Blowing Wind, Pancakes and Hope

Some folk enjoy winter snow. And kids across the country want "snow for Christmas". Well, it's here, folks! It's white and cold this morning.

The forecast includes "winter storm system moves away to the east--accumulating snow is ending across the area. Northwest winds continue to gust to around 35-45 mph...but wind speeds will decrease through the day......drifting...throughout the day...creating treacherous travel conditions...wind chill readings of 10 to 20 below zero are expected to continue throughout the day.

Today we will have pancakes and later, potato soup. And maybe I will bake some cookies. Maybe.

The little neighbor girl has already been outdoors with their dog and she did much leaping and jumping and shouting loud laughter as her little dog jumped from snow to snow. I was not quick enough with the camera to catch her but perhaps later.

This photo is out our front window and you can see the huge drift up over the front steps. Across the street, in the extreme right corner of the photo, is a very large oak tree which causes all of us on our side of the street much work. The leaves of this oak are almost indestructible. They will not mulch down in a mulch pile. They hang on the tree and drop all winter long. The swirling wind carries them around back of our house, dropping them in the flower garden where I have to hand rake them from the plants with my fingers come spring. Even with the heavy winds last night there are still a good supply of leaves still hanging on the lower limbs, waiting for the opportune time to fly over to our yard where Hubby will (if there be no snow on the ground) use the lawnmower to mulch them to smithereens. It is an aggressive battle that he carries on and now the neighbors, seeing how successful he is, have taken to do the same. But for now, with snow on the ground, perhaps the wind will blow any loose leaves three miles away where they can catch in the cornstalks and enrich the Iowa soil there.

We can always hope.


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