Good News-Bad News

It's definitely been a time of good news, bad news. The good news is that our temps have moderated. We're no longer in the deep freeze of double digit negative numbers. In fact, over the weekend we climbed all the way up to the mid 20's-felt almost balmy. The bad news is that the much more moderate temperatures were accompanied by a foot of new snow coming down on Sunday. The good news was it was pretty fluffy so when it finally stopped snowing Sunday evening, the shoveling wasn't too bad even with the flotsam/jetsam deposited by the snow plows. The bad news was that it snowed another 2-4" early Monday morning so the shoveling had to be done all over again. The good news was what it left us with.

Enough of the good/bad scenarios. Peaks Island is absolutely beautiful after a snowstorm. The quietness of the island just makes the beauty of the trees and summer cottages all the more vivid. I dropped Jill off for the 10am boat and made a quick tour of the island with my little camera. I took over thirty pictures in the 4.5 mile circular route. Enough of the words; enjoy the winter scenes of our little island.

-14 Degrees and Counting!

It sure got cold quickly around the Island this morning. Allegedly, Casco Bay waters keep us warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer. Frankly, the current weather pattern has me questioning that assumption. Woke up this morning to -14 yet the sun was shining so by mid morning we had crossed over into positive territory. Unfortunately, the wind picked up this afternoon right out of the west, straight down from Mount Washington, across Portland, across Casco Bay and slamming right into Peaks Island. I have not a clue what the wind chill reading is but I'm sure it's in the neighborhood of -25 or so.

Yet ten miles inland, the temps were running -20 and over in the western hills along the New Hampshire border I saw readings of -30 this morning. Now, I've been in -20 and that was plenty uncomfortable enough for me. Nothing like walking out the front door across your deck with the boards groaning and popping every step of the way and your lungs searching for oxygen as the cold wind just shuts everything down. Oh well, enough sniveling for today. Supposed to snow over the weekend so that means warmer temps at least. Here's a few shots from this morning taking a peek at some seasmoke. Some change from a beautiful sunset a couple of days ago. I'll admit I stole one picture from our local rag I thought captured the moment.

To my western family in Hawaii----quit laughing!! You are mightily missed on days like this.

A Truly Cold New Year's Day

It was certainly no January thaw day today. The temps never made it beyond 10 degrees and the winds were blowing right down from Canada to the tune of 40mph gusts. It was just a cold January day. I heard wind chills of minus twenty degrees most of the day so definitely no golf today.

Even our dog Otis was extremely content to sit on top of my couch and watch life go by during most of the day. His treks outside certainly were not very lengthy. This morning I opened the back door and voila, a truly beautiful storm door work of ice art was presented me in the morning sun. Even on a cold, windy day, nature provides us gifts to behold. It is time to be quiet.

Stay warm.