I'm tired!

[nuranar]

The sleet picked up about half an hour after last night's pictures. It was really coming down! It kept up steadily until well after dawn, doubling or tripling the amount on the ground. I bundled up and wandered around the neighborhood, taking lots of pictures. I really walked a long way; probably about 3 miles.


There's a drift right in front of my door, from sleet being blown off the roof.


The fall foliage was so pretty against the snow. We've had an unusually good year for color, too.






The park in my neighborhood, completed with duck pond, ducks, and bridge.








Do you see the cardinal?




Ice, yuccas, and Christmas!




I love the variety of leaf color.


The set for all the pictures is here.

Comments

[jordannamorgan]

WOW! Those pictures are both beautiful and *amazing*. We are definitely never going to see anything like that in Orlando. :Þ

How cold was it during your walk?

[nuranar]

Thanks for the compliment, and I hope you never see it in Orlando! It would kill a LOT of things. It's supposed to get to 18 tonight, and not above 24 tomorrow. 0.o Today the sun actually came out, and did melt a bit, mostly on the roofs and the top layer of sleet. But that's really actually bad - it'll be so cold that everything melted will freeze solid. At least tomorrow is not a work day; traffic was all but at a standstill today.

It was probably about 28, with a wind chill about 18. I was actually pretty comfortable for the most part, though. I kept moving, and when not on pavement I broke through the layer on the grass so I had to tug my feet up each step. That gets tiring pretty fast. My nose was cold and dripping immediately, but the rest of me was fairly warm. I only felt cold when walking directly into the wind.

The coldest aside from my nose was the skin of my legs. I wore my down parka, which has a hood; I had an extra headband over my ears, plus a scarf to keep the wind off my face. Even my hands stayed warm. The gloves I used are heavy (stiff) suede with a knit lining, so I guess the suede really blocked the wind. I wore leggings over fleece-lined heavy tights, and that really stayed pretty warm. I never got to shivering because I was cold; I just knew there were a couple cold places. It helps that I have some pretty awesome insulated rain/snow boots. I asked for them for Christmas in 2011, the winter after the last bad ice storm (Feb 2011); predictably, that was a dry AND mild winter and I used them only once! They've had plenty of wear since then, though. I learned in 2011 that you need each ridged rubber soles or metal cleats to keep from slipping on ice.

[jordannamorgan]

I could not go outside for more than about a minute in that, no matter how I was dressed. :Þ