So about this Syracuse snow

/ February 10, 2015

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.

The forsythia peeks out of our hourglass front garden this afternoon.

The forsythia peeks out of our hourglass front garden this afternoon.

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.

All of that, four-feet under.

All of that, four-feet under.

And then there’s the front corner of the house, just past the side porch and not quite to the front steps.

Somehow a peony will grow back here come spring.

The snow must go on.

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.

All that color come summer.

All that color come summer.

Ellie B goes out back several times a day, no matter the conditions. She must. And she likes to cavort, too.

Down from the porch we must go.

Down from the porch we must go.

I land ankle-plus deep.

I land ankle-plus deep.

Ellie B makes paths, for pleasure and business. One of her favorite places to hang is alongside our back shed.

Ellie B's path to play and the basic necessities.

Ellie B’s path to play and the basic necessities.

Yes, every day and night I still hope fervently that this past summer’s skunk prevention work will hold strong.

Skunk be gone.

Skunk be gone.

Snow here, skunk still be gone.

Snow here, skunk still be gone.

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.

Standing in the corner of snow.

Standing in the corner of snow.

It doesn’t look quite as impressive covered with a drift.

Red as a ruby in the summer.

Red as a ruby in the summer.

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?

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84 thoughts on “So about this Syracuse snow”

  2. 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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  4. 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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  6. 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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  7. 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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  9. 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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  10. 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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  11. 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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  15. 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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  16. 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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      • 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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  20. 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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  21. 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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  22. 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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