I know the snow that’s fallen in the last three or four days cannot compare to the way in which my blogging friends Ann Koplow and Austin Hodgens in Boston and Bangor have been blasted this winter.
And besides, our winter-of-2014-15 fate had been relatively tame except for some early December storms until now.
But still, my sore back, the state of the banks around my driveway at the cherished Little Bitty my dear wife Karen and I share in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood and Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle’s backyard adventures just beg for some photographic comparisons to put this last snow blast into perspective for all to admire.
I’ve been shoveling a couple of time a day since Friday to keep up with the accumulation. There’s no place left to toss it, so I’ve been unable to avoid the hourglass-shaped front garden that’s obviously too close to our driveway.
And then there’s the front corner of the house, just past the side porch and not quite to the front steps.
I don’t like to pile too much snow there because it’s quite close to the house’s foundation. And there’s also the matter of what will burst up there come spring.
Ellie B goes out back several times a day, no matter the conditions. She must. And she likes to cavort, too.
Ellie B makes paths, for pleasure and business. One of her favorite places to hang is alongside our back shed.
Yes, every day and night I still hope fervently that this past summer’s skunk prevention work will hold strong.
Ellie B is strong enough to work here way to the other side of the yard, too, where the huge rose bush sits at the corner of the porch.
It doesn’t look quite as impressive covered with a drift.
How many months away is the return to this glory? It seems so far …
Have you run out of places to throw your shoveled snow? Can you avoid piling snow where great and beautiful things grow come spring? How high up on your body does your snow pile go?
Why didn’t you closeup on those 4 foot icicles on that brown building across the street? Those look lethal! Poor Ellie B needs some boots! 😦 Stay warm and well, my friend! 🙂
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I don’t miss the snow… not one bit! Sorry… I just had to tell you that! My friends back in Cleveland can’t take it anymore. Then the cold is just as equally annoying! Nope don’t miss it a bit!! Sorry, I just had to tell you that. 🙂
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You and your Arizona sunshine, Nancy. 🙂
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A high of 78 tomorrow for my area, Bay Area. 🙂
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Nice, Audrey. Enjoy early spring, my friend. 🙂
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Mark, so sorry about how much snow you got. I went to Mom’s and was showing everyone how much snow Cleveland got, there were drifts as high as the ones in your photos but the measuring of snow upon a table out on their patios was about 9 inches deep. Yours look worse and definitely my friends and cousins In New England got it ‘bad.’ Your yard still looks nice to me, but hope all is doing well under the weight of the snow. Hoping and crossing my fingers for the flowers, especially that precious rose bush. Sorry, I am trying to catch up of almost a week off from blogging. I left the library last Tuesday and ‘didn’t look back!’ (It snowed and we had open stock at the warehouse Wed. and Thurs. then took off to Mom’s straight from work. . .) I could send you a photo of the snow on the furniture of the ice-caked rearview mirror of a sunset, Mark! ha ha!
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It sounds like a good trip to see your mom, Robin, and a needed blogging break. Yay for you. Ice-caked rearview mirror of a sunset on patio furniture? Sure, my friend. 🙂
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seeing your summer pics really makes me long for those warmer days, but i’ve been okay with the snow this winter, as compared to the craziness of last year.
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Last year was very crazy. you are right, Beth. And this last weekend it all seemed to crash down on me again. 😦 I miss green and warm is all.
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That is a LOT of snow! I would be seriously house bound if that happened here. Fortunately, we have been enjoying mid sixties weather here this week and I’m loving it! Went to the river walk the past two days and took pictures of the ducks and geese.
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That’s a great winter day’s excursion, PJ. Your photography is really taking off. Pun intended. 🙂
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Thanks Mark! I still have so much to learn about photography and writing and… everything!
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You are doing so well, PJ. A rising star. 🙂
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Thank you Mark. That is a sweet thing to say.
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That is a lot of snow! We haven’t seen that lot of snow over here in Belgium! The last 2 weeks have been snow free! My husband & I share the work when there is a lot of snow, we also help our neighbors!
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You and your hubby have a good plan over there, Sophie. I bow to you!
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This winter hasn’t been so bad for us. Last year I was going out of my mind trying to figure out where to put the snow from my driveway.
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The where-to-throw is excrutiating, right, Snoozer? It extends the time you’re out there in the cold, too. Ugh.
