Christmas card weather

Sunday morning, the farm creatures awakened to several inches of snow which was rather exciting to some and less than thrilling to others. The cows and sheep wanted to know where the grass went and looked suspiciously at us. "Do something!"

The sheep, less impacted by cold due to all that wool, were hopeful more apples had fallen. The cats felt something alien had happened, and it was ruining their outdoor pleasure. They refused to have their pictures taken in it-- typical behavior for cats. The humans had been potentially expecting it and thought it was pretty if it didn't last past noon. As I write this, it's still with us.

Although in the last few years snow has been rare in the Willamette Valley, the prediction is we may get more; and it will stay cold all week. Oh well, I do enjoy the opportunity to see the creek and farm through a different lens; and it adds much pleasure to the fire in the fireplace.

Hopefully no part of the next week will involve what we, in this part of the Pacific Northwest, call a silver thaw when freezing rain coats trees and power-lines forming icicles and leading to broken branches and power outages. At the farm, we are prepared for the latter with a generator, woodstove, kerosene lanterns (now where is that kerosene again?), and candles; but it's never welcomed.

The photos are all from the farm December 14.