Snowpocalypse!

It’s been an interesting week or so here in Kitsap County, Washington. Here’s is what our place looks like right now:

We had a white christmas, when record-breaking cold and moisture came in. We’re up at about 500 ft above sea level, where we can be a few degrees cooler than the Silverdale weather station reports. We ended up getting inches of snow, and we’ve been covered in it since. It was supposed to start warming up yesterday, and it has, sort of, but where we are turned out to be right where things have been switching between rain and snow and the stuff in between. This morning, we got another amount of snow, and now the storm has moved out, the sun is out, we’re up to a whopping 35 degrees F, and things are slowly starting to melt again. But it’s been an interesting and fun week, especially someone born in Southern California and mostly living in Silicon Valley until now.

This is, by all accounts a historical storm. The house has weathered (ahem) it well, except for the now former Birch tree in that first photo. I have practiced going out and walking in the stuff, and driving a bit (to the mailbox and back), just to get a feel for it, but mostly, I’ve been hanging out and watching the white stuff.

We’ve been putting out peanuts on the deck, and laurie’s been swapping a pair of hummingbird feeders to make sure the one out there is usable, and the local birds have appreciated that. We now have a group of about 6-7 Varied Thrushes visiting, having decided it’s not a trap, along with the usual suspects (juncos, spotted towhees, two fox sparrows, the Stellar’s Jays, and some chickadees). I’d intended to get my main feeders back up but now that’s waiting for my ability to see the pavement again…