Isn't spring supposed to have sprung?

Because it sure hasn't here in the Ozarks. This past week, I had more snow and ice than I've had all winter, and it wasn't fun. Thursday, I even had to scrape ice off the car, as it actually had a light skim over the whole car. The place looked like fairyland again ... it's still pretty when that happens, because it doesn't happen often enough to be boring like "back home" in Michigan, where you get six months of nothing but cold and snow and crappy weather. But seriously, spring was Wednesday, and it's still cold and crappy! My trees had finally started to bud out, and now I don't know if anything will survive or not with all the cold and ice. As I write this on Sunday morning, before I head out to McDonald's for email and such, it's grey skies, cold temperatures and blustery winds for weather. I feel a bit sorry for my in-laws, three or so hours north of me. They're supposed to get up to ten inches of snow over tonight and the early morning hours of Monday. I'm supposed to get maybe an inch, if that.

That's the best part of the weather when it comes to living on the eastern side of the Ozarks. All the bad weather hits the western slopes over by Fayetteville and Springdale and the like, goes up over the mountaintops (all 2000 or so feet of elevation), and by the time the weather gets up and over, it's almost all dropped on the other side. Much like any Northern Hemisphere mountain range, only lower. Of course, what we call "mountains" here would be foothills further west by the Rockies, but they're mountains of a sort anyhow. Weird part is, I'm at 1732 feet of elevation, and I can drive 732 feet down the mountain road toward the main drag, and the weather is totally different.

The morning the car was ice-covered and the property looked like fairyland? I got down to neighbor Cliff's drive, and poof! All the ice and fog and crappy weather just disappeared. Nothing. Not snowflake or icicle one anywhere to be seen. Then again, when I came back from errands yesterday, you could see the fog laying so thick on some of the higher mountaintops around here that the trees that showed through it made the fog look so dark, you almost though something was burning. I got home, and looked up the mountain to Eric and Bobbi's place, and they still had fog. The fog I'd had earlier in the day when I left had burned off, but not up by them.

So you can all guess that nothing got done outside this week. It was either way too darned cold or way to windy so I couldn't even burn the trash. No, I didn't get my peach pits planted, either. Or get finished tearing down the toolshed, or clearing room for the garden, or anything. It's kind of crappy when you have plans and Mother Nature messes them all up. But in my spare time indoors, I did get the last little bit of indoor spring cleaning done (if the weather ever clears up, I'll get the car done, too). I did get a lot done on another!!! pair of woolies for my feet, and I got a lot of rows done on the knitted afghan. Plus a bunch of paperwork done for one of my other hobbies, so the time wasn't all wasted. It just had to be spent doing other things that I hadn't planned on doing just yet.

This upcoming week promises more of the same for the most part, with the weather looking to be pretty miserable for several days yet. I don't know about y'all with the weather worse than mine, but I'm willing to be dollars to doughnuts that you're about as tired of it all as I am, if not more so, and would be more than happy to see flowers and grass and green trees again, too!

Here's a shot off the deck to show what I managed to tear down a coupel weeks ago on the old tool shed that was tree-crushed several years ago. Looks like a pile of crap, but in a week or so, if the weather cooperates, it'll be a pile of scrap.

How this shot ended up panoramic or widescreen or whatever, I dunno. But you can see where the old fridge used to be at the bottom, and the trash that's been exposed from clearing out old, overgrown blackberry brambles. Yay, me. More trash to rake up and burn. But it still looks a lot better than it did.

At the bottom of the mountain road this morning, where a cow pasture forms one side of the roadway. The cows belong to Mr. McCoy, who is one of the bigger ranchers here for alfalfa hay and Angus beef. He's got mostly black Angus, a few Herefords and a few Charolais in this field this year.

One of Mr. McCoy's cows, who was near the car when I was snapping photos. I had to photograph her after she looked my way and mooed at me.

This is our low-water bridge at the bottom of the road, near the cow pasture. Why they call them "low-water" bridges is beyond me, because if the water's too high, it goes over them, and you still can't get through. Fortunately, that isn't much of a problem on my road.

The view of the normally dry creekbed that the bridge goes over, looking downstream. All the snow and rain we've had just filled it up this winter and so far this spring (such as it is, ha!).

And the view upstream of the bridge. Just above proper center, where you see all the rocks, it's actually a small rapids there, complete with a lot of chattering from the stream. It sounds so cool, even though I about froze my fanny off taking these shots!!