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Great pics Mark. We have had a bit less than normal snow-wise, but it has been unseasonably cold this winter. Today it warmed up a bit but it’s still well below freezing. Love it that Ellie B enjoys the snow and makes her own paths. I see the two-story (looks like apts) across the street, is hung with lots of big icicles. That’s sure sign that they are short on insulation in the attic and are losing a considerable amount of their heating cost right out through the roof. I bet Little Bitty doesn’t have those big icicles.
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Not that big, Paul, but some icicles. Little Bitty is old but we have been steadily updating, as I’ve shared with you on your guest blogs. Today my dear wife Karen pointed out to me slightly sagging facia on our side porch, partially blocking the screen door’s access. That came overnight from a melting drip at the house line not from outside temperatures. Out I’ll go to prop it back up!
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think of the exercise you are getting 🙂 I like how you alternated snow and none. We don’t have much snow anymore and when it falls, Larry is the man.
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Larry and I are brothers of the removal. 🙂
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We got more snow in November (a month we rarely get snow on average) than we have gotten the past two and a half months since. While we’ve somehow missed out on all the snow that’s hammered you all up that way, we sure haven’t missed out on the cold….
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Cold sucks the life out of you, too, Bill. No matter how much you layer-up. 😦 We’re heading for a below-zero weekend here.
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Ouch! I think we have 20’s coming… but since it spiked into the 60’s and 70’s last weekend, it’s gonna feel even worse…
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I hope you enjoyed that faux spring, Bill. Nice. 🙂 Pitchers and catchers report at the end of next week, my friend.
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that’s a lot of snow.. O.O nice shots Mark !!
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Thank you, Leyla. A shocker for my southern Texas friend, huh? ;-o
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It always surprises me how much a season change changes the look of our surroundings. Summer at your place looks fabulous. It won’t be long, Chum. A path for EB is super important. Oscar would have it no other way.
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What a difference a season makes. We just get fog,fog and more fog.
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Fog clears, I hope, Dora. I hate driving in fog. That’s as scary visibility-wise as driving in blowing snow.
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Wow, that’s quite the snow there Mark! In Calgary it snows, then melts in a Chinook, then gets cold and snows again…then melts, so we don’t really get cumulated snow.
But I remember in Montreal we had huge snow drifts. Sometimes the drifts were higher than our front door and my dad had to go out through the garage and shovel a tunnel to the front door!
Anyway although we’re fine here in Calgary, in New Brunswick the snow is piled 2.5 meters (98 inches) high on either side of sidewalks and driveways with many parked cars completely buried – my poor Maritime friends!
Hope you and many others soon get a break from shoveling. ❤
Diana xo
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Your chinooks are a pleasant summer companion, visiting in alternate sessions from the snowstorms, Diana. Great planning by Mother Nature there. 🙂
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It’s so weird seeing the difference between the white and the green pictures! WE don’t have much here at all. I think we had mere inches at our max. And never more than four or five, if that. We never got what was predicted. Though we had some bitter cold. But we have no snow piles. 😦
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We have snow piles and Dogamous Pyle all in my very own Little Bitty backyard, Colleen. I will share with MDB through photos and telepathy.
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THank you for the word play laugh! I suppose I have been disappointed here. Mostly because a time or two we were led to believe we would have this incredible snow fall that gave us adults hope for a snow day. I can’t help it, the child in me still goes there. And I’m still mad at the forecasters for going there so negligently with my emotions. So thank you for the virtual shares.
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It does stink to have that “Snow Day” of school kid past dangled in front of the fantasy mind and then pulled away. Dang forecasters. Bad. You are right, MDB Colleen.
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Answers, Mark: Yes. No. Too high. Thanks for including me in this adorable post.
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I am in wonder how you Beantowners are dealing with the devastating pileup of snow, Ann. Watching the news stories is a nightly ordeal. The people who had to get off the train and walk along the highway … Oy.
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enjoyed the seasonal comparisons – and ellie b – oh so cute (woof)
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Isn’t she quite the winsome barker, Y? ❤
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si
🙂
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I’m with Ellie B (a.k.a. Dogamous Pyle), I love to cavort in the snow too!!!
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Cate cavorts! You are a headline waiting to happen, my friend. 🙂
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Thanks for the shout out, Mark. I used the ice chipper tonight to chop out chunks of snow from the bottom of the driveway. Now I can get some traction when Zombie Car makes the ascent! 49 days until April 1!
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I bow to your diligence in the greater Bangor area, Austin. Your weather this winter has been worse than frightful. It’s been a &@X%+##ing disaster! Devilish, you’d say, right? Zombie car can now make it up the driveway. Woooooohooooo! Bring on April 1!
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The snow at the end of the driveway was too solid for the shovel, so I thought I’d give the ice chipper a try. Thankfully, it worked!
