Back Roads in Winter

One of our favorite drives is to take "Airport Road" over Warm Springs Mountain into Bath County. It has been fully snow-plowed, although there were still slushy and ice patches. "Snowball", John's trustily little Subaru Impreza took the road with no problems.

The road is called Airport Road because there is a small commercial airport on the top of Warm Springs Mountain. The road from the I-64 overpass to the pass at the top of the mountain is one of the more notorious bicycle hill climbs in Virginia. It's a 2100 ft (640 m) climb over about 5 miles (8 km). That's an average grade of 8%, but there are a few spots that exceed 15%. Serious road cyclists boast of their time to the top. (David's best was about 25 minutes.)

After leaving Clifton Forge, the road follows Smith Creek past the town's water treatment plant. Much of the creek is lined with rhododendrons that lend some evergreen color in the winter and plenty of large purple blossoms in June.

Even in dry weather, the rocks along the side of the road glisten with dampness. In the winter, the water forms icicle cascades.

An impressive set of icicles just as the road leaves the creek and starts climbing Warm Springs Mountain.

The road climbs the mountain with a number of switchbacks. When there are leaves on the trees the views are non-existent. Even in the winter it can be difficult to see through the branches.

A view of Clifton Forge, Rainbow Gap, and North Mountain. The white streak is a cleared strip for power lines.

Hay bale "lawn art" seems to be the rage. If I can get photos of the others I've seen, I should put together a whole post on them.

This sycamore tree along the Jackson River is loaded with nests -- probably great blue heron nests. I'll have to continue to check it out through the spring.

Snow 2

This snow will take a while to melt away. The temperature reached 38°F (3°C) today, but melting was pretty minimal. But it does allow the snow to compact, so it's not as deep today, but wetter and heavier.

Out and about in the snow.

Me, too!

After a while, the dogs decided that it was easier to follow in our tracks rather than run ahead.

With all the east coast airports shut down, there were no contrails in the sky and it was intensely blue. By sunset, some flights had resumed, so the flight paths were once again visible -- mostly to the east.

Our firewood supply under the snow. The back rack contains split wood, while the logs in front still need to be split.

A bird's nest with a hat of snow.

Yesterday we saw no tracks in the snow except for one deer trail. Today we saw a few more as wildlife starts to come out of their shelters. We think this is a squirrel trail. (The tracks are too small to be rabbit.)

The snow has come off our solar panels, so we made electricity for the first time in 3 days.

Snowshoes waiting for another walk tomorrow.

And later tonight we'll light a fire in our fireplace and tune in to Netflix.

Snow!

The first snowstorm of the winter has given us over 16 inches (over 41 cm) of snow. While we won't be going into town anytime soon, we dug out our snowshoes and went for a "walk" this afternoon.

We won't be using the table and chairs on our deck until spring! 

Similarly for our lounge chairs and fire pit (hidden behind the table) where we enjoy summer nights under the stars.

My ruler showed about 16 inches of accumulated snow on the table top.

"Snowball" (John has named his car) is a real snowball now!

My snowshoes really are down there in the snow. Mine are "vintage" -- made of wood and rawhide. I bought them 45 years ago when I was in college in Minnesota.

Lon's snowshoes are modern aluminum ones -- bought in 2011 during a winter that had snow on the ground for months -- unheard of this far south.

Sadie and our tracks in the snow.

Here's a video of Sadie (and Dakota) in action:

Sadie likes to bound through the snow rather than walk or run. She leaps about 6 feet (2 meters) at a time. My ski pole is in the snow for a length reference.

As the sun set, the clouds finally started to break up, revealing deep sunset colors.

Kite Day - American Style

Today is International Kite Day. We tried to celebrate, but there wasn't enough of a breeze to get a kite going anywhere!

I was totally unsuccessful in getting the kite in the air.

Lon was only marginally more successful. His mom and brother watch.

This was about as high as we were able to get today. Maybe 15 ft (3 meters) off the ground?

Maybe tomorrow will be better…

Shipment from India

Our shipment of household goods from India finally arrived today. It was packed on 26 October of last year, arrived in the U.S. on 13 December, and finally made it to us today (9 January).

Our goods were in two crates -- 35 parcels in all.

It was a tight squeeze for the truck to turn around.

For the moment, the boxes were stored in our shed so that we can deal with them one at a time!

Before (left) and after (right) on the left side of our shed.

Before (left) and after (right) on the right side of our shed.

Our dogs Sadie (left) and Dakota (right) were rather miffed that they had to be banished to the deck while our goods were off-loaded.

Our trail cam caught a photo of the truck on the way out of our property.

First round of unpacking -- there's still a long ways to go at this point!

Christmas Lights

Today is Epiphany -- the end of the Christmas season for churches that follow a liturgical calendar. We took down all of our Christmas decorations. But one last look at the lights of Christmas.

Christmas lights in trees along the street in Naperville, Illinois.

Our Christmas tree and lights reflected in windows.

With the room lights off.

Now it's time for winter to really begin!

Snow Showers

The weather finally turned cold -- REALLY COLD (for Virginia, that is). This morning it was 10°F (-12°C).  Monday we had short periods of intense snow followed by lots of sunshine, then snow again.

The sun shone weakly through bands of snow just before sunset.

What looks like dirt on the negative (if I were printing the photo in a darkroom) is actually large clumps of snow descending through the air.

It can be fun to play with an image in Photoshop. This is the "inverse" of the photo above.

And this is what happens when you drive saturation to the max.