The newsletter from CoCoRaHS (Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow) headquarters in Colorado came today. They had lots to say about the recent record breaking storm they had that did so much damage in the mid-west area. Today the focus was also on the probable effect La Nina will have on our winter weather pattern. I found this site interesting - www.noaa.gov
We'll just have to wait to find out if their predictions are valid. They say our weather in the northeast is impacted more by weather over the north Atlantic, not by La Nina or El Nino which are governed by water temperatures in the Pacific, so it's a toss up for us at this point whether we'll be warmer, colder, or more or less snow. No surprise there. Most of us who live here know weather predictions are not an exact science and trying to predict weather even a week away can sometimes be a real challenge, so making any predictions way into the future could be downright foolhardy. We'll take what comes or make plans to head for someplace we know absolutely will be warmer with less snow.

We spent some time watching and photographing this young deer, first munching grass in our back yard, and then down under the crab apple tree. She seemed to enjoy the apples and was there quite a long time. At one point a car went by and she froze, but didn't panic. We watched for another deer, as we often see them in pairs and we thought perhaps the mother would be with this young one, but if she was around, she didn't come out.

The crab tree is on a very steep bank, and there is a thick hedge of rose bushes, tall grass and some goldenrod on the upper side that partially hides the deer in this second picture. She seemed to feel pretty secure there, hardly nervous at all.

We've had snow flurries again all day. The temperature got into the high 30's at one point and we had a mix of rain and snow, but only briefly. It is heading down again and is now 3o degrees at the thermometer outside my window, and it's beginning to snow harder.

I was outside for a while pruning some vines off my grape arbor, and it was really quite nice. Very still, like everything around has taken cover and is quietly waiting for a blanket of snow. The ground is very wet and with continuous snow/rain showers expected for the next several days, there will be lots of water running into the pond.

Fred is outside bringing in the wood from the maple limb that came down in a storm a few weeks ago. There's quite a bit of it, and he's hauling it up on the sled. It isn't that there's that much snow on the ground, it's more that the ground is so wet the wheelbarrow cuts in and becomes useless. And he thought his wood chopping/hauling/piling was done for this year!