First snow of the winter

Yay! The first snow fall of the season. The trees were absolutely beautiful this morning coated in snow. I'm sure it will be melted by the time I get home, but what a winter wonderland today. The pups had a good romp in the backyard, racing, skidding and rolling in the snow.

Summer is gone in Wisconsin

When I left for Mexico 11 days ago, the temperatures were near 70 degrees. The rose bushes were in their final burst of flowers. I didn't want to cut them back because they were so beautiful.

The sudden cold snap that hit last week, froze the roses in their bloom. I took this picture this morning. There were about 50 blooms on the bushes and all were frozen and frost covered.

I'll be putting the rose bushes to bed this weekend. That will be fun as the temp is expected to hover around freezing with sleet and snow expected.

The Ice Storm Cometh

This is not really the kind of winter wonderland storm you want to have. Our latest storm has brought us a good 1/2 inch of ice before turning to snow. This morning the trees were coated in ice - and this is what causes them to break.


And our poor young arbor vitae are doing their best to withstand the pressure. The ones closest to the house have sustain the worst damage. If you try to shake the ice off - the branches just break. Hopefully being young, the trees will recover and straighten back (with some help from us).

If you have four-wheel drive, you can get around but it's not advised. The city buses were pulled off the road at 8:30 this morning because of the icy conditions. Even Hillary Clinton postponed her Madison town-hall meeting today due to the storm.


But never fear, my friends, Wisconsinites are used to weather conditions like this. Went to the grocery store yesterday and have supplies. Today is just another relaxing winter day. We'll make cornish hens for dinner tonight. That's about all that's on the agenda.

A nice brisk morning

Took Teiko out for a walk this morning at 7:30. It was already warming up to a balmy 7 degrees from an overnight low of about 0. After layering on the warm clothes and sorel boots, headed down to the park to throw the frisbee for the boy. With the sun shining, it didn't actually feel that bad.