Photo dump: Signs of Spring

By reader request:  photos of springtime in University Town

2010-04-12 Spring

Photo dump: change in weather

It's been a strange winter. Normally, here in University Town, it will start snowing in November, and the snow will stay on the ground until about March. Excepting the October snow (blogged about earlier) it's been a dry winter. Up until about two weeks ago, University Town looked like this:



Photos above from February 1st. It was nice and green, although the temperatures were in the 20's.

Five days later, on the 6th, University Town got 16" of snow.  Here's my walkway:


And my car:


The snow was up to my knees, and for the first time, I had to shovel the top of my car.

 It took about 45 minutes to get the car out.  And I also had help from a neighbor.

The surprising thing is, a few days later, in far away Metro, they got over 12.5" inches of snow--where typically, they don't get ANY snow in the winter. I heard that it was the most snow that Metro had ever gotten in a single day.

It's snowing again, in University Town, tonight, with snow in the forecast all week.  At least everything is back to normal.

(The penny remains)

Monday Drive

As Borat would say: Great Success!

I had class this morning, then I went to the car dealership to get an oil change and winterization.  I arrived at 1:30pm, and was told that I had been scheduled for 1 o'clock.  I used my phone to pull up the e-mail confirming my appointment--it was 1:30pm.  Luckily, the (other) 1:30 appointment didn't show, and they were able to get my car in.

The dealership was at the edge of town. So when my car was finished, I went driving. I went south, but then the road curved westward. I was in a little community I had never been before, with a small downtown along the road. And the countryside was lovely.

I wanted to stop to take pictures, but I didn't want to stop at a person's farm. Luckily, I came across a state Department of Agriculture building.  It was new, large, with plenty of parking.  As far as I could tell, I was the only one there.  But best of all, it was adjacent to a farm, complete with a red barn, and a field of dried corn.

Unfortunately, between the Dept. of Ag building and the farm, there was a lowered area for water retention.  The retention area was a long oval, and because of the recent snow, there was actually a pond on one side, with wild mallards swimming in it.

I decided to cross it on the drier side of the oval.  The whole area was covered in unmown hay, flattened by the snow.  The adventure was testing each footstep--would the unseen earth underneath the grass support my weight?  Or was it hiding a puddle of mud?  It really was like crossing a pond, as I slowly zigzagged across.

On the way back, I stopped in the little town, and took a picture of a house I had seen from the highway. It had been decked out for Halloween, with mannequins by the door, a scarecrow hanging by it's neck from a window, and ghouls popping out flower pots.  


And finally, I returned to school, for the sole purpose of getting a "color wheel" shot. This time, I think I got it right:

For more and larger photos, go to my Picasa album: Monday Drive