Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Moon and other weather fillers

What can I say, this has been another (thankfully) mostly snowfree winter so there have been no great snow or winter photos to blog about.

On Monday night we had the rising of the Snow Moon.  Of particular interest with this full moon was that shortly after it's appearance on the horizon the International Space Station was scheduled to pass between the moon and earth and there should have been a six minute period when the Space Station was visible. Alas, we don't have a clear view of the horizon for such events and despite ten minutes of running around the neighborhood we were not able to catch a glimpse of this unusual event.

Each month the moon has a name associated with it and with February traditionally being a big month for snow it is not hard to figure out why the new moon has that title. It's too bad we could not see the horizon because it was a great clear night for viewing.

Around 8pm I stepped out on the deck with my "point and shoot" camera to see what I could see.
It was a great view of the moon and one of those times when I wished I had a more sophisticated camera to record the moment.

On January 24 we had this tiny amount of snow - but it is the biggest snowfall we've had all winter. By the afternoon most of this snow was gone again.
And only five days later we had a day when the temperature reached almost 70 so we celebrated by washing the car. The supervisor basking in the sun at the end of the driveway was there to check that all the salt from the snowy road conditions of a mere few days earlier was getting hosed away.

Today when I had a quick stroll around the back yard I can see buds on these daffodils already.

So that is a signal that I had better get busy and clear out all the nesting materials left in the birdhouses from last year because nesting season is about to start.  On Monday I had quite a population of birds in the backyard checking things out but they did not want to wait until I grabbed the camera. A visitor last week was really excited to see what she called the first robin of the season when she looked out the window into our yard but I see them all year long here.

I just went back and looked at the blog for February last year - and I see that on February 28 I show daffodils blooming in the front yard along with blossoms on the plum tree. Guess I need to take a stroll in the front yard tomorrow and see what's happening. March will bring forth lots of new spring growth and  pretty sights that I just want record with my camera and post here. So check back.