blizzards and blue skies...and clouds

I took my son to the doctor and he had to get X-rays for his foot because, in spite of the exam in the emergency room on Sunday, where the Ottawa Rules said that there was no X-ray necessary, the doctor was concerned that the top of his foot was extremely swollen. Fortunately, the results came back negative- no breaks this time. He is doing better each day as long as he keeps it elevated and iced. Considering the weather outside, it shouldn't be hard to do! Sunday, it was almost 80 degrees. This morning- lots of snow and freezing temperatures!

I'm glad I had the foresight to blanket both Annie and Nadia. Annie always gets cold easily and Nadia, being older, does too. 

I love how the snow settled on the fence and gate.

Check out the curvy snow at Yalla's neck and forelegs!

Scout is looking for breakfast.

This afternoon, when I got off from work in town, the snow was almost all gone. Here's a view of the Sandia Mountains near my work. It was blizzarding in the morning and by afternoon, blue skies, with just a touch of snow on the west side of the mountains, in the afternoon. That's New Mexico weather for ya!

I live on the east side of the mountains, at a much higher altitude than the city, so there's a bit more snow around, but not much. I think the best part of the weather around here is the cloudy skies. Check these clouds out. This photo was taken just down the road from the previous mountain photo.

Then I noticed that the moon was up. It's almost dead center in the next photo. There's a little bit of reflection from the window being up.

 So I retook the picture with the window down. Notice how very similar this one is to the previous one.

Check out how the clouds have reformed, into a hand perhaps? You can see the moon better too.

The car window is open in this next photo so there is no reflection. It's all real clouds. Crazy, huh?

And I could go on and on with ever changing cloud pictures...

It was quite white

I made the trek out to the barn this morning to feed the horses and alpacas and was surprised to see that the inside of my barn is almost as snow packed as it is outside.The horses were soaked, especially Annie, as she is already beginning to shed her winter coat and chills quickly. Fortunately, the sun was shining and already warming them up.

Nadia and Scout are looking for breakfast. See the hole my beaver horse, Nadia chewed just below her eye? Bad Horse!

I turned Skyy loose for a romp in the snow this morning. She loves running through the snow, the deeper, the better. She likes to jump right into the biggest drifts she can find.

This deep snow was along the fence by the barn. 

It's too bad I cut her in half but I like the shadow of her head.

She sure does like the deep snow!

 It was a crazy commute today. I think every semi truck in New Mexico was on the freeway heading east this morning. I passed miles of standing traffic going in the opposite direction from me because, fortunately, I go west and north in the AM and south and east in the PM. With the snow packed roads sanded red, I could have believed I was on a dirt road instead of the freeway, bumping along on the uneven terrain for the 20 miles into town before the snow and ice finally disappeared onto smooth wet roads. 

Here's a photo of the Sandia Mountains, taken on my way to work this morning, long after I left the snowy canyon road behind.

I did have a panicky moment soon after I left my house when I came up to a truck parallel across the two lane highway pulling out a ditched car on the steep hill leading down to a stop sign. As I applied my brakes, I skidded some and worried that I might be joining the car in the ditch. Since there were no other cars on the road, I backed up the hill to a side road and drove through 8 inches of snow, taking the long way around to the access road. I considered just turning around and going home but I knew that the roads would get better soon enough, if I could only get to the freeway. That's the good thing about the snows we are getting now. The snow melts really quickly instead of freezing like it does in January and December.

It was quite white- song: Remembering Marie A. artist: David Bowie, album: Baal

Always some change in the weather

Not only are we having snows every other day, we are getting fog too! We are having very strange weather patterns that I can't remember ever having before. For the last several nights, I drove from the city through the canyon, and into fog, as I reached the higher elevations of the foothills and plains, east of the city. It makes for very tough driving conditions when it's foggy, and snowing too, at night. And, the other morning, as I drove along the base of the mountain, around the outskirts of town, with clear skies all around, I came down into the fog which was heavy in the valley, along the Rio Grande river. Here are some photos of my drive in on that strange foggy morning. Across the middle of the photo, is the heavy fog bank. It kind of looks like a lake from this angle. That's the lowlands, the Rio Grande valley.

And I got to drive through this the rest of my way to work, on the freeway, not very fun.

Last night, the mountains were spectacular, with thunderheads building up above them.

The sky was gorgeous, partly cloudy with snow white and ominous black intermixed with blue. My photos don't do it justice.

I just love that dark "ribbon" cloud to the left.

This cloud formation looks like a ghost or something, doesn't it? The silver cylinder is a tanker truck, in case anyone is wondering.

Look at the storm I had to drive into!

New Mexico weather varies all through the state. So much so that there are over forty different weather zones. Often, you can cross an invisible line into snow or rain from sunshine. Last night, we had wind and snow and the drifts are piled high in places. 

This is looking out my front door. The snow is deep! If you look further, do you notice the ripples in the snow, caused by the winds?

And this is my bedroom window. Nature is crazy, huh?

Always some change in the weather - song: Stay, artist: David Bowie, album: Stationtostation

Standing in the Sunshine

These photos were taken last weekend, but I never got around to posting them.

Here's little Sophie.

