Winter in the northeast, Ah for Hawaii!

The month of January was extremely snowy. We "missed" two weeks of it while in Hawaii. Rrturning home, we found that there was about the same amount on the ground as when we left. On February 7 we went out to Oswego, NY to be with Eric while he had ACL surgery on his knee. Eric suffered the initial injury playing indoor soccer in High School. The surgery went well, but the recovery is slow. We have been here for a week and will be here longer helping him out by driving him to work, clearing the driveway and just helping around the house. He will be on crutches for awhile. Below are photos taken in the last two weeks in Massachusetts, Vermont, and New York.

View from the front yard after the last snowstorm before leaving for New York. The driveway still has to be cleared.

The backyard with the "buried" greenhouse. At this point there was 28 jnches of snow on the ground. The greenhouse air heating system is not working, so I am relying on the water heating system to keep the temperature up. With the days getting longer and more thaws, the plants should be getting more heat.

This is a typical view of a house in the northern Berkshires showing the problem with ice dams on the roofs and huge icicles. This is a home in North Adams.

This is the Searsburg Road in southern Vermont. This is along the route we regularly take on the way to the University of New Hampshire for hockey games.

This Route 9 in southern Vermont west of Wilmington.

This is the home where Eric lives in Oswego, NY. Eric is presently renting from a former biologist at the college. They have moved to Colorado. Eric is in the process of hoping to buy the house. It is located about 10 minutes to the west of the college, very close to the shore of lake Ontario. The homes on the other side of the road are on the shore of the lake. State University of New York at Oswego (Oswego State) is located immediately on the shore of Lake Ontario in the City of Oswego. Oswego is noted for being in the area subjected to lake effect snow with may whiteouts and heavy snowfall. Four years ago when Eric took his invterview for his job, they had just had 10 feet of snow in one week.

Eric's dog moose in the backyard. Moose is half black Lab and half Australian Cattle Dog. He loves to chase the many squirrels in the yard.

We have enyed watching the birds at the many feeders in the yard. On the left feeder is a Red-bellied Woodpecker and House Finch. On the right feeder is a Cardinal.

Shopping center along the main road in Oswego after another 12 inches of snow overnight.

Snow pile in Walmart parking lot. Since this picture was taken, we had a good thaw with much of the ice melting and the snow settling and melting.