Our First Winter in PA

Here's a glimpse of our first winter here in PA. The winter was long and COLD! We had a couple ice storms. They are really beautiful although dangerous. One morning I went out before it was really icy. By the time I got back, I was lucky to make it home. I made the mistake of going to the sidewalk to get the newspaper. I mostly slid down the driveway to reach the paper and then couldn't get back up the driveway to the house. I kept trying to move and would just slide further into the street. I finally fell on my hands and knees at one point. After several frantic minutes and numerous futile attempts, I had a stroke of genius and I removed my shoes. My socks stuck to the ice enough for me to get inside.

These next pictures are after a huge storm. The third picture is my leg giving you an idea of how deep the snow was. It was almost to my knee!

This picture is of the field in our backyard after the snow and ice. It looked like a frozen lake. It stayed that way for weeks. You couldn't walk out there because it was just slick ice on top of all the snow.

I have to laugh when I talk about the weather with people who have lived here awhile. When we moved in during the summer, we were told "this is an unusual summer - it's really hot." During the winter I kept hearing "this is an unusual winter - it's really cold and snowy." At the end of winter/beginning of spring, it was still really cold and once again I was told "this is an unusual spring." Hmmm...I wonder what usual is all year long. I guess it'll take some time to figure out. Now the spring has been very wet, but we've had a few beautiful days. The grass is amazingly green and flowers are blooming everywhere. It is beautiful.