It’s doing the thing that combines ice and snow and slog that weather forecasters like to refer to as "wintry mix" (which for whatever reason just makes me think of a potpourri, heavy on the evergreen and mulled cider) and there is a couple-inch blanket of white over everything.

Downside, not really worth going anywhere. (Not everybody here served their driving apprenticeship in Minnesota, and even if I can be trusted to steer into the skid nine times out of ten, my skills–and more importantly, my tires!–aren’t worth much against the skating rink currently covering the cul-de-sac at the end of the drive.) 

Upside, having very recently infected Kevin with the birding bug, we managed to get him some garden birds this morning, since the easiest birding in the world is feeder-birds-in-snow. Tufted titmouse, white-throated sparrow, purple finch (actually quite a good bird around here, and one I didn’t get for years–we get tons of house finches, but rarely a nice distinctively rosy purple male) and scads of dark-eyed juncos joined the usual cardinals and Carolina chickadees on the feeder. There’s two male cardinals studiously ignoring one another, while secretly jockeying to be the most picturesque blaze of red on snow. I give them a sitting ovation.

And now the goldfinches and the Carolina wrens are out…it’s a lovely day to be indoors, looking out.