Thar She Blows!

Over the past week nearly all of our beautiful snow had melted. The yard was still more white than green, but the green was quickly encroaching. That is, until Monday. Sunday the weather men were predicting 11-14" of snow for us, and nearly every school district in the greater Boston area had already declared a snowday for Monday (but not our town...we're hardy folks).

Monday I awoke to beautiful snow. Light fluffy flurries with about four inches covering the railings on the deck. Despite the snow, there was a small flock of dark-eyed Juncos at the birdfeeders (I had remembered to fill them on Sunday) and under the rhodedendron out front. Our woodpecker also ventured out into the snow to peck at the suet.

Unfortunately I had to disturb this quiet wilderness with the loud and bright snow eating machine called our snowblower! D is going to start traveling for work, so I needed a lesson on how to use the snowblower. I'm a very liberated woman, but there are certain jobs that I'm more than happy to let the man of the house take on---mowing the lawn and removing snow among them. However, I don't want to be left begging the neighbors for help, so I learned to use the snowblower this Monday.

There are some things I'm really ignorant of...engines are one of these things. Throttle and choke are foreign words to me. And pull ropes are not my friend. Luckily, our snowblower has an elctric start (I did try the pull rope first, but I was too weak). Once the snowblower was running, I was off! It took a while to get the hang of, but I did the whole driveway--and didn't mangle the lawn, eat up the bushes, or throw the snow into the garage by accident.

One thing about snowblowing---it's important to be stylish. That's why I pulled on my old LLBean boots (gore-tex and thinsulate--from college), by snowboarding pants (I don't snowboard), my yellow sailing foul weather jacket (used more for outdoor concerts than sailing), and a red scarf and hat for some additional color. Add this to the bright orange snowblower and I was a vision of color in the whiteness of the snowy day! Of course, when snowblowing visibility to oncoming cars and plows is a good thing!