Winter whiplash

Holy cow, have we had conflicting weather. Winter whiplash.

You'll remember a few days ago we had a bit of snow, after which I picked some late-ripening strawberries.

Well, the snow melted off and the nice weather returned. There was no precipitation in the forecast. None whatever. Instead, we could look forward to at least ten days of clear skies and cold temperatures.

Everything was too beautiful not to document.

These photos, it's worth noting, were taken Tuesday afternoon. Remember that.

Here are some quail clustered on a mound of dirt in the field.

Wednesday morning, I woke up early (as I usually do) and stepped outside on the deck to check the temperature. To my surprise, there was a light dusting of snow. Goodness, that wasn't in the forecast.

By the time it got light and Older Daughter was ready to leave for work, there was half an inch of snow. Really, this wasn't in the forecast at all. Where did it come from? We discussed the idea of her using our car (which has four-wheel drive), but she decided to use her own (two-wheel drive) car and promised to go slow. She left a few minutes early to give herself some extra time.

And the snow kept falling. By nine o'clock in the morning, we had a good three inches.

Don and I took Mr. Darcy for his morning walk, and he was in heaven. Snow, glorious snow!

I noticed this hunched-up quail sentinel, looking seriously miserable as he watched over the safety of the flock.

Honestly, where did all this come from? It wasn't even remotely forecast.

The nuclear strawberries were even more buried than before.

These are the blueberries. Fortunately they're made for such weather.

We were pleased to see the tarp over the woodpile was holding up splendidly. (The inches of snow on top blends in with the white sky behind.)

A couple of Cassin's finches landed on the semi-protected deck railing. We haven't set up the bird feeder yet, but I guess we should.

By the time the snow ended mid-morning, we'd gotten precisely seven inches. In four hours. Yowza.

I'm so glad we have indoor hot water back. Now would not be a good time to use the outdoor shower.

The snowstorm left the trees burdened down, but they're bearing it bravely.

What a difference a day makes, right?  The photos below were taken about twelve hours apart.

I guess winter is well and truly here. I've heard predictions that this will be an unusually harsh winter, but time will tell. In the meanwhile, as Don reiterated during yesterday's snow dump, we are incredibly grateful to have the wood cookstove installed. Power outages are very common in winter (rather surprisingly, we didn't lose power during the storm), and keeping warm is a priority in such weather.

Stay warm, folks.