THE May 2nd Blizzard

It was predicted.

They got it exactly right.

When I got up this morning, Thursday, May 2nd, the power was off.

I looked outside and could not really believe how much snow had accumulated overnight.

I took a measurement on the front steps, which has some protection.

No sitting on the rocker in 'The Red Room' today.

We all chose how to spend our day, Barley was bird watching.

 The surprising silver lining of this day, was that the birds were very active.

This cardinal took shelter under the front deck.

Chipping Sparrows arrived today.

I bet the chipping sparrows were wondering about their timing.

Cow birds were here too, not my favorite bird, but still interesting to see.

The female Red Winged Blackbird

There were several Red Winged Blackbirds here and they were singing loudly.

Some of my trees are suffering, this crab apple tree is bent in half, I hope it will come back okay.

It isn't too often that the gold finches are here in full color and there is snow.

These finch were especially pretty today in the new snow.

This guy was nestled into the snow covered tree.

Hops chose to relax in front of the fire today, and I do mean RELAX!

The House Finch males were really busy warbling

When they sing, they puff out their red breasts, lookin' for a date I guess.

The radar picture didn't change much over the 14 hours of this storm.

By the time I got to shoveling, the temperature was warming up and the snow was melting quickly once shoveled.

The shoveling was hard work, wet spring snow is not fun to move.

I decided to make a path to the street for drainage, and am hoping Mother Nature does the rest of the work.

I shoveled a path around the edge the front deck and a little off the back deck before decided enough was enough.

I didn't have to go anywhere today, so staying home was not an inconvenience.

I saw this tweet on Twitter today....

Jim Cantore ‏@JimCantore

Rice Lake, WI reporting 17" of snow... All-time state May RECORD for single event in Wisconsin !! #wiwx

No power for most of the morning got worrisome, but it came on and off often enough to keep me in hot coffee and give me a chance to flush toilets and charge my cell phone.

Okay winter, are you done now?