4 days until winter

Just in case anyone was unclear about it, winter has not officially started yet. The first day of winter begins this Sunday, December 21, 2008 at about 7 am EST.

Around here, though, winter decided to arrive a bit early. Our high temperatures all this week have been below freezing. That's very cold for the Pacific Northwest at any time, let alone in the fall. We got a bit of snow on Sunday and almost 6" today. Fortunately, Oregonians tend to be resilient folk and everyone seems to be adapting just fine.

Everything is so beautiful with a clean, fresh snow. I have been wanting to take pictures all day. In fact, I may even go so far as to say that almost all things are more photogenic in the snow.

Here, see for yourself.

Yesterday, when I opened the chicken run door, Coral and Spongebob were still nervous about coming out into the snow:

It was very sunny and incredibly cold:

The size of the Douglas Fir trees dwarfs my little chicken coop:

Walking up to the barn, things I would have normally overlooked started to catch my eye. The snow is sparkling at me:

Here's Aidan, my son, walking to the barn:

I sat on these chairs a lot this last summer:

Can't you almost smell the crisp, fresh air?

Spongebob and Bippity were posing for me:

Sparrow had oatmeal in her beard. How embarrassing:

It got down to 9 degrees last night. Absolutely frigid for western Oregon. My poor rain chain and ceramic water bucket should have been taken in before the freeze:

Too late now:

The moles of Critter Farm are alive and well. I can't believe they can still tunnel like this when the ground is frozen:

The birds have been ravenous:

Roxy was dying to go for a walk:

Though, with Roxy, it's always more of a run:

Look at that complete extension. All four paws in the air:

Run, run:

Run:

The downside of all that glorious running is all those ridiculous little snowballs that get caught in your fur:

Everything just seems prettier with a backdrop of fresh snow: