Ice....

I'm so glad I live right along the coast (literally just a block from the ocean). The first major ice storm of this winter hit northwestern and central Mass last night and took out all kinds of power lines. Thousands across the state and others are without power, which means they're without their primary sources of heat. If they don't have a fireplace or kerosene heater or something....



With Salem's proximity to the (relatively) warmer Atlantic ocean we got a lot of rain last night (about 2 inches) and some high winds but no ice. Best wishes to those without power. Hopefully it won't that the full week they're predicting for some areas to get back up and running.

Oh, that is rather unfortunate. Our weather is quite warm for the season, too warm if you ask me. I hope this year we're going to have a decent winter with frost and cold how it is meant to be.
So far only a pawful of snowflakes had reached the region of the country where I live in. That and some rain.
I hope though when it get's to the snowing and occasionally a snowstorm we won't have power shortage. Also, it seems as though the snow that falls where I live is lighter than the snow that falls around Chicago. That contains more water.
I wish those people good luck with staying warm!

Go here to see a collection of slide show pictures from around the state. I'm still amazed that we didn't get hit with any of that here directly along the coast. Go inland just a few miles and it's a whole different story.

MY husband and I are looking at having a self-contained, gas powered generator installed for the house. Something with enough "oomph" to power the entire house, summer or winter. With one that's fed by natural gas instead of gasoline or propane, we don't have to worry about running out of fuel for the generator.

Granted, with the local power station being on the edge of town we've never been out of power longer than 4 hours since we've lived here and that was almost 5 years. But it's better to be ready. Figure our house is small enough we can get the generator we need for about $5K installed. And since we have gas heat and a gas stove already, having the extra gas line run for the generator should be fairly inexpensive.

Aye, that seems to be a good idea. n .n
Also, that is really harsh. I mean, to break trees and poles like that.
We had once weather like that, there was a rain and every little thing that got moist - for example grass - got encased in thick ice. It seemed absurd to see one grass thread in a centimeter thick ice layer.

But even though it's very destructive, it's also really beautiful. It doesn't come across well in the pictures, but to see the sun glinting off all the ice can be really spectacular. And to see it at night under a full moon can almost seem magical.

Agreed, that is why I like winter so much. n .n
Would you be so kind as to take photos and share them with us?

We didn't get any ice or snow here where I live so there's nothing for me to take photos of. But if you check out that link I posted above (second post from me...) there's a bunch of pictures there. Some are rather pretty.

Oh... Nothing at all? So the weather there is like ours.
There was a saying about a winter a few years ago, it went something like this: "I remember winter... It was on a fine Tuesday afternoon..."
This is to emphasize that we got next to nothing in snow, the weather was almost as if it were spring(!).
Needless to say nature was kind of up-side down that year. : /
I hope that this year's gonna be different.

Things are looking up... if you want to call it that. We've got a couple of storms coming in over the next 48 hours or so and they're calling for at least 12 inches of snow by Saturday morning. Maybe it'll be the right consistency for me to sculpt a new snow dragon! This year I plan on embellishing it with food coloring in a spritzer bottle

For now, how about some pictures of our Solstice decorations:


Our Solstice Tree

Front of the house

Front Door

Aww, I see Christmas spirit is strong over there, nice decorations n .n

Oooh, snowdragon! I like the idea, maybe if we have enough snow here, I will make an attempt too.
I hope you'll show your snowdragon n .n

Well, Winter Solstice, actually. Not Christmas. Being a Pagan, December 25th is simply the day after the 24th.

As for the snow dragon here's a picture of the one I made last year.

Oh, sorry. Well, I'm not a christian myself either. It's just a community thing, everyone celebrating it. So I do too. The basic intention is good, though the religious aspect leaves me uninterested.

Awww, so cute! well sculpted one! n .n
I wonder if the snow would be able to hold more complex forms? Like a standing dragon?

Lord_Niohoggr wrote:

I wonder if the snow would be able to hold more complex forms? Like a standing dragon?

I think it would depend on how wet the snow was. If it was done right, you could use the wings and tail to help balance and support the rest of the sculpture. I'd definitely use a light spray of water to sort of "weld" the various segments together and then give the whole thing a good misting to encase it in a light shell of ice for more rigidity.

Oh, this sounds good, I so want to try it! n .n
All I need now is plenty of snow...

Check this out Downtown Salem WebCam

We're looking at about 10-14 inches total snow by Sunday night.

Not bad, not bad at all n .n