State of the Frog

In one of my earlier posts, I lamented about the fact that the snowdome had been so firmly in place over the central Kentucky area that we had not had a significant snowfall in several years. Well, I can officially report that the snowdome has a crack in it as it just let in about 5-8 inches of snow over the first part of the weekend. Reports have come in that Lexington received about 5 inches and Georgetown about 7. That's pretty accurate, although, some blowing made it hard to measure through the drifts. One of my best measurements has to be Mr. Frog in the rose garden since he sits low and among so many rose branches that snow has a hard time blowing away from his area. As you can see here, only his small face is peeking through the accumulation. Despite this significant crack in the snowdome, it was only a crack since we were predicted to get the storm of the decade with a foot or more. Around the Ohio River from Louisville to Cincinnati and points north, the accumulations were over a foot which is not really uncommon for them. For me, I am enjoying our 7 inches and am glad for the bands of dry air that swept into the area during the storm to lighten our ultimate total!

By Saturday morning, the storm was still in full swing and the birds were fairly sparse as you can see from this early gathering around the bird feeder. We decided to head outside and let the dogs romp around a bit while we filled up the feeder. Our black lab Pookie was really enjoying herself, even though I kept telling her NOT to drop her toy in the snow or we wouldn't find it for a week. She is the baby at about 7 years so she really enjoyed the snow. Brewster on the other hand at 13 ran around for a few minutes then decided to crouch and give me the most pitiful looks imaginable. I got the feeling that he blamed me personally for the cold white stuff clinging to his nether regions!

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I couldn't even catch Little Girl since she came out, leaked to make some yellow snow and then slinked right back in. She is Brewster's sister so the age thing also prevented her from enjoying the fluffy white.

Once the feeder was filled we decided to add a few more trays of open feed since we figure the birds in the area would be looking for any food source around. We started with just a planter bottom full of black oiler sunflower seed strategically placed next to a very small sapling that had been a favorite perch of local cardinals. After adding a few more open plastic trays of regular mix, we backed away and perched in a strategic locale to await the new arrivals.

The first takers were four poppy cardinals followed by one or two females. They didn't exactly gravitate towards the oiler seeds as we expected but rather sampled all of the trays.

Here is a nice couple trying out the oiler while the others feasted around the main feeder. Here is another one perched in the northwest quadrant of the rose garden, watching the feasters. While they consumed and ruled the area, it wouldn't be long before the Starlings invaded the bird buffet.

After the hoard of "welfare birds" had their fill, we were left with the same cardinals that had started the action along with a new black-eyed Junco seen here who was so skittish or polite that he spent most of the time circling the main offerings to clean up the remnants left in the snow. As you can see from this angle, the terracotta saucer is no longer hovering on the snow in a picturesque manner, but now slants awkwardly on top of the trampled pack.

Since we haven't noticed any Juncos since our days in Cincinnati, we looked this lone hunter up in a book readily available: Birds of the Smokies by Alsop. I know we are 2.5 hours from the Tennessee border, but this bird is so widespread across the country that he is represented in this source. What I found to be interesting is the local vernacular regarding this little bird: "Juncos are called 'snow birds' by locals because their appearance in the low elevations in the fall is a signal that winter is coming. Their scientific name hyemalis is New Latin for 'wintry'." Well, it was nice to see this little bird, but if he is the snow bird, I've had enough for the year, he should feel free to retire back to the higher elevations and let our Spring come forth!

Is That a Snowbow!??

When we all woke up in central Kentucky this morning, there was a nice dusting of snow on the ground....somewhere in the 1-2 inch range. It was really cold (by Kentucky standards) at around 20 with some wind to bring on the windchill. So I held off at home a little to let the car warm up and to allow the sun to come up before heading out on these icy/snowy roads. By the time I left the sun had come up well away from the horizon but not quite at full rise. As it shone in the east, it was shining through the light snow clouds that are expected to hang around the eastern mountains as ours cleared off. Ironically, the sun was actually really bright at this point, so I was digging out the old sunglasses when I looked up and saw a full line "rainbow". Not the arch mind you, but a great vertical line stretching up parallel to the sun. As I drove further down the road I could see the matching bow piece on the other side of the sun! The only thing missing from the bow was the part that would have made the arch over the sun. The whole time I drove into Lexington this morning, the sun was showing off with this gorgeous snowbow....or as best as it could muster in Kentucky. So....let me guess....those of you in the colder climates get this sort of thing all the time? - (judging from the flickr snowbow photos that look to be in areas that receive real amounts of snow) But OF COURSE....I didn't have my camera with me!! I've lived in Ky for 14 years and in Ohio for 23 and this is the first snowbow I've ever seen! Gotta love all of nature's surprises. On a technical theological side note....does this mean God also promises not to flood us with snow?

Happy Wednesday!

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!