It seems these days are cold once again...

So let's warm up a bit with that hot cup of cocoa or coffee or tea and sit down next to that warm fire. Brrr... The weather gave us a misunderstanding when it was nearly 60 degrees F last week for a nice few days. Playing outside in the dirt with tractors and diggers, basking in that glowing sun. And then... snow. Ugh. That's Montana for you!

Sundays with Fritz-The Case of the 1st 2010 Winter Adventure!

I finally get to wear my Kitty hat! Woot! Woot! Helping Daddy shovel the driveway. There is so much snow out here!
I also got to put on my neat Bomber jacket that my Uncle got me. He bought it for me for my first Christmas, but now I can actually wear it! I like it, it's neat!

Happy winter season everybody!!

Fritz signing off... gonna go get my frozen toes warmed up by the fire now!

Open windows, the white stuff, and #305

Such a lovely morning, afternoon we were having yesterday. Such warmth coming from the sun, shinning brightly, but, maybe too brightly?? It's almost Thanksgiving in MONTANA! Hey weather, seriously, what's up? Fresh breezes were filling our house. I figured I would be pushing my luck with the weather, but just had to have that window open. Maybe for the last time in the months to come.
But... later in the early evening, the clouds rolled in and the yellow glow of light turned to blue and gray. Temperature dropping fast, the wind picking up even faster. Nothing happened for awhile. For a few hours, a standstill in the weather world.
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After Fritz was in bed, while picking up the days worth of little kiddo fun, a glance outside and magic! Would it last? Would it snow all night long? Would there be a winter wonderland to see the next day?

Yes. And lots of it! It's still snowing actually! Fritz and I will have to make an adventure out of it soon. It would be loads better, if I could teach a 2.5 month old how to shovel. Not too early for chores, is it?

And finally.... somehow I am on post #305. I had no idea I had that many!

Waiting

Enjoying the last bits of warm weather. How many more days do we get? It seems that every morning that I see the sun peeking out, I get nervous and a bit sad, but also a bit excited, knowing that snow is just around the corner. It's the weather guessing game.

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And soon, we will trade the light jackets for those snow pants and layers. And instead of warmth, breath misting out when we step into the winter.

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Ok Season of Cold.... bring it on. I'm ready.

A little family time on the river...

A Holiday weekend. Perfect crisp morning weather. Heavy rains in the evening, leaving sleeping in a tent, snuggled in a sleeping bag, all that much more thrilling. Spending a camping trip dirty and happy for one little boy. Finding beautiful rocks (Montana Moss Agates) and enjoying the fresh Yellowstone River air.

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What could be more perfect than that?

A Week Filled With Rainbows

Three rainbows on three different nights in one week. What could be better than that??

Techno Night Off

A crazy storm passed by us a night ago, and as the wind was pelting the windows with bits of broken trees with sheets of rain falling like misting clouds, I decided it was a perfect time to take a night off from TV and computer. How addicted are we as a society (most of us anyway) to either be attached to our phone/computer/TV?
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Snuggling up on the couch with Melba-Fritz long passed out from a day of play-and a light blanket, the book I was reading seemed oh so much better than before. But I think most of all my brain is thanking me. Hmm... this might be a good goal to do at least once a week. Who's in?

Enjoy the Light

A cool rainstorm late in the evening.

Glowing light pushing back the darkness of storm clouds.

And of course, the ever awesome peaceful sounds of soft raindrops.


How was your night?

Sundays with Fritz..... INTERUPPTING TRANSMISSION FOR TORNADO PHOTOS

Well....... We got home from my hometown and stopped at the grocery store, and we got to our house just in time twenty minutes later for some rain to start sprinkling down. As I was looking out our front windows to see the rain and to gauge how big the storm was (we have a great view of miles and miles of our city) I noticed that the clouds in front of us did not look like normal storm clouds. I could see the clouds start to swirl together, and my heart jumped up to my throat and my eyes became saucers. I yelled to the Hubs to look at what I was seeing and then we both just stared. And we knew...

We were seeing something so rare to happen in beautiful Montana and quite frankly (and please excuse the language) we were scarred shit less. We were able to watch the tornado from start to finish and even though it has been a couple hours since it happened, I am still quite shaky. This is NOT something that happens here. In fact, the last tornado in Billings was in 1958. The one today was recorded as an EF2, and all we could do was stand and stare out the window, watching and praying that it would not turn towards us. We live next to some hills, so we do have luck with that, but you never know what can happen.