She eats hay now 

but she still prefers her mother's milk.

Here's butterball Scout.

 Horses love to roll, don't they? I like the way Annie's feet are all in the air.

Check out the new snowy whorl Annie has in the middle of her forehead.

Everybody took turns having a good roll in the deep, white stuff.

After rolling, they didn't know what to do with all that deep snow. The sunshine was very warming, however, so just standing and soaking up the sun rays seemed a good choice.

I guess this is what Yalla! would look like if she turned gray, huh?

She decided to come over and join me. We watched the other horses stand around.

And she chewed on my boot.

Why does Yalla! always look like a cute little pony??

Standing in the Sunshine - song: Safe, artist: David Bowie

The ice forgets to melt away

I always find it interesting how snow melts into sculptured art. My roof snow is turning into marshmallow fluff.

How about some long icy fingers?

Check out the snow creature sitting on the roof of my barn!

 Because of the barn's metal roofing, the snow sometimes comes off in sheets.

But snowmelt isn't always so nice. Taking hot water and beet pulp mash to the horses can be treacherous for me with my weak ankle when I try to walk on the old paths in the early morning. Walking on the frozen, unyielding old footprints forces my ankle to sometimes, unexpectedly, painfully, bend. The snow is still a foot deep in many places and I feel like every step is a challenge, kind of like climbing Mount Everest. I tell myself, one footstep at a time and I WILL get there.

The ice forgets to melt away - song: Sell Me a Coat, artist: David Bowie, album: David Bowie

Neither Snow nor Rain

This morning, on my way to work, I drove through snow, fog, and sleet. I felt like the mailman, lol. I knew the winter storm was still moving in so I left work early, around 1:30PM, when the snowflakes were big and the streets were slushy. I stopped by WalMart to get some last minute shopping and I think everyone else had the same idea. After over a half hour wait to check out, I loaded my packages and realized I had forgotten to buy one of the priorities on my shopping list. I stopped at Walgreens to get that and then back on the road, this time to rain. I have a 45 minute commute on a good day now since the company moved their office earlier this month, so I got comfortable, turned up the defrost, set the windshield wipers to intermittant, and prepared for the journey home. Most of the way home is freeway but, because of the snow, I got off the interstate and took Historic Highway Route 66, the frontage road, for the last ten miles to home. I could see that the light, mid-day interstate traffic was still moving well, despite the now heavy snowfall, but Route 66 highway was practically deserted, a winter wonderland, although treacherous, with the foggy snow, slushy roads, and freezing temperatures. Still, I wanted to see how my new Canon Point and Shoot camera worked for point and shoot photos. So, here goes:

This might be my favorite photo. I like the snowy trees and the lone mailbox.

The brown stripe you see in the next photo is the side of the freeway which runs parallel with Route 66. Sometimes, after a heavy rainstorm, there are temporary waterfalls running down from the upper levels. Not today. ;) 

You can see the roads are getting worse (next photo) as I gain in altitude and approach my home. I live at 7,000 feet above sea level, 1,500 feet higher than in the city. It's awful when you have a cold and your ears plug up and then pop, which reminds me of a story. Two different times, I have purchased neon tetras for my fish tank, only to arrive at home from the city, with dead, little, red and blue fish. It seems that the altitude change doesn't agree with them. Their eyes actually pop out of their heads! Crazy, I know, but absolutely true!

When I got home, my son's friend's car was stuck in my long driveway. Uh oh! I have to go past without hitting him or getting stuck myself. I couldn't even stop because I knew I would get stuck then too. Everybody watched and worried as I carefully drove past and parked in the driveway. When I tried to back up and straighten out, I couldn't. I was stuck. Oh well, I was home, safe and parked. Yay, for my Subaru!! Whew! I do slip and slide a little but I haven't got stuck yet. Then, I snapped this photo, looking back down my driveway towards the neighbor's driveway, just after they got the car going again. Last Saturday night, another of my son's friends got stuck at the end of the driveway nearer the neighbor's wall. The driveway may look easy, but it curves in an "s" with a slight drop on both sides and there is a culvert at the end, near the road. When driving in snow you can't heavy gas it, slow down too much, or stop, and you've got to stay on the gravel. The biggest problem I seem to have driving in snow is the low clearance of my Subaru Impreza. But, my daughter says, "it's all about the driver". Lol, thanks for the compliment. After all, I didn't hit the friend's car OR get myself stuck. Tee Hee.

I wasn't very pleased that my son and his friends were going out in this blizzard but they were performing at a show tonight with their band, Second Thought. He did call me when they got to town so that I knew they were safe. The weather wasn't so bad in the city and he's going to stay at his friend's apartment tonight after the show. Have fun at your show, guys.

I let Sandy and Skyy out for a pee and a romp. They had a blast running through the deep snow.

Skyy was so fast for this photo, I only caught her tail.

By this time, Sandy was far, far away. This photo was taken using my 14X zoom, four times more than my last camera.

Inside, it looks like the snow monsters are outside.

I think I will be working from home tomorrow, in order to stay safe. I really can't risk anything happening to my one driving car, since the Hyundai got totalled.

Neither Snow Nor Rain - song: O Superman artist: David Bowie and Laurie Anderson