First Lunch Outside of the Year

Today I had lunch outside for the first time in 2017!  I don't think I would have guessed that the first day would be this early in the year.  It was really lovely out.  I wore only a reasonably light jacket and scarf, and I was really comfortable.

A shot from my picnic table

Winter Storm

We had a pretty good weather storm yesterday.  Flurries started about noon, and it didn't end until we had about 6 inches of fluffy snow.  I used my roof rake to clean off my roof and hopefully avoid the ice damming we experienced two years ago.  We already had some pretty healthy icicles off the back of the house.  The storm moved through and left us with clear, dry and cold air.

This is what a southerly view from the house looks like.  The sun is really low in the southern sky for a picture taken at about 10:30 AM in the morning.  I plotted the length of daylight versus the day number of the year (11 = January 1, 2017 and 0 = December 21, 2016 just so the shortest day would be at the bottom of the curve).  We are still in the shallow part of the up-sloop towards longer days.  Right now we are getting 1 minute more daylight a day.  By late March we will be getting 3 more minutes of daylight per day.

Snow Today

Last night we had flurries, and when I woke up to walk this morning we had a dusting of snow that was still on the grassy areas.  It lasted until the sun came up and is mostly gone now.  I would be completely fine if this was the last snow we had this winter...