What started last week as a light dusting of snow has turned into a full week of actual winter in the PNW, with even more snow forecast to come over the next week. Overnight between Friday and Saturday, the Seattle area saw more snow than we typically get over the course of an entire year! While some are starting to tire of all the snow, I’m loving it! When I moved to Washington with my family as a child, I imagined that we were leaving behind the eternal summer of California for Great White North, where there’d be snow for three months out of every year. Our first winter in Washington was a snowy one - not the three months I’d imagined, but enough that we had an extended winter break with school cancelled for multiple days. I loved every minute of it, with sledding, snowball fights, and cocoa to warm up inside while our soggy winter clothes dried. Sadly, while we had a light snow most winters, that memorable snowstorm in 1996 was a rare event, and since I’ve had to head east for adventures in the snow.
Read moreLife: Week 6
A sunny weekend in February is a rare and marvelous thing. After a week of grey skies and cold, damp weather Andy and I absolutely had to get outside to make the most of the glorious weather! We spent Saturday catching up on all the boring errands adult life entails, but Sunday morning, we headed out for some hiking. Rather than brave the crowds that would surely be swarming every snowshoeing route in the mountains, we decided to hike the nearby Middle Fork Snoqualmie River. Our strategy worked surprisingly well, and we saw only a handful of other hikers as we followed a lovely trail through sunny, frozen forest. The hilight of the day for me was finding hair ice in multiple places along the trail. After reading about hair ice in a WTA article late last year, I'd been on the hunt for this strange and uncommon phenomenon. Now that I know this is a good trail for spotting hair ice, I'll definitely be returning for more cold weather hikes in the future!
Read moreLife: Week 6
After spending the past several weeks boasting to anyone who would listen that since I work from home have to worry about catching illnesses from coworkers, I spent the later half of this week ironically and miserably sick myself. Luckily, disease didn't strike until after the lovely snowy Monday we had in the Seattle area. While it only lasted for about a day and a half, it was the most snow we've had in the area since 2008! We may get a lot of rain here in the PNW, but lowland snow is a rarity - one which must be enjoyed. I took several slippery walks around Redmond before the snow was washed away by heavy rain on Wednesday. Late in the week, when our winter wonderland had turned to sunny, warm weather I was too sick to get outside and enjoy the lovely spring-like days. At least I know that as we creep toward spring, I'll have plenty more opportunities for soaking up spring sunshine!
Read moreLife: Week 6
This week felt like spring. So much more so than the February fake-out we usually have in the Pacific Northwest. As usual, we had a few days of delicious sunshine and warm temperatures. What made it feel more springlike was the fog, heavy rain, and gusty wind thrown into the mix. True spring in the Pacific Northwest. Now we're back to the constant flat grey skies and cooler temperatures of February, and I don't expect to see much of a change for at least a few weeks. Thankfully my office has lots of windows, so I was able to soak up the sunshine while it lasted!
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