Let it Snow!

Since I moved to Virginia in the Fall of 2001, there have been quite a few weather phenomenon’s that have taken place.  I am not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing but just a statement of fact.

Back in September of 2003, Hurricane Isabel came roaring through here and we were almost forced to evacuate our home.  You see, we live on the water and when a hurricane comes through, not only are the winds horrific, it pushes the water inland and you end up with flood conditions.  We lost a HUGE tree at the back of our yard.

The tree is butted up against the bulkhead and therefore the roots only grew toward the yard.  When the winds came howling through here, along with the fact that we had water all the way up to our home, it didn’t take much for the tree to topple!  And when I say topple, it fell across our dock and landed on the boat lift (for some reason we had decided to move the boat around on the trailer to the driveway the night before?!?).  We lost other trees and crepe myrtles, etc. but nothing like that huge tree.  The other tree’s roots (not quite as large as this one) were lifting out of the ground but it never toppled.  Hmmm???

So, when I say we have weather here, I am not kidding.  We have something called Nor’easter’s which are almost as bad as the hurricane.  They force the water up into all of the tributaries, canals and waterways and the flooding occurs at those times as well.

Now, last weekend, we had about 10″ of snow.  I knew this would be a cold winter from the moment I saw the leaves turning colors in the early Fall.  The leaves normally do not turn colors here until around the week before Thanksgiving.  This year, they had all turned and mostly dropped off the trees by the time the holiday rolled around.

The snow is really pretty to look at when you don’t get to see it too often.  I know people up north, where they receive snow all the time, think we are a bunch of cry baby’s down here.  But, when you don’t experience snow very often in an area like this, it brings the world to a standstill.  In fact, the kids are still out of school for heaven’s sake!  (Okay, that’ s going a little overboard).  No reason for that!

It is nice, though, to stay in your nice, cozy warm home and sit by the fire.  We made a big pot of chili on Saturday and just enjoyed the lazy day.  Of course, the kids were out all day in the freezing cold but, I remember doing that as well.  How did we stay out there all day in that?

Enjoy the pictures!  Let it snow!  Let it snow!  Let it snow!