Jack Frost is an Evil Flake!

Since standing outside in the elements and shaking ones fist at the sky yelling curses wouldn't be considered to be the actions of a mentally sound individual....I will blog rantings here. I will begin by giving a back ground on Kentucky's snow history. For the past 9 years or so, the central Kentucky region has had so few occurrences of snow that the local weather men have declared our region protected by a supernatural snowdome. See the "heatmiser" for more details:
We point to 9 years of snow drought because 10 years ago we had a whopping 19 inches. So, after the snow factory dumped our allotment for the next 9 years in one deposit, we have been starving for snow. Oh Jack Frost has taunted us mercilessly...but always with a big threat that resulted in dustings or more often, the dreaded freezing rain event with maybe just a quarter of an inch of hard snow added to make it extra slick....I can hear his evil laugh now!

For the past two days we were headed for a major winter storm...and it had us all smiling...we had 4 inches of beautiful fluffy snow fall from the evening until the time we went to bed Monday night. But when we woke up Tuesday, the freezing rain had hit overnight shrinking things down to a nice ice hardpack of about 3 inches. So I went out to photograph what I could and even caught some rose leaves coated in ice. This cold looking specimen is the Russelliana dreaming of spring below that icy layer. Most of the garden had a nice layer of ice, but not enough to stick to the electric wires for power outages. Kentucky is fond of attracting the major ice storms too....but snow is our Moby Dick.

The rest of the day brought temps above 40 and a great amount of rain to melt the majority of our winter taunting....and then overnight, the temps crashed, and we ended up with a huge sheet of ice with a dusting of snow for the added slide factor. Since it is a half hour + ride to work, I stayed in for much of the morning hoping the ice would disappear enough to head in....while I waited with my hot cup of tea and some good garden blogs, the snow that had "left the area" suddenly reappeared with a vengeance, and we picked up about another half inch...just to make it more fun for driving! But at least I was able to get out and snap some more as things came down:

More ice and snow on the pond - sure can't see the fish now! And my personal favorite....my poor, cold cement frog that sits in the middle of the rose garden (warming the spot until I can find a nice size celtic cross to be seen above the middle section of tall roses). He looked very undignified being bathed in ice and then showered in snow. I think I just saw him shiver.
As you can see, his area of residence is completely covered, as are all the paths and rose sections. This has not been the case in the past. As you can see below - this was the biggest snow we got last year:

So it looks as though we missed out again this year on the big snows. Of course, they are forecasting the possibility of another snow storm this weekend....but knowing Jack, I won't hold my cold breath!