I hadn't realized they did this, but it makes sense...their homes would have been cooler in summer and warmer in winter.

 We walked under a school of fish on our way to see the whale...and a few crustaceans. 

When my boys were growing up on Long Island, we lived 2 blocks from the Great South Bay. They were always bringing home creatures for our salt water aquariums. They never caught a lobster, but we had a horseshoe crab until he shed so many times we figured he'd outgrown our aquariums and we returned him to the bay. His long tail just helps him navigate and flip right side up if necessary.

A Museum of Natural History visit wouldn't be complete without seeing the dinosaurs.

There were other extinct creatures on display. I wouldn't want to meet up with the antlers on the next fellow... or the tusks that follow...

These next guys are out of focus, but a herd of elephants is still impressive...

 And the elephants got us to Africa...

Mimi and I had a nice lunch. I highly recommend this museum's cafeteria, though eating out is always expensive. When it was time to head home, Mimi went off for the car on her own. It seemed like ages were passing so I knew something was wrong. Turned out that a delivery truck had parked right next to the car blocking it. Mimi had to find the driver before she could rescue me. Then it was home for dinner and Rummikub. The following morning I was on my way back to Vermont.

NY Botanical Garden

Mimi lives near the NY Botanical Garden. She brought Margery and me here one spring, but I have never visited in winter. Each year the NY Botanical Garden puts on a train show. I had never seen it, Mimi wasn't traveling abroad, and so this was the year...

We arrived in mid-morning, but in order for Mimi to use her member's pass and get me in as her guest, we had to wait until afternoon. We headed for the cafeteria only to discover that it was closed for renovations. The only place to eat was near the entrance where we had come from.

I thought it was pretty cool (no pun intended) to have a machine sweeping snow off the paths, but we soon found out that it was less icy to walk in the snow along the edges.

We ate by a window wall with a view of this tree (below). I couldn't get over the size of its pine cones.

We watched class after class of school children coming and going through these doors all morning.

I imagine they were more excited to watch the trains than to study the buildings that were created out of plant materials such as twigs, leaves, acorns, berries and such. 

The children were back in school by the time Mimi and I were able to get in which was nice...it wasn't crowded as we walked around the exhibit. 

The show was really less about trains and more about buildings both past and present within and around New York City.

I took dozens of pictures and I'd like to use most of them. Rather than trying to comment along the way, I think I'll let you take your own tour at your own pace.

Each building was labeled and, if demolished, it's dates of existence were given. You may be able to read some of the labels.

 

 

We are here...in the NY Botanical Garden greenhouse.

 

 

Yankee Stadium

Here is a closer view of the picture above. It's Rockefeller Center with the angel statues and Christmas tree.

If I'd known what I was going to see, I would probably have brought paper and pen and had Mimi write down the name of each building as we walked along. Of course that might have taken a couple of days...

I don't even remember the name of the artist who is creating all of this. Further on, in a side room, there was an exhibit of one building showing the stages of development. The amount of work that went into each of these structures boggles my mind!

Mimi ended up carrying one of my walking sticks so I would have a hand free for the camera!

 

 

This is the building described in the poster above.

Just collecting and organizing all of the materials seems like an over- whelming task.

It took several tries to catch this train "car" without a complete blur! Just sorry I couldn't get a side view...

 

I am torn between having smaller pictures and having them be clearer or making them larger to see more details but then having to put up with things being slightly out of focus.

So far I have opted for the latter...

 

 

 

I love the way the orchids almost seem to be a cloud of smoke from the train engine...

 

The train show was in the greenhouse so a lot of the plants were also phenomenal. I found the size of these leaves to be amazing.

I'm hoping the Empress Wu hostas that I planted last summer will grow this summer. They will have the largest leaves in my home garden, but they would be dwarfed by these.

Hope you have enjoyed the tour. I certainly did!