Buried in a Blizzard

We are buried here in Rhode Island. Out here in the woods we have about 18 inches of snow with drifts up to 3 feet in places. I thought I would share some random pictures from our yard and the kids playing outside.

Our welcome sign. I really should paint that.

Our house all plowed out.

The pine tree out front.

The buried picnic table and some birds lunching on seed.

Heavy branches.

Our beautiful Roo Paprika. Panini in the doorway is reluctant to come outside. The chickens were very confused today with all of the snow. Most of the run is covered but the snow just drifted everywhere and they were not happy.

Our other Beautiful Rooster named Ruby.

Here he is imitating a flamingo on one leg.

Paprika being mean and not letting the girls outside.

Our Buff Orpington named Butter managed to sneak outside.
On cold days I give them a treat of warm corn mash and some yogurt or sour cream. It's like a bowl of hot cereal to them. Spoiled chickens.

Scratching for some corn.

BRRRRRR!

The compost bins.

Winter hotel.

Coreopsis peaking out in snow.

Drifts on the back roof.

Drifts over the jacuzzi.

Drifts in the fountain.

Cold Cow.

Our front door.

The snow covered blue spruce on the edge of our driveway.

Natures Christmas Creation.

Larry plowing the driveway.

Tae making sure he does it right.

The backyard.

Heavy laden pine trees.

Yellow lab in white snow.

Love the ears!

What nice neat rows honey!

Stewie had a great time.

And plowed his own paths.

Hope you are staying warm.

Bev

Celebrating Winter Solstice and Snow

We are officially buried here in Rhode Island. We had a large storm on Friday night that dropped about 8-10 inches of snow. I was working the night shift at the hospital and most of the staff arrived by 3pm even tho' our shift didn't start until 7pm. How happy was I to drive in the snow? But the snow is beautiful. We had another storm today and piled another 6 inches on top of what we had. The kids are loving it. A snowman is being engineered in the back yard as we speak. I thought I would post some pictures of our yard. Homeschool is officially out for the week. My husband is on vacation for two weeks (yay!) and it will give us an opportunity to reconnect and spend some family time together.

Our Pine Tree on the edge of the Driveway.

My Dad's bell. It hangs outside our homeschool group meeting space. It's only appropriate.

Zoom in -the sign says..."Learning Begins at Home."


These were a summer project that I did with the kids. We painted birdhouses to surround our garden. Aren't they pretty in the snow?

Heavy Pine boughs.

The Bluebird house (that the sparrows use) in our backyard. This is prime housing as the sparrows and wrens pull out each others nesting material about 12 times when the spring comes. When we clean this out in the fall, there are about 3 full nests built on top of one another. We leave one in the birdhouse for winter warmth.
More heavy pine tree boughs.

My beautiful purple coneflowers that provide seeds for the birds.
Tae and Morgan during rehearsal at church. They are both angels in the Christmas pageant on Christmas Eve. Last year, Tae used the candle as a light saber on the baby Jesus and threw his gold halo on the floor. Rehearsal was a lot of fun today. We are doing the Nativity story as are many other churches.
Candle facination. It's Tae's job to turn all the Christmas lights on in the house. Yes, I do let my kids play with electricity.
Our celebration of lights at Church. The kids listened to how a girl named Lucy and her friends celebrated the holidays and winter months. There was a St. Lucia wreath, a Menorah, a yule log, our ever present rainbow chalice, an advent wreath and a few other items.

This year with the kids we also made pinecones covered in bird seed as we do every year. The kids have been studying about Winter Solstice and we found some great information at http://www.circlesanctuary.org/

It's always a wonderful time of year for us as the days now grow slightly longer. The kids grandfather will be coming up to spend Christmas with us. Larry will pick him up on Christmas Eve and his brother and two nieces are coming for dinner on Christmas Day. We still have baking and shopping to do before Santa's big arrival.

Happy Saturnalia, Happy Hanukah, winter solstice, St. Lucia's Day and Merry Christmas.

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