A Different Sort of Winter

Ravens flying over Lake Coyote
Last winter about this time I was blogging about Lake Coyote - the huge ice damn downstream had backed up the Little Coyote stream creating a huge ice lake in my back yard. This winter the Little Coyote is still within its banks and covered with a relatively thin coat of ice.


Snow has actually been rare. So rare I got my camera out to record this 6 inch blanket in the last week. Yesterday the temperature was about 43F at my house and so much of this is gone like the 10 inch one we got in December. Today is going to be in the 40's again. In fact no significant weather for the next 10 days. It has thrown a spanner into my winter aerobics program of snow shoveling the driveway! And locals have already shifted from talking about the weather to worrying about the summer fire season in the forest.

My sister and I are even contemplating taking a few days off and taking to the road to visit Chaco or Canyon de Chelle or the Grand Canyon or Monument Valley - trips we usually consign to late spring. But the weather and the open roads seem just too nice to waste. And a dusting of snow on ancient Chaco ruins would be such a nice photographic opportunity. Pilots might term this a sucker hole. Lure you out with the promise of blue sky and then sock you in with the blizzard of the century. Or not.

Boxing Day 2010

It is just so difficult to settle into the ordinary winter activities when it looks so wonderful outside.

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