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Now that’s really a workout, Austin. Good gravy. 😦
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I don’t run during the winter, so I need to do something!
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You have no space to run. You’d have to get a treadmill in the basement or spare bedroom or something. And that’s no fun, Austin.
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I’ve thought about getting one for the basement, but can’t seem to pull the trigger on doing so…
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Yes, we are running out of places to put the snow in Herkimer. The snowbanks are now high enough we can’t see around them. Yikes! We were so blessed that two of our neighbors with snowblowers helped us clear our driveway. We shovel a path for our Tabby, but she’s just a little pooch.
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My Good Neighbor Tim has been using his snowblower to clear the bottom of our driveway, but our two cars in morning tandem in our single-car-width stretch don’t allow him much maneuvering room. The rest is up to my shoveling work. Oh, my aching back, MVG! Ellie B forges her own paths, because she’s big enough. You and hubby good to clear Tabby’s journey so she can make her way! My dear wife Karen and I walked Ellie B around the block at 4:30, and she stuck her head in every snow bank she could. I kept thinking, “don’t be hard-packed!”
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Yes, when we go for a walk, Tabby is the snow-faced dog. We had not thought to clear her a path till we were at my parents’ house and Tabby had such a good time running on the path my dad had blown to his shed. Our driveway was empty for one snowblowing because I had parked in the street to be last in the driveway after Steven returned from work. Ah winter in central New York!
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Don’t you just love the driveway car jockey system according to who needs to leave first the next morning? Winter really makes that fun. I wrote a post just a week or o ago about a alternate-side-of-the-street-parking scofflaw who managed to make the driveway-clearing jockeying system miserable for me.
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And to top it off, as it were, the Central New York forecast calls for more snow and single digit temps, Mark. They should call it “shovel elbow” instead of “tennis elbow.” I’ve got a pair.
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I know, right? It really is a problem, hoisting the stuff afar and a-high, Jim. No singing “Hallalujah” for me. Too busy with my old-man “Oy.”
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Awww Mark your corner of the world is just beautiful, snow and all! Hopefully soon it will all end! 🙂
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Thanks, Colleen. Yours is more beautiful to me right now. Grass is greener, literally and figuratively. 🙂
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That’s a lot of white stuff. Is that what snow looks like? I’m just kidding. I feel for guys on the east coast. Stay warm!
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Woweeee you mentioned snow but i had no idea how bad you are BRAVE going out in that!!
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You thought I was just wussing out on you, Justine? Not!
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gasps…would i think that?
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Not you, Justine, fair one from across the big pond. 🙂
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hehe….i had a couple of non blog days, just due to busy things going on….looking forward to chatting and perhaps seeing your entry for the Eclectic fictional storywriting hehe x
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I am so sorry – we don’t nearly have close to that amount of snow. My condolences it looks as though you may never see spring, again.
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I could be envious of your lack of snow, Darcie, but instead I’ll be happy for you. When we get our snow late like this, it indeed pushed back spring, unless we get a drastic warmup and a big, yucky, flood-dangerous melt.
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Flooding is never a good thing. Hopefully, it will just slowly disappear and the tulips will magically appear! We are having a strange weather year I suspect I will lookout one morning in the middle of may and it will be snowing.
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Keeping you guessing, I see.
Usualy we get our first tulip popping in April. Fingers crossed.
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So sorry my friends in the north are dealing with this much snow. I know we are all united in hoping there are calm, sunny days to come.
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Thanks, Apple Pie. Nice Grammy nght with your three-parter, by the way, and not the best Grammys to work with by a long shot.
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Had enough winter Mark? I like the comparison with the summer pictures. It gives one hope.
Leslie
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Thanks, Leslie. You should compose a song. It would be a great one. 🙂
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I already have. It is called the “Winter Blues”. I’m working on the video for it. It will good for a laugh.
Leslie
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Make sure I get the link when it’s ready, Leslie. 🙂
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Sure will, Mark.
Leslie
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Hey Mark, I putting out a Valentine’s Day song in the next day or two. Check out my web site by Friday.
Leslie
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Will do, Leslie. ❤ for Valentine's Day.
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No snow in England this winter – thank goodness.
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Fortunate sons and daughters over that side, Hariod.
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I look out my window and all I see is snow. I enjoyed every other picture on your blog. Those were the ones without snow. 🙂
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Yes, same with me, chmjr2.
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It’s 80 degrees today in L.A. Yeah, that’s all I’m gonna say…
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That’s all you better say, Marissa, dagnabbit. 🙂
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