As we watched, we did discuss what to do if it turned towards us, and we realized that we do not have much for an emergency kit. So perfect time to make a list and figure out a plan. That's what I am going to focus on this week. Because this severe weather thing the planet has going on, is only getting more that, severe. And when things happen in places they rarely, rarely do, it's definitely time to become more prepared.

Luckily there were no fatalities, just millions of dollars worth in damaged business. Flooding, hail and wind has left part of our town in disaster mode, but with the spirit of all Montana residents, we will be cleaned up and bandaged up quickly.

Now, if I can just get to sleep tonight.

P.S. I will try to upload the video that I shot later on Monday.

At 2 am...

Photo found here

In a deep, fast sleep, gun fire was rattling my closed eyes open. Blinking fast in the darkness, I realized white light was flashing through the drawn curtained windows. The walls around me started shaking, and I could hear the glass dishes clinking together in the kitchen.

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Finding my way through the early morning hours I peered out the back window to an amazing show of lighting. High up in the sky completely covered in clouds, there were no strikes, just color illuminating the blackness.

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Again a loud boom raced through our home leaving the walls shaking once more. Then again. Finally after an hour, off in the distance the lights flashing had faded from view. Of course, I had to stay up late into the hour watching the show. I am after all, a weather girl... lover of all storms.

This Side and the Other

Out our front window.

The first rain of the season came yesterday later in the afternoon, bringing that sweet earthy smell more deeply into my lungs. Ahhh... refreshing. It is still a bit chilly out, so there were a few fears of "Will it turn to snow?". Luckily, no.
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Maybe this means winter is officially over? Of course it is with the calendar, but in MT, that doesn't mean a whole lot! It has been known to snow in summer, and usually people around here get too excited for Spring and the warmer days ahead that they cannot contain themselves, and start setting up their outside patios and cushions galore. Funny story... one time a few years ago, I heard one of the newscasters on a local channel say (and this was in May) that she waited a few weeks into the nice weather with patience for the promise that snow would not show up. Well, the very next day after she had spent all afternoon the day before planting in her garden and cleaning, and setting out her Summer gear, it snowed for a couple days. Ha!
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My time?? If you can wait until Memorial Weekend, you should be good to go.
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Back to the rain... hearing it lightly whispering on the window pains was such a wonderful sound. It has been so long to have those sights and smells. Yes, it has been a very loooong Winter for me, so I am truly ready for the change in Season. Maybe that will help with changes in myself as well?

Out the back door.

The Last Bits of Light

Fading through our bedroom window, I caught the glowing embers of the evening sun. Gone are the days of bright lit skies in a summer day. Gone are the days of sweltering heat and sweaty bodies. Now we have the chill of winter upon us and the cold winds to swirl our hair.
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I must say, suddenly I'm in the mood for hot coco...

This Has Been Us

For about a week now. The fog was in the canyon not the city, but it has been rain/snowing on and off and cold temperatures have creeped back into our lives. And here I was complaining about the heat!

Two Sides to the Same Storm

On one of our "out and abouts" we thought we might be chancing it a little too much with what the sky was looking like. It was later in the evening, and we still wanted to go for a little walk for the day, so off we went to a little fishing pond that has a nature trail following around the pond and a little farther away. With protection of umbrellas ready to pop out and cover our heads, we walked fast (I ended up jogging for a little bit-haven't done that in years!) to avoid a down pour.
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The pond that we were at is maybe 3 miles from our house and the storm clouds could be seen for many miles more. This was going to be one massive weather night for sure! After our 15 minute quick nature walk, we loaded back up into the car expecting to be pelted with rain by the time we reached home, however, to my not so much delight, the rain did not arrive until a couple hours later as we were drifting off to sleep!

It's funny to me how such an amazing cloud covered sky of darkness can threaten most people to thoughts of sudden doom and cowering inside, but not me. If any of you have noticed a pattern of my blog posting, there is much weather action going on. Yep, if I could be, I would be one of those "storm chasers" driving fast after a tornado to get that perfect shot, or standing in an open field surrounded by lightning with my camera ready to go. I remember as a younger girl my Mother yelling at me quite often to get back inside when the thunder was getting too loud and the lightning too close. Oh, how I would beg to stay outside!

Cats & Dogs-And Other Rain Stories

Last night we were pelted with rain. Slow, soft rain at first, then the hard, fast rain began. It was coming down so fast and furious we didn't know if we would be washed away! It was a pleasing sound however and especially with the knowing that in the morning with the twinkling waking sun, the grass would glow from its new potent mix of life.

Alfie the cat hiding under a drying umbrella.

