Snow, flooding, and other stuff

The weather provided a bit of drama last month, including this sudden Friday snowstorm. Views are from the top floor of the library looking over campus.

Heavy rains hit the New River Valley which flooded the New River. Water was released from the dam upstream at Claytor Lake and RU didn't warn students in time to move their cars from the riverside parking lot. You can see the flooded river in the photo below and the submerged cars in the photo below that. These photos were also taken from the fifth floor of McConnell Library.

The New River swelling over its banks.

Zooming in shows the tops of submerged cars.

Meanwhile, while the weather raged, I took a few interior shots.

Bottles on the windowsill.

Tops of the same bottles.

Curved things on my work desk.

Repaired section of my backyard fence. A wind-damaged branch fell and took out several boards.  These are the bright and shiny replacement boards. "Good fences make good neighbors"

Blacksburg Snow

 The first big snowstorm of the winter. Here on Sunday, melting by Monday morning.

Asta contemplates far-away birds

Snow out the front window

Deck, snow, bedroom window

Squinting in the heavy snow

Bird feeder and bottle tree

Dawn from the front porch

Early on the morning after the snow.

Bottle tree in the morning sunlight

Asta by the fence, patrolling the perimeter

The Thaw

After several snows and a long bout of frigid air, we finally got several days above freezing! Time for solid water to revert back to liquid, and the snow and ice dutifully complied.  Here's some images from that transition, taken in our backyard.

Rim of snow and ice in the birdbath.

Dog toys emerge from the snow.

Green, natural and unnatural, peeking through the snow.

Berries beside the deck, adding some brightness.

Bent from  being covered with snow and ice, but springing back nicely until the next round.

Melting apace: Spring musings (first installment)

Walden is melting apace. There is a canal two rods wide along the northerly and westerly sides, and wider still at the east end. A great field of ice has cracked off from the main body. I hear a song sparrow singing from the bushes on the shore -- olit, olit, olit, -- chip, chip, chip, che char, -- che wiss, wiss, wiss. He too is helping to crack it.  - Thoreau, Walden

The backyard, late last week. Still snowy. 

The snow is melting, the rains are falling, and spring is dropping some pretty strong hints of its imminent arrival. Folks all around the New River Valley are noting this warming - a friend at work paused in her tasks, giddily telling me that her husband called just to tell her that "the last of the snow finally melted in our yard." It's been a long, hard winter here, and we've had snow on the ground for months.

Hammock, awaiting spring.

As I write this it's just six days away from the Vernal Equinox, which officially occurs next Saturday, March 20, at 1:32 EDT. Astronomically speaking, the equinox occurs at the point when the sun crosses the equator as it moves from south to north. Day and night are roughly equal then - hence, "equinox." Here's a nifty image that shows the Earth's alignment with the sun:

Practically speaking, it means that Spring begins in just a few days, as that big ol' nearby star continues to warm our little green planet. At least that's true in the Northern Hemisphere, but our friends down below the equator will be experiencing their Autumnal Equinox, as fall starts for them.

Dog toys, long covered with snow, emerge during the Great Melting

It's been a long, eventful winter. We witnessed (and shoveled, sloughed through, slipped in, discussed, ruminated, cursed, and marveled at) Blacksburg's largest accumulative winter snowfall in years (52 inches).  At home, our quarter-century old oil furnace slowly slipped into decline, finally dying the same day that our new natural gas line was run to the house. Our new, highly efficient furnace is quietly warming the house as I write. (The photo on the left documents the brief time between heaters - the oil monster is gone, the natural gas one is ready to be installed.)

On the family front, we witnessed a decline in our parents' health, with my mother moving to an assisted living facility near our house on New Years' Eve, which is the major reason that this blog has been neglected over the winter. We packed my mother's house, moved her here, and have been settling her in and dealing with her various health issues since she arrived. But spring is almost here, and the song sparrow will soon be singing from the bushes.  We're quite ready for it, thank you.

Awaiting spring, Heritage Park, Blacksburg

 
Sources: Henry David Throeau, Walden; "The March Equinox," www.timeanddate.com

Late January Snow!

Big snow in Blacksburg, January 30!

An unruly golf course lurks beneath this placid snowfield

 

Tee times were unavailable. 

 

Snowboarders, sledders, and a brave runner

  

 Yard art in snow

 Snowplow chasing SUV

 Asta

 Bou in her fashionable attire

Snowy pix review

It's been a cold, snowy winter for southwest Virginia. We've had a brief respite that melted most everything, including the big piles of shoveled stuff by the driveway, but more might be on the way this weekend. Here's a photo recap of the two snow so far:

Our hammock awaits summer.

The back deck during the big snow.

Nestling dove during the first snow.

The dogs plowed their own path to the rhodo patch during the big snow. Here Asta confronts Bou on the way back to the house, insisting that Bou stop and play.  Bou is declining Asta's offer in this photo.

Asta frolics during the first snow. Malamute lineage?  Perhaps.

March snowstorm in Blacksburg

An early March snowstorm brought 9 inches of snow to our house, closed work on Monday, and generally made for a beautiful Sunday and Monday. In like a lion, indeed, but an aesthetically pleasing one. Here's a photo essay of the snowstorm:

Early afternoon on Sunday, and we had about 1-2 inches of snow at that time. Barrie had just left for the store, leaving these tracks in the driveway.

By mid-afternoon the snow showed no signs of abating, with bouts of heavy snow. Here's Asta in the backyard in the heavy snow.

Oddly, we didn't light the tiki torches during the afternoon snowstorm.

Much to my surprise, it continued snowing all night, and we woke up to 8-9 inches in the backyard. I had to shovel the back steps a bit so that Bou and Asta could make it down to the yard. Here they are running back in after a brisk play session.

Monday morning, a clear sky, and lots of snow in the front yard.

The white "cloud" in the middle of the photo is snow blowing off the trees.

A handful of robins were sitting in the trees behind our house, all puffed up to keep warm. While taking this photo another robin streaked past these three.

Icicles on the back gutters.

Big Wet Snow: FebPhotos Day 18

Rain turned into sleet this morning about 6:45 or so, and by 7 there was a good coating of slushy sleet on the back deck. It soon developed into a mushy mixture of sleet, rain, and snow, while the temperature hovered right around freezing. By about 8:30 a heavy mess of big, wet snow was coming down with slushy flakes about the size of a nickel. Here's a few photos - the big white streaks are the slushy falling snow. It was all gone by mid-day.