Frosting On the Cake

Some mornings you wake up and wonder what you did to deserve such a beautiful day. Yesterday morning was one of those days. I must first remind you that this is California; California below 1200 ft. The foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains get a dusting of snow maybe once a year in the winter and if we're lucky, the snow lasts for a few hours until the sun come up.
Now, to all my blogging friends out there who live in the Northern US, please forgive my childlike excitement and blatant, enthusiasm but...., It snowed yesterday and I took almost 300 photos of this place..., and Oh my gosh it was beautiful...., and I was here to see it..., and I only came inside to eat and get warm..., and I built a snowman, a real snowman...., and the dogs ran around with me..., and look how BEAUTIFUL IT ALL IS.

Except for the Heavenly Bamboo berries, all these photos were taken during the storm in the morning. Later, when there was more light, I took this close-up of these berries because they looked like ornaments out there. Against the snow they glittered like a red string of lights.

I don't know what it is about snow. This is what I consider one of the "gifts" in my life. I want to be out in it...., walking, by myself..., feeling the cold and listening to the QUIET. I know that it can be deadly. I know that we couldn't drive down the road to town and have gotten back up to the house easily yesterday. I know, now, after the power went off all day, that we would need a wood stove and a decent gas generator to survive this weather longer than a day. And I know that we are at the age where living in this kind of weather all Winter would be much harder than we can imagine but.... look at this. A birthday present I didn't expect. A wonderful coat of Mother Nature's silent rain. The picture postcard of my dreams right here at 3 Dog Farm.

The animals all did quite well. Maggie wasn't sure at first but then she got into it. She enjoyed following me around, trying to find any good smelling stuff under the snow that she could eat. Carl acted like he was born in "snow country". He took to the whole thing as if it was just another day. He has been off his leash since the last Rattler crawled back into it's hole for the Winter, so he was running, flat out, all over the yard, playing in and eating the snow. Since he is such a low rider, we had to dry him off from top to bottom every time he came in.
The goats were not as happy about all of this as the dogs. They didn't like the numbing cold, the frozen water in their buckets or the fact that I was running around like a crazy lady taking pictures. Brownie was no where to be seen. Annibel was in the garage trying to stay warm and the chickens were inside their house and not saying a word.
Please indulge me for the next few days. There will be more pictures. This is a major event in my life. Each time that it has snowed in the last few years I was gone, down in the Bay Area. This time I was home and, not only did it snow for most of the day but it's so cold that the snow is still all over the area this morning. Which gives me an opportunity to go outside and play some more.

I have found my "inner child" and I'm indulging her. I know this makes no sense to people who live with snow all Winter and I can see that 5 or more feet of this would bring life to a halt for a while. But just give me one Winter. I want to live in.., oh.., maybe Montana, for one Winter. I could go over the mountains to Nevada. I could just go up to Lake Tahoe. Just once..., for one Winter...

But yesterday, for a few hours, I was living in snow country. Now, excuse me while I go outside and play. The sun is shinning, the snow is all around us on the hills and I have MORE pictures to take....
(Please remember to click on these photos to see them close up.)