With the pelting rain I was remembering a camping trip a couple of years ago that we took with some friends to my favorite mountains the Absarokas. With the couple living in a separate town from us, we decided to meet up in the small town before the road to the campsites. Of course things never work on a perfect clock and we didn't get to meet up with them until almost ten at night. By the time we made it to an open meadow campsite, it was a complete downpour. We knew that it would be way too late to travel any further to the campsite that we wanted to stay in, so we picked the quickest spot to set up fast, fall asleep, and break camp in the morning to continue our adventure. When we left the town for our travels it was a steady rain, but by the time that we started to get out the tents and camping gear it was a full on waterfall of rain pelting on our heads. Within three or so minutes we were completely soaked through. We got the tent set up and some tarps for added protection around, but by bedtime the coldness from the late evening and cold rain wouldn't let us catch much zzzzz's.

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The next morning we got ready to go further in to the mountain to the place where we wanted to stay (Maria... do you remember Hicks park right before the meadow to take us to camp?). When we got there the rain clouds started to appear again. "Oh no!" we were all thinking at the same time. "Not a repeat of last night!" So out came the tarps again and we built rain and wind shields in case of flash flood of down poring rain. But luckily for us, the rest of our two days we had beautiful weather!

A Beautiful Day

The sun was shining in all of its wonderful glory and the birds were chirping a sweet happy song. With this start of Earth Day, I couldn't resist taking Fritz on a walk. We headed out to discover some new neighborhoods and marveled at how fast the grass was turning green. Below is a picture of a long sidewalk that we took on our adventure. Now if only the trees would hurry up to match the grass!

This is a strange building that is close to where we live. I loved how the clear blue sky complemented the strangeness of the roof. This building is now a daycare center but I am not sure what it used to be? With these angles a church comes to mind.

Later that evening when the sun was finally setting on a perfect Earth Day, my entrance way was caught in the most golden of hues. Sadly our front door blocked half of the picture in shadows, but the orange yellow glow was just too delightful not to pass up without taking a picture.

Still later... In the last few minutes before the sun said goodnight, the trees out our front were slowly waving goodbye in a slight breeze that refreshed the staleness of the last bits of winter air.

Ducks 'n Snow

This was the tree out our office room window last week for hopefully the last storm of the season. It was a very strange snow/rain storm that even left a few limbs from trees across town down and out. But very beautiful after all was said and done. I chose to capture the tree in black and white as the dark limbs look mystical against the pure white snow. I love when trees have so much weight on them that the natural droop is dream-like. Sad however, when they break. Such is nature I guess.


The funny part in all of this was, the ducks! These ducky friends pretty much live around our neighborhood all year long. We have seen them in all seasons never leaving. Mostly just in groups of two but on Christmas day past, I counted around 25 sitting in the street (in the snow). The laughing bit was after that storm last week, watching the poor little duckies trying to walk in the new, high, wet snow! Hop... hop... crash. Hop... stop... look around-check your bearings... hop... hop. They looked like bunny rabbits having a very fun day playing around. Sad, poor little duckies! Luckily the duck with only one "leg" wasn't around. I feel bad for that little one knowing that she has such a hard time getting around. I have seen her here for the past three years and every time I do see her I am very surprised that she is still hopping along!

Steady of Rain

Tink.. Tinkle... Ah the lovely sounds of a spring rain. I'm a rain girl. Out of all weather conditions rain is my favorite. The smell of an oncoming shower. The first drops to hit the earth. The feel of rain and it's silky smoothness on my skin. The quiet and steady of rain.
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Last night it started. The first musical notes hitting the roof, growing louder to a nice drumbeat. How refreshing to hear this sound after the silence of snow. Would it continue? Falling asleep to the tinkles and tinks I wondered if our town would be out of the woods this late in the year and not be white in the morning.
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Opening my eyes when Fitz came-a-calling for me, the sound was delightfully still there. Below is my world today outside my front door. Hmm... lovely.

Warm Sun and Open Windows

Could it be? Could it really be over 60 degrees today?? The mountains won't tell as they hold onto the last bits of snow. But ahhh.... so nice to be above freezing.

Fritz told me he thought it would be a great idea to go out and enjoy the day. We took an hour walk, stopping at stores across the street from us for supplies and just let the Sun warm our skin. Coming home, Fritz off for a nap, and me? Letting the sweet smell of hidden Spring come slowly through the kitchen window and knowing the snow will be replaced soon with flowers.

Yippee!

My weather widget says it is 40 degrees and sunny! I don't see any clouds in the sky either! Ahhhhh...... Yippee, Yippee, Yippee!!!!!!! I need to go bask in the sun now.

P.S. I noticed that my cats are a little "sun-drugged" today. That is Melba enjoying it for all she can!