Our lovely winter so far...

Yippee! The snow is gone at long last. Well, except for the giant piles plowed up in parking lots and along curbs, but those will melt eventually.

But in this winter of extremes the snow was followed by three days of rain and temps in the 50s, which caused all kinds of havoc flooding-wise. At one point we had no less than 18 rivers in flood watch or warning, all three mountain passes closed due to avalanches and mudslides, highway 8/101 to the west closed for water and mudslides and then a 20 mile stretch of I-5 south closed due to flooding over the highway. So we were like a little island with no way off unless you were bound for Canada. But within a few days the waters receded and the rain stopped and then came part three of winter: 10 days of fog and freezing temps. Bringing an inversion which held in all the pollutants and made us not only icy but smoggy! Woohoo! Burn bans, the whole thing.

Finally, it's all cleared out now and it's been sunny and chilly for a few days. A very welcome change. We've been teasing each other about trying to identify the huge bright ball in the sky, been so long since we've seen it! Break out the shades...