Delightful Winter Day

Gate at our rose arbor.

I woke to a dream world of a gentle snow falling on lacy white maple branches.

Lacy Japanese Maples and Pink Dogwood

Here's one of our paths that meanders through large conifers and maples. Isn't this soft snowfall mesmerizing?

It was going to be another hectic day at work. With calendar pages scattered about (for 2019 already!) I thought I'd grab a cup of tea and paint furiously in my comfy flannels by the fire. But I couldn't resist taking a walk in this winter wonderland.
Looks like I'm not the only one. This hummingbird chattered at me from the Japanese Maple next to our pond.

I wrapped a seed warming mat and wool sock around our hummingbird feeder. It keeps it fluid to around 20 degrees. We can get into the low teens sometimes; then we let it quickly defrost by the fire while the little hummers sit on the hanger on our porch and scold us.

Meet "Biscuit."  He follows us around the

property. Lately, he enjoys sitting on the feeder
for long spells, mesmerized by the snow, too.

It's no secret that we get a lot of rain in the Dundee Hills of Oregon. But, it's a little known fact that we get our share of snow, too, since we are part of the north Oregon coast range. 

Our weather can be quite different than Portland, the nearest city that is an hour away on the other side of a small mountain. While Portland gets ice and snow from the gorge, we get a lot of rain and snow incoming from Alaska over the Pacific Ocean.

Glen and Cotton headed out early this morning to feed the birds. 

An avid swimmer and lover of all things summer, Cotton is not a fan of so much snow.

Looks like it will be hard to get much work done today. It's wonderful snowman snow, and relatively warm (around 30 degrees.) If I decide to play hooky, I'll update with a snowman picture. Hope that this ordinary middle-of-the-week day is a surprisingly delightful one for you, too.