Skywatch! After the storm!

Check out all of the cool sites listed on Skywatch Friday, from around the world!




Aaaaah, clear skies after the storm...
These are views of the San Francisco Peaks on the day after our big storm ended.


Record snow here in Flagstaff, Arizona. 54.2 inches over five days! that's the second highest total, the record is over 80 inches over one week period- I don't even want to think about that.
My Mom use to tell me about the snows they would get in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, how sidewalks became tunnels. I always wondered how that would feel and now I, kind of, have an idea.
I have been snowshoeing down to get my son from school and that has been fun. A lot of people are skiing in the woods so tracks criss-cross the path we take. I haven't noticed a lot of other animal tracks, tho. I wonder how the other animals are doing with this snow.

my street during the storm












our house during the storm









help from neighbors!









the day after the storm, ponderosa pine trees

Skywatch!

I am new to Skywatch so hopefully this will work. I wanted to show what is happening here in Flagstaff, Arizona and what is happening is that we are getting hammered by a snowstorm! The third one this week! It's very pretty outside, but snowy.
By the way Skywatch Friday is a cool site with images from around the world, check it out!






mailbox, barely















more trees & snow










Pip and something really good-smelling

I'm baack!

Sigh. I am back. I didn't mean to be gone so long. I have been wondering if I should change this blog to something different. I have been reading that you need to write about stuff you enjoy. And I do enjoy walking. And I want to encourage more people to walk. But here in Flagstaff we got this big snowstorm and the sidewalks got all gunked up so it's really not too safe to walk many places.
In a lot of places you need to be quite agile to climb over the snow piles to get to the clean sidewalks and then climb over the snow piles again to cross the street. I am not kidding. I should have taken photos. A lot of people end up walking in the street, which is just not safe. My friend and hero, Jack Welch, wrote this wonderful article for the Arizona Daily Sun with the quote: "Sidewalks are a trail system. And every front door along their route is a trailhead." (by the way, Jack Welch was awarded Flagstaff Male Citizen of the Year- hurray! He deserves it!)
But, as his article discusses, you can't go far on a sidewalk without keeping it free of snow.
I have been walking. We forged a trail through the snow to my son's school. It was actually getting quite easy walking, the snow has been melting. I also found other blazed trails through the snow I could walk on. And we have been able to go to lower elevations where there hasn't been any snow. That's been nice.
This week we are expecting more snow. Actually... Today is Wednesday. My son had Monday off because of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. It snowed eight inches that night. Snow day on Tuesday. Most of the snow seemed to melt on Tuesday- but remember we still have several inches on the ground from the previous storms. Last night we got about eight more inches of snow. Another snow day today. The sun is out again so I suspect the roads will be cleared of snow again. But then the BIG storm will hit- rain or snow? how much? we don't know yet. It might go east of us. Who knows. I will get photos of our road conditions to you, just to show you what our walkers are up against.
Until I think of changes, and I have a couple of ideas, I will just keep at it.
take care.
The photograph is of an ocotillo in a Phoenix sunset.