Nearly a half ton of packed snow prepares to slide off the garage roof
Another afternoon near 40 degrees. There’s a bite to the wind today, though, so it doesn’t feel as balmy outside. However, dripping continues throughout the woods as the snow melts and compresses underfoot.
You can almost sniff spring in the air. That is the biggest illusion of all. Back when we lived 500 miles south in the Lower Peninsula (dozens of years back) spring arrived almost coinciding with the Equinox. March showed her pretty face and the snow retreated. Dirt showed, seeds sprouted, and April wore flowers, sunshine and warm temperatures. Winter behaved like a gentleman and retreated on time.
Here in the Upper Peninsula, Winter is no gentleman. He refuses to leave. He hovers, he lingers, he stays endlessly. Two to three months from now, after we’ve been teased mercilessly with the prospects of Spring, he’ll finally depart for good. In the meantime, we learn to sigh with this cycle of freeze-warmth-melt-cold-freeze. Just when we’re ready to blossom ourselves, we’re back to frozen icicles hanging from the eaves. You’ll see. Just keep reading this blog for a few months and see if I’m right.
(A few years ago we still witnessed ice floating in the Keweenaw Bay near Memorial Day weekend. Perish the thought!)
See the above snow ready to slide off the garage roof-top? It hangs precariously off the edge, moving lower and lower down the metal roof as the temperature warms up. Then, suddenly, always unexpectedly, it lets go. My husband, who was in the garage at the time, said the force of the roof releasing its snow shook the walls and the cement floor of the building. It’s like a freight train suddenly arrives. The weight is immense as it releases and falls to the ground. No wonder roofs occasionally collapse around here. No wonder we’re forced to shovel our non-metal house roof.
Fragile lacy snow melts off the deck
I love the melting. There’s no dirt coming forth yet, as the snow on the ground measures too deep. Pockets begin to form along logs or branches, hollowed-out spaces where darkened wood or other mysterious factors melt the undergrowth. That spring-smell is exquisite; I suspect it’s wet wood or earth wafting upwards.
Let’s not get too attached, shall we? The weather fellow is predicting a few more days of this before another system from the west or north drops in and chills out the air once again. We have many weeks of winter to go; the ice still is forming on the bay.
In the meantime, enjoy the melt. Do not try sitting down by the bird feeder in your snow pants, though. It’s so wet you’ll soon be soaked.
Simply melting
8 comments
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February 8, 2009 at 8:25 pm
KD
Great photos!
February 9, 2009 at 8:22 am
Cindy
I do love these “teaser days” – though they make the wait for real spring that much harder! Lovely day to walk the dogs through the woods – birds calling and dripping snow and sunshine….ahhh, my soul felt better!
February 9, 2009 at 9:01 pm
Julia
This picture is amazing! You always maange to find such neat things to take pictures of! inspirational no doubt! I thought of you this evening when I took Dolly for her walk…never mind it was in the 50s! lol So windy though…enjoying every day of your blogs my dear!
February 9, 2009 at 10:44 pm
treehousejukebox
Wow! I love that amazing snow slowwwly sliding off the roof. You’re a great photographer.
It was so very spring-like here yesterday. Everybody ran outdoors, with dogs if possible, and frolicked!
February 9, 2009 at 11:23 pm
Gerry
I’ve been loving our “January thaw” in February too! I know it won’t last – we have a good two months of winter yet – but it’s good to have a little breather. For one thing, the more snow that melts off the roof and deck, the less snow I have to worry about shoveling off . . . .
The new header photo is just right.
February 10, 2009 at 11:49 am
centria
KD, glad you like the photos. Who would have thought a melt could have given such pictures?
Cindy, oh you’re another lucky one with dogs to walk. Then you HAVE to go outside almost. I do love this time of year when our soul just starts chirping a bit like those chickadees….
Julia, glad you & Dolly enjoyed your walk, too. Having some wind down there, are you? I think it was yesterday morning we woke up with a howling wind. And last night, in the very moment of chatting with my daughter on line, the power went off for a few minutes. Luckily it came back on.
Emma, thank you for your photographic kind words. I’m trying! I love the thought of “frolicking” outside. Am wondering if you have a dog or not to tease you outside….
Gerry, for some reason I forgot about the saying “January thaw”. Hmmm, probably cuz we don’t usually have them here until February. And I’m glad you don’t have to snow scoop your roof these days & get snow down your collar.
Do you like the header photo? See how long it took me to figure out you can put your own in the wordpress layout. I’m still not 100% sure it’s the right one. But they are red berries, you know….
February 21, 2009 at 1:23 am
Jessica
I missed a lot of great stuff! I had to speak up here, on the photo of a garage with no gutters. My husband says that snow sliding off the roof like this can rip the gutters right off a house. He actually gets on the roof to scrape off the buildup if we ever get a heavy snowfall.
Here is a funny page I made for the giant blizzard in 2006:
http://jadgallery.liveonpurpose.info/yohan/snow.html
I made an animated gif of my husband’s cousin shoveling snow forever and ever. He is from El Salvador, and never saw snow until about 2005 when he came here to Denver. When I visited El Salvador, several people told me how badly they want to see snow falling from the sky. I made them this page!
February 23, 2009 at 8:44 pm
centria
Jessica, thank you for stopping by to read & comment. I’ll bet your husband has seen many interesting gutter-related challenges after heavy snow buildup! I loved the page you made for that 06 blizzard How funny! It’s interesting to ponder folks who’ve never seen snow. The rest of us tend to get a little tired of it after awhile!