Tuesday, December 22, 2020

First Day of Winter

 The first day of official Winter brought us about 3 inches of snow.  The snowstick shows 4 inches of snow. 


I shoveled the walk and the patio.  Twas fun. I just live to have snow blow back in my face and make me look like a big old snowball until it starts to melt and then refreezes...yup u betcha extra good fun in the snow.

We met Jen and Andy and exchanged Christmas packages in a parking lot up North.  We will Zoom with them on Christmas Day. We visited through open car windows...a little chilly but worth it. We met at a DQ ...had a Blizzard...perfect snowy day treat....Andy went through the drive thru for us.


Minnesota social distancing

We got home...my other baby brother had been by and cleared the rest of the snow out of our yard...I shoveled by the garage a bit. 

A blizzard is forecast for mid week...and not the DQ kind.  

I was a helpful prep cook for Far Guy while  he made Impossible Italian Sausage Pie for supper. I had a nap and woke up just in time to drive out to the corner to see the Conjunction. 

Here is my best photograph...I did not get out my tripod...it is what it is. 


Hope you can see the bright spot in the sky.  I thought it would be more impressive all the hype there was about it.  The red lights are a Cell Phone Tower. 

Anyways today the days start to get longer!!  30 seconds  or so...

Far Side



26 comments:

Jeannelle said...

Your photo of the planets is very good!

DJan said...

We were overcast and even snowing a little here, so I missed it. And yes, I can see the Conjunction in the sky! Thank you for sharing it. :-)

Lynda said...

You got a beautiful shot with the many colors of the horizon. That is about what we saw, too. I may send you a link or a screen shot of the best one taken around here. We don't know the person but he used filters, etc to get the Star over the Manger effect. We expected more, too but guess we were fortunate to see it with the naked eye. Those with binoculars were able to see both planets.
Clever writing - - using blizzard in two ways!! I like it!

Wildflower Adventures said...

Good picture of the star. It was too cloudy to get a glimpse of anything in the sky at our place.

Sallysmom said...

Hubs was expecting the "Christmas star" to be spectacular. We have seen Mars bigger & brighter than what we saw last night.

linda m said...

Nice picture of Jupiter and Saturn. it was cloudy here so I didn't get to see it.

Martha said...

I can tell just how much you love the snow lol. Glad you got to do a little visiting and had some good eats :)

Maebeme said...

Thanks for sharing the photo, we were overcast last night to there were no pics. Our news program suggested we might see it on Wednesday.

Take care and stay well!

Linda Reeder said...

Enjoying a frosty DQ blizzard in a snowy parking lot with the windows down. You Minnesotans are a hardy lot.
I'm glad you got to see the star. Our sky was heavy with rain and snow/slush clouds.

Sara said...

We had too much cloud cover to see the light in the sky last night. I had to laugh about the parking lot meeting. Winter doesn't slow us down much "up north". A cousin in Florida is always telling us "hey, I'm grilling outdoors" and we always respond "so are we". Just have to shovel some snow first some days. LOL

Terry and Linda said...

Your photo of the Christmas star is good. That is about the size we had here also. Not big. But a treat anyway.

Tired Teacher 2 said...

DQ Blizzards are good any day! I don’t care for nature’s blizzards. Glad you were able to visit, exchange gifts, and enjoy a treat. Vigilance is necessary more now than ever before. Stay safe and healthy.

Rita said...

Thanks for the photo. Couldn't see from my place.
Well, it will be a white Christmas your way, anyways. ;)
Outside visits are getting colder and colder, though.

Bonnie said...

It looks like Winter arrived on cue! If you get a blizzard I hope it's not too bad. How nice that you got to see Jen and Andy and exchange gifts. I hope they are doing well. That's great that you were able to see the conjunction! I tried but we have too many city lights here. Your picture looks good. I'm never able to get good pictures of anything in the sky. Christmas Blessings to you both!

Betsy said...

DQ blizzards are good, but I prefer the peanut buster parfait! :-) I hope your Minnesota blizzard doesn't turn out too severe. We're not supposed to get more snow until Saturday, but it sure turned cold again overnight and it's just supposed to get colder
I'm glad you were able to meet up with Andy and Jen. Any visit is better than none at all isn't it? Your photo of the conjunction was MUCH better than mine, although my eyes saw what you photographed, my phone was just too blurry.
Enjoy the day Connie.
Blessings,
Betsy

Dawn said...

We might be headed for shorter nights...but we still have plenty of dark nights ahead of us, complete with snow and cold. You have even more up there! I'm glad you were able to see the planets, we had rain, snow and clouds all night and all day today too. But your photo was pretty! We have zero snow on the ground, the rain took what little we had left from last week. That's fine by me, I know more is on the way.

Cynthia said...

I was expecting a little more oomph out of the conjunction event also. We live in a forest so we drove to a park to have a clear view of the western sky. Five or six other cars appeared and disappeared rather quickly so I think they were a little underwhelmed, too. Paul and I decided if we had been the shepherds we probably would not have looked at that and said, Wow, we gotta follow THAT wherever it leads!

Jo-Anne's Ramblings said...

Nice photos
No blizzards is good
Never been in a blizzard to damn hot here for them

Granny Marigold said...

Winter arrived here with snow as well. We didn't get to see the conjunction of planets because it was raining. The rain didn't turn into snow until much later.I can clearly see the planets on your photo.

Red said...

Heavy cloud here for the conjunction. Also lots of snow in the last 24 hours. So guess where that's going to end up in a few days.

The Great Ethan Allen said...

AH! You Caught the Star/planet alignment! I was out last night searching for it and about froze. Not very special, if you ask me. I had to go inside several times to make sure I had located it properly. I think I did, but it was not as "special" as all that hype. Glad I'm not the only one to think that.

L. D. said...

A blizzard at the DQ sounds good. It is nice you can exchange gifts and keep away from germs. We will have some of the storm tomorrow too and very cold temps.

aurora said...

We were socked in with clouds last night so I missed the big "Christmas Star" event, but I took some pics of the two closely aligned planets tonight. You can clearly see they are separate, even with the naked eye. Not sure why it was pitched as viewing a Christmas Star, when you need filters/photoshop to embellish what they hyped everyone up to see. The planet alignment is cool regardless. Hope all your blizzards are on the sweet side.

At Home In New Zealand said...

Glad you got to see the planets. We have had heavy cloud here so I missed seeing the actual alignment of them.
Our days are now getting shorter :(

Leah said...

Your Christmas Star pictures turned out better than mine ~ I was only seeing clouds so didn't even try (I should have gone for a drive) :) Good thing you met before our snowy weather coming ~ it looks like we will have snow for Christmas.

www.self-sufficientsam.blogspot.com said...

I forgot about the conjunction and Amy said it was too cloudy there so they watched the Griffith Observatory of it on You Tube. I have yet to go watch it. Love your social distancing with Jen and Andy....you have a great family!