Still Snowbound

People here keep telling me that this is the worst snow they've seen in over a decade, and I want to believe them.  I want to believe that I didn't just move to a place where I'll be housebound for weeks on end due to cold icy white stuff everywhere.  PLEASE don't let this be the new normal!

That was my driveway -- two-foot piles over a lot of it, which was too much for me to deal with, but luckily my mother called in former neighbor Dan, a sturdy fellow who I used to babysit back in ancient times.  Look what he did!

It took him a good three hours.

So now I can get to the street if I have to, though the street is covered with slushy snow and ice and I don't really want to go out there. 

I feared I might have to right after it got cleared, when I heard Pippin making weird hacking noises.  On investigation, he had tried to eat a 16" long piece of yarn from my needlepoint project, which he'd snatched off the coffee table.  He has some kind of bizarre oral fixation and will try to eat anything.  Several inches of the yarn was hanging out of his mouth as he choked on the rest, but luckily I was able to pull it all out.  He was bouncing around happily a few minutes later.  Whew.

The needlepoint of the Spring lighthouse is finished, thanks to my being stuck indoors:

I've started the Summer one, and am making tremendous progress.

As for art, one day I decided to paint the dang snow.  Or rather, not paint it.  I've painted snow scenes before, and the snow part is pretty easy -- it's just the white of the paper and all you have to do is paint around it.  You do have to add a few little shadowy places here and there for definition, but that's not too hard.

So I painted the view of my back yard, with tool shed:

Those lumpy clumps in the foreground are boxwood shrubs, encased in snow.  Everything is encased in snow.  And ice.  Once a day I've been going out to knock icicles off the eaves, which is most gratifying. 

The forecast for the coming week has highs in the low 30s, not enough to melt this stuff.  I may not get out at all, or do anything more exciting than knocking down icicles.  Sigh. 

Wherever you are, stay warm!