still looks like winter

Some photos from the weekend.  Still very much looking like winter in western NY State, but gloriously sunny which makes everything looks so crystal clear.  6 degrees in the morning! Chataqua Lake is still frozen! Big icicle on Joe's truck.  Snowing now in Cranberry TWP!

the last snow (continued)

I spoke too soon.  There is the slightest dusting of snow on everything this morning.

the last snow

This isn't today, but a couple of weeks ago - March 11th.  Because of technical difficulties, John wasn't able to get the photo to the blog.  Not sure if we will get more snow here or not, it's going below freezing for the next few days, though.

birds, wood and thorns

Jubilee and I took a walk at Knob Hill this morning.  Many trees are down, blocking the trails.  I didn't notice any buds on the trees, but there are a lot of thorny branches about with little buds on them.  And birds singing.
It is not really cold here anymore either.  Perfect outside weather.

The drive north (once again)

We left Kiawah very early.  I was going to get up at 6, but I woke up at 3 and was still awake at 4, so I decided to get started.  We were on the road by 5.  The darkness of Kiawah always reminds me of the unconscious.  Even with a moon just past full, it was very dark as we found our way through low country and bridges into the streets of Charleston.  It didn't get light until we were almost to Columbia SC.  The morning was cool and South Carolina was showing many signs of spring.  I was charmed by the white trees (magnolias?) that were in full bloom here and there and tried to capture a few photos of them while driving.

 Need a car wash again, but you can still see the trees in full bloom ...

 The little white trees are over on the left side of the road.

 Coming into North Carolina, the white blossomed trees became more rare, but there was still the cast of red bloom on many of the trees.

 It's starting to look more like winter, but there is another white tree!

 And daffodils in bloom ...

 Southwestern VA ...

 At a rest stop in VA ...

 ... I got this photo of a budding tree!

 More brown in WVA ...

 These rocks were covered with giant icicles when I passed by in January ...

 The last place I stopped for gas in WVA.  A man came by and said that it looked like a storm was heading our way.

 WVA mountain home ...

 Lots of rain and then a traffic jam coming into Western PA ...

But we made it!

Grand Nephews

My father and mother are the great grandparents of these two boys.  This is Luke (with a goalie "mean face"), who is 2 1/2:

 And this is Jack, who is 4 and really into dinosaurs:

 This is Jazz:

 I haven't been on the floor for block play in awhile.

Some photos from Kiawah this morning

FA and I went to Red's for lunch and had a great grouper sandwich.  Good views of the boats and bay.

Windy here today.

on the road again

For some reason, no matter where I'm leaving from, there's always this tug ... it's hard to leave.  But once I'm on the road, I'm OK.

Here is the canal this morning as Jubilee and I were taking our last walk.

And the house as we drove away, last bit of garbage our front ...

Speedometer is getting up there ...

We passed the point of no return ...

Northern Florida pit stop.  The guy in the store tried to get me to buy something, said that is what would keep the gas prices down.  I didn't buy anything.

Finally made our way through the low country down Route 17 to Kiawah ...

And here we are!  Kaiwah Island, SC.  (more photos tomorrow)