Angels & Antics in the Winter Snow

Happy New Year! To kick off Quilts & Paws in 2014, I send all of you my best wishes for a happy, healthy, fulfilling year. Here in the Willamette Valley, early December 2013 brought heavy snow followed by a week of frigid temps. To give an idea just how much snow, here's one of the feeders we diligently kept full for our birds and squirrels.

An 8-inch snowfall is rare in the Willamette Valley

Our house in the trees looks its best while the snow is still pristine with most of the weeds and yard chores hidden from view.

Just how cold was it? A week of bitterly cold temps from the teens all the way down to zero left the creek in our back yard frozen over ... the only time that has occurred in the 16+ years we've lived here. But trust me, I didn't test it to see how thick the ice was!

Frozen Muddy Creek

No one enjoys snow more than our two goldens ... they both absolutely love it! Frankie likes to eat snow, catch snowballs, romp and roll. Even though he's 11 years old, I think he still has a sweet baby face.

Frankie is ready for a snowball

For Nickel, who will be 3 years old this spring, this was his very first snow. It was fluffy, powdery snow that wouldn't pack into a snowball so we had to make do with the Kong toys.

Nickel's very first snow

Another pic of Frankie's sweet face ...

Hi there

The canine world seemingly has no concept of "one for you, one for me" ... there is only ever one desirable toy at least so far as Nickel is concerned. Frankie, gentle soul that he is, rarely contests the possession of a toy. Nickel, however, is ever vigilant ... constantly keeping on eye on Frankie's interests.

His toy is better than my toy?

I mentioned that Frankie loves to roll in the snow; he demonstrated the proper way to make a snow angel for the inexperienced Nickel.

A snow angel tutorial

That felt great!

Just as we started to head in the house because I was freezing, our neighbor John who lives to the south of us, started doing something very interesting in his yard. Notice that Nickel has commandeered both toys.

Alert to the south!

... followed a moment later by several sharp "bangs" as one of our neighbors to the north decided the snow inspired a little back yard target practice ...an alert to the north in perfect unison.

Alert to the north!

What fun!