Waiting, Whining, Wanting Warmth

I miss my backyard.

It hasn't gone anywhere, and neither have I (except for the weekend I went to Chicago during a blizzard), but there has been a barrier between us for the last few weeks. A barrier made of crystalized H2O. It's about 2 feet thick; amazingly it has remained so for the last three weeks, even though it keeps snowing - I think the stuff on the bottom has compacted, and probably some has sublimed, so even though new layers of snow have been added to the top, it doesn't really grow much. One thing is for sure - it hasn't melted.

Now, I know it seems stupid that two feet of snow has kept me inside for the last three weeks. But it's also been cold. Really cold. Unseasonably cold. And windy. And the thing is, there's nothing out there but snow. There's no bugs. There's not flowers. There's just snow and trees that look like dead twigs. And walking through snow up to your thighs is exhausting. And it requires preparation - I can't just slip on my garden clogs and waltz out the door like I do the rest of the year. I have to put on multiple layers of clothing, boots, and with the snow this deep, snowshoes. (It's easy to put snowshoes on. It's not easy to take them off).

Plus, most of the time I am outside I have snow to shovel. It snows every couple of days. Sometimes it's only a couple of inches, but if you let those inches just sit around on the driveway and front walk, they pile up. And turn to ice. Don't even get me started on the glacier that the snowplow keeps leaving in front of the mailbox. I am surprised our letter carrier is even giving us mail anymore. The point is, when I am done shoveling, I am done being outside with the wind trying to rip the skin off my face. I don't want to go for a walk through the yard to look at more snow.

I know I am whining. And I actually really like snow. I am just ready for a bit of thaw. In the last three weeks plus we have only had about three days that had temperatures above freezing. We've had quite a few more nights when the temperature dropped below zero (tonight's another of those). For perspective, the normal temperature for this time of year is 39ºF. And we have had more than an entire winter's average snowfall in the last three+ weeks. (Not that I feel like I can really complain. At least I don't live in Boston, where they have had almost 100 inches of snow in the same time period. We've only had about half that).

Okay, enough whining. Yesterday was slightly above freezing and it didn't take long to shovel the day's snowfall, so I wasn't worn out when I was done, so I decided to get my camera and my snowshoes and go for a tromp in the backyard. I went out today, too, because it was sunny, and I couldn't help it - even though it was back below freezing and painfully windy. 

There are precious few signs of life...

 But it would appear that there are a lot more animals willing to tromp through two feet of snow. (Though in this case it's a bird hopping in the trace left of the path by last night's snow).

 What I find amusing and sometimes puzzling are the places where the footprints just stop. Here, though, it's obvious that a deer turned around and went back the way it came.

 I don't know what made these.

 High traffic area.

There are birds, of course. In fact, if I closed my eyes, and pretended I wasn't freezing, it would have been easy to believe it was springtime. Though to be honest, springtime around here is still pretty cold.

 Which makes it seem weird that apparently the deer are shedding...

 The near-constant wind has been doing it's job. After every snowfall I have been seeing these seeds strewn on top of the snow. I have no idea what they are from, but nature has been preparing for spring planting by moving the seeds everywhere.

 And other seeds, too.

 The other thing the wind does, besides disperse seeds, is make snowballs:

 At least, I am pretty sure that's what's going on here. They are small, but I have seen pictures elsewhere showing much bigger snowballs that the wind made. These are very cute, though.

The snow isn't deep enough to cover everything.

I checked up on Rain Gauge Spider:

I am going to assume still alive. I have wondered how she's been doing, not because of the snow, which obviously she doesn't have to deal with, but the really cold temperatures. I can't wait for spring, to see if she's still alive.

That will obviously be a while.

But...

 ... eventually it will come.

Nature is ready and waiting.

*I broke my own rule for this post. Some of these pictures were taken yesterday. I just didn't get in the mood to blog until today.