A Little Too Much Of A Good Thing

This is the week of the year when I usually start pruning the fruit trees and other trees and shrubs in the yard (except the early sping blooming ones, of course). A little snow cover is a good thing, it lifts me up a few inches, making the high branches easier to get to. This year, the pruning is going to have to wait.

That's an apple tree, right there behind the seating area. See the chairs and fire pit? OK, so maybe not the fire pit, but you can see the tops of the chairs, right? The snow here is several inches past my knees.  A little too much to manuever in. There was a photo in the local paper of someone pruning apple trees at Sholan Farms  this past week, but I noticed he was wearing snowshoes. I think I'll just wait a week or two. Or maybe a month.

Meanwhile, strange patterns have begun to appear in the snowbanks around our house.

Could they have been made by the crop circle dudes?

Or perhaps it was only  a teenager expressing her opinion about the amount of shoveling she's had to do?  Guess I'll have to set up a camera, and try to catch the person in the act. Personally, I'm hoping it's the crop circle dudes, because we have another storm or two coming this week, and I want the teenager to keep shoveling!

The Christmas Tree Is Gone

Why are you looking at us? Dad did it. Honestly!

On My Morning Walk

Most mornings during the school year, I walk with my neighbor. Our walk takes us down a (very) busy street (love that carbon monoxide!). But this time of year, even this street is beautiful. Here is a little bit of what we saw this morning.

On this street there is a brown house that, although a beautiful Victorian, goes unnoticed most of the year. It seems to get lost in the shadows. But in the autumn, the house comes alive, and glows with light reflected off the nearby trees. This house is one of my favorite neighborhood sites this time of year.

 

Another house that I enjoy has a much redder tree outside. 

And, a lovely couple greets you by the front door.

Farther up the road, the entrance to another house always charms me. I think it's the texture of the stonewall and the tree, but that is another post.

It was definitely a chilly walk this morning, but well worth the effort to get going. What do you like to see in your neighborhood?