Picture of the week ~ Sunrise

"Morning has broken like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken like the first bird
Praise for the singing
Praise for the morning
Praise for them springing fresh from the world".

Morning has broken - Cat Stevens

Whatcom county ice and snow fest

Today we opted to stay home, not necessarily because of the weather but because I'm having an issue with my right hip. Last week my husband and I hiked the South Fork trail and there were several downed trees that we needed to climb under and over. I must have bent down awkwardly because my hip started bothering me and was pretty uncomfortable by the time we got to our car.

I've been indoor cycling which doesn't seem to bother it, since our weather has been icy/snowy and cold. Yesterday I decided to take a couple mile walk in the snow and savor it while it was beautiful before it all melted away. It was predicted to get really rainy and warmer the next day. Sure enough my hip is still not happy.
While I was in the protected area of our neighborhood, I took a slomo video of the large flakes floating down.

https://youtu.be/iYFgJWqbMok

The reason I don't do much exercise outdoors when it gets snowy and cold here is because it's usually accompanied by the Northeast winds. Our neighborhood is tucked away in a nice protected area. We do get some nice gusts but nothing like the open fields. We can go 1/2 mile in our protected zone but as soon as we turn the corner BAM we are right in the full force of the winds. Big winds and wind chill. This video was taken just a 1/2 mile down the road

https://youtu.be/9OS29aby4Bc

Here's a still photo of the corner.

As I said before there is a marked difference from the county weather and the weather in Bellingham. Just drive the Hannegan road from Bellingham sometime when the weather is wintry, you'll see that within a 1/4 of a mile of the Smith road intersection it becomes snow and ice when Bellingham has little or none to speak of.
The farther north you go the more intense the winds effects. Here's a photo I found online of a snowdrift around the Lynden high school building. You can see more photos and read about the north county weather phenomenon in this article by KOMO news..

I did manage to get a measure where the snow laid fairly flat on a table outside. Our temperatures have been mostly in the mid 20's for our daytime high for about a week.

We spent most of our time this last week keeping the birds and hummingbirds full.

Tuesday we had a break in the weather and the sun came out, making the ice sparkle. 

Yesterday brought another day of wind & snow....

Our yard sculpture iris got a new layer of snow,

as did my measuring table.

It has warmed up today, and not too much rain as yet but a heat wave of 37 degrees.
Hopefully I'll get my hip figured out and can get on with my outdoor fun.

The best meme I saw on the internet about our weather was this one. We live near the Canadian border and the Abbotsford, British Columbia weather forecasts are more accurate for us, so this was funny to me.