Cleaning House

These photos have been at the bottom of my blog since I started it last June. I'm putting them into a normal post so that they can get filed away like the others, and so that the bottom of my blog is tidier. It is neat to look back, though, at my perspective from eight months ago.

Talk about your juxtaposition of old and new!

Boston Old State House and John Hancock Tower, above

The State Building, above. Go Celtics!

Boston Firehouse, above
If you look closely (above), you may be able to see the sun reflecting off buildings and cars across the street. It was raining and sunny at the same time!

Okay, I admit it: it's stinkin' hot here, and muggy! At least it finally turns into a quenching, satisfying rain.

Snow Emergencies! I know I have a ways to wait, but I'm looking forward to Winter.

Commonwealth Avenue Mall, above

Brownstones with oxidized copper and a Dogwood Tree, above

Along the Charles River, above

The houses here (above) are enormous. Some of them may have been divided into separate units inside, or possibly have many roommates living there, but some of them are single family homes.

View from my apartment on Mass Ave (summer sublet)

Winter Wonderland

I can't get over how sparkly the snow is.

I was walking to work the other morning, and it was so beautiful out. The sun was shining, the snow was bright white, and my spirits were high.
Above, the glittering snow at night.

It snowed so much the other day. We didn't have much accumulation (I guess the ground was too warm; the weather has been flip-flopping), but the snowfall put on quite a show.

Oh, yeah, I'm a tough New Englander now!

President Obama

It's been 17 days, and I still smile when I hear the words President Obama.

Brrr

It's eleven degrees outside! With the windchill, it's only two degrees. Brrr.

Groundhog Day

If you read the last post (1/28/09), it had rained on top of snow. The next morning, the rain had frozen, and I could see a sheet of ice against the snow bank, below.

That evening, walking home, I could see footprints in the slush, that had then frozen, capturing the footprints. Here are some birds (what my parents call little brown jobbers) in a bush.
My grandmother gave my this stained glass that looks just like Billy. Coincidentally, the state insect of Massachusetts is the lady bug, also featured.
Punxsutawney Phil says 6 more weeks of winter! Yay!

Getting the Hang of This Winter Thing

This, above, is not a snake. It's snow. It looks like it melted just enough to start to break formation, then refroze in a bent, wiggly shape.

If you don't dig your car out, the snow plows will just keep plowing snow up against your car, higher and higher.

When it's not snowing, there are a lot of sunny days. I love the cold, sunny days. A friend of mine just went to Mexico for a holiday. She said it was so nice to be warm. As for me, I can wait until Spring.

After the last storm, someone plowed a couple of paths through the park I walk across to get to work. Landlords hire companies to keep our sidewalks plowed, but the parks rely on volunteers to plow. After a few days, the main path was worn smooth (ah, so many pedestrians in Boston, I love it) so it turned icy. If you look in the photo above, you can see that people tromped a parallel path on either side of the main path, and the new ones had more traction. The main path provided a nice ice-skating opportunity. That's me, below, and my friend Britt. He's not ice-skating. I find that people who grew up here aren't having as much fun as I am with the weather. But, another friend of mine told me just today that she likes seeing winter through my eyes because it lets her enjoy it anew.

The snow had been cleared from the roads and sidewalks, so the walking there was easy and dry. It didn't get warm enough to melt the snow piles, though.

Today started out snowing again.

By late morning, the snow had stopped. Shortly after that, it started raining. When it rains and there's snow on the ground, the rain doesn't have anywhere to drain to, so you get really big puddles. Can you see where the sidewalk, below, dips for the handicap ramp? It's all water.
Good thing I had on my good new waterproof boots and my gaitors. Gaitors velcro around the calf, there's a strap under the foot, and they hook onto the boot toe. They keep your lower legs dry. I don't know if I've mentioned before, but there are two NPR stations here: News (WBUR), and Arts & Culture (WGBH). They both have regular weather reports, more frequent than I remember San Diego weather reports being. This makes sense, of course, since we really have (real) weather here.

My great friend Sunshine painted Billy! It looks just like my little rascal. Thanks Sunshine.

More photos from Mt. Monadnok

It really was a beautiful day for hiking. It snowed on the drive up to Mt. Monadnok, New Hampshire, but it cleared up by the time we started hiking. It wasn't too cold or windy, either.

The going got steep.

Really steep.The snow had stayed cold enough that the individual flakes were still visible, all neatly piled on top of the others. And it was fun to lick.