Moose in the hood

This was the view from the top of our driveway this morning (zoomed to max):














He/she let us get a little closer:
















I'll spare you the third shot of a blurry butt.

Ice too

Last night we had dinner with a couple visiting scientists and they expressed interest in visiting the ice park. I hadn't been either this year and was curious to see it in its new home (just a mile from the old place). There might be fewer entries than in years past, but there was still some very nice work - and not much sign of melt yet.

These are from the single block entries. It started off with a sea creature theme:
































The feathers were in amazing shape for almost a month after the judging. The raven is sitting on a nifty 3-D object.

















I took this picture because we've been listening to the Dark Tower series - it has free-standing doors.



















Next is the multiblock category:










































This won the multiblock first prize - just amazing (the photo doesn't do justice to the hedgehog):

Snow and a guest

First of all, we have a guest who is staying for three weeks:


















She's pretty fun and not too skittish:













About ten days ago we got a bunch of snow. One evening, we shoved at least 12 inches of light fluffy powder. In the morning, we shoveled another 8 inches:














This view of the road is artificially darkened so you can see the tire tracks of some neighbors who went by before the plow did:















We had to leave before the plow came as well - we just followed the tracks and were lucky enough not to meet anyone before we came to some maintained roads. The snow on all the trees was really pretty:














But then the wind came up...

In past years, we shoveled a path clear to the wood pile along the left side of the house. This year, we gave up and are going around the long way:































That day we rode out the tracks, we were in the Subaru, no problem. Then this past Monday we took it to the shop for a gas filling problem - air wasn't venting to make room for the incoming gasoline. They still have the Subaru, so we've been driving the Mazda - we've gotten stuck going up our driveway and by the mailboxes. Have shovel, will dig.

The wind has been doing amazing things with the snow, making these little overhanging shelves: