Tag Archives: weather

A Snow Sky

Posted on November 7, 2012 by AnnieRie

After a lovely day yesterday, today we wake to a prediction of snow. Don’t know how much, but whatever we get, it won’t hang around long if the temperatures rise to the 50s and 60s like they are supposed to reach over the weekend.

I gave the ornamental grasses their fall pruning. I have one left to do. Otherwise, they blow all over the property. We also did a massive leaf cleanup during the lovely weather yesterday. The piles sit waiting for our rake and take compost partner to pick up in her truck sometime soon. She hauled away almost this much yesterday. At least our leaves are turning into compost for gardens. Some of it here. Some of it just down the road from us, at our partner’s home.

If you live out here in west county, and don’t get yard waste removal, like us, consider partnering with the county rake and take program to turn your leaves into compost. Our partner has lots of conifers, but not the deciduous trees needed for that brown component for compost. The yard is getting bare of leaves, with the exception of our maple, which is just turning now.

Besides the leaves and the sky, today I found new residents feasting on the suet. It has been a while since we have seen the red breasted nuthatches. Two of them have been here lately, and one was on the far side of the suet while I was taking leaf pictures. The other, in the tree above, was a little harder to photograph.

red breasted nuthatch

Did you know that the nuthatches are the only birds that can travel head first down the side of a tree? This picture is a little blurry, but you get the action.

Now that I have had a coffee break, and downloaded the morning pictures, it’s time to get back out there and cut back the last of the ornamental grasses. I left the largest one for last. But still, all in all, spending the day outdoors enjoying the fall foliage left on the property, is one of the simple pleasures of living out here.

Here’s to the weekend looking as lovely as yesterday. If you get the chance, head outside this weekend to an outdoor event, or to one of the markets. Here’s the Ellicott City calendar.

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Posted in Birds, Community, Farmer's Markets, Gardening, Howard County, Local Businesses, Nature, Weather, West HoCo and tagged birds, community, fall foliage, farmer's markets, gardening, hoco loco, Howard County, howard county conservancy, local businesses, nature, photography, weather, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

Life Without Heat

Posted on November 5, 2012 by AnnieRie

My heart goes out to all who were displaced and devastated by Hurricane Sandy. Life without power and heat really is awful. I watch the news and think how hard it is to live with no light and no heat.

We don’t have heat on our first floor due to a compressor failure, so I can only imagine what the people living north of us are going through. To us, it is an inconvenience, a nuisance but not life threatening. At least we have heat on the second floor because we have two heat pumps.

!!@@@$$$!! heat pump!

Still, getting up in the morning and coming downstairs to temps in the high 50s the past two days is not fun. We at least can turn on the emergency heat, that red light that means if you go out and watch the electric meter, you can get dizzy watching it spin. I told my husband it might be cheaper to burn dollar bills than turn on emergency heat. We only put it on for ten minutes in the morning and 5 minutes before dinner.

Otherwise, three or four layers of clothing and retiring to our bedroom after dinner to read or watch TV.

Our compressor was probably damaged after the derecho, as we replaced a capacitor soon after it. Two months later the entire unit died. An eight year old heat pump. They say nothing stops a Trane. Don’t believe them. It is taking a week for the new compressor to come in. We have been without heat other than emergency for ten days now.

Tonight it will go down to 28 degrees out here. Who knows how cold it will be on our first floor when we get up.

That is why today I put together a huge bag of gloves, scarves, sweaters and socks and took it to a clothing collection box. Those who have no power from the hurricane living north of here don’t have the luxury of heat on another floor, or that super expensive option of emergency heat.

I feel for them, big time. Keep them in your thoughts and find places to take some warm clothes and blankets. While at Walgreens today I saw they have a collection box. Every little bit helps.

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Posted in Adventures, Commentary, Nature, Weather and tagged commentary, nature, weather. Bookmark the permalink.

Making A Difference

Posted on October 31, 2012 by AnnieRie

LisaB, Mrs.S had a great post about how lucky most of us were, when it came to the end of the wind and rain. In her update she mentioned The Volunteer Center and what they recommend in terms of helping out in the aftermath of the storm. I am monitoring that site to see when they get requests for help, and will post any opportunities I find.

I agree we were extremely lucky. A little bit farther south if the storm had turned up the Chesapeake Bay instead of going at New Jersey, and we could have had more damage across the area and the state. Right now, as I write this, 50000 people in the BGE coverage area still have no power 48 hours after the beginning when the earliest bands of bad weather started hitting Maryland. Anything we can do to assist our neighbors in the county and state will be helpful.

I agree that any financial help we can give the organizations that regularly assist others is the best way to help. But even little things mean quite a bit, and helping the other organizations in the area as well as the disaster relief organizations is just a way to give back if you were one of the lucky ones.

I will take some of my items to the Food Bank. They always need assistance, County residents who could use the help whether or not the storm affected them. I spent some time this morning looking through the pantry for items I bought and didn’t use, and to gather up those tuna cans and other staples that I can easily spare, and replace later, like pasta and sauces.

a bag for the food bank

I will also finally get the bag together for the local clothing collection bins, like the St. Vincent de Paul bin down at Kendalls Hardware. The contributions to them go to local residents in Maryland. I really do need to let go and donate all those extra work clothes I no longer need. I mean, one or two blazers, a few skirts, that’s all I need. Not the huge work wardrobe I still have sitting in a spare closet. Gloves, hats and shoes, too. I had way too much stuff left after retiring. Time to have it help another, who would like to have nice work clothes, or dress clothes.

Besides all that, I will make a point to help the disaster organizations with a donation. If you, like us, were relatively unaffected by this disaster that hit the east coast, consider helping out in whatever way you can, even if it is something as simple as helping an elderly neighbor clean up debris, or giving blood, or writing a small check.

Making a difference. Here at home.

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Posted in Commentary, Community, Food, Howard County, Volunteering, Weather and tagged commentary, community, Food, Howard County, hurricane sandy, volunteering, weather. Bookmark the permalink.

Odds and Ends from West County

Posted on October 29, 2012 by AnnieRie

Just some random thoughts as we head into the storm. Not many cars on our roads. Usually there is some traffic in the afternoon.

The mailman came early today. Out here with unprotected mailboxes, it is important to go out and get the mail before it blows out of the box. During the snowstorms a few years back, the boxes blew open and we had mail scattered all over our neighbor’s fields.

We got a few emails today about CSA’s. Sandy Spring canceled Tuesday deliveries and have no idea if the Thursday or Saturday will happen. The farmers all will be affected by this rain, in many low lying fields. They can’t pick in this weather either. We hope they come through with minimal damage as we know how hard they work. There are 80 farmers in the cooperative, but all of them in the same area of PA.

We also received an email from Breezy Willow, as we have signed up for their early bird CSA starting in late winter. This week is canceled for them in their summer/fall CSA. Keep our local farmers in your thoughts as this weather affects them just as they are finishing up their harvests and heading for winter.

We had two quick power glitches so far. Taking our oven off line while I am slow cooking dinner in it. Crossing our fingers here, that my pork and roasted veggies get done. Right now, we still have power. Winds are whipping trees left and right. Thankfully, we had a local business, Oasis (Ten Oaks Nursery), aggressively cut back our property line trash trees after they were damaged during the derecho.

We did put ice in two coolers and moved the fridge items there. The meat in the freezer is covered by six bags of ice, and I am freezing plastic containers with water to move over to the coolers if I need to replenish. Dumped all the ice maker ice in the fridge cooler since I learned after the derecho how much mess we get with melting ice. Ice maker in the top fridge is a pain sometimes.

On an interesting note, my Menu magazine from Wegmans arrived in the mail. With Christmas cookies on the cover. And, a recipe for honey glazed roasted root veggies. That is what I did with all the turnips, beets, a rutabaga and a sweet potato from the CSA.

I will try and keep posting what is going on out here as long as we have power, or I may do short posts from the iPad. See how well the UPS up here keeps my iPad charged if we lose power.

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The Waiting Game

Posted on October 27, 2012 by AnnieRie

So now, we wait. Will we get slammed with 8-10 inches of rain? Should I get all the 5 gallon buckets I can find and just recycle the sump pump water for the toilets, or do I count on the tubs doing the job? Everything with the exception of the last two bird feeders and the bird bath has been brought in or lashed down.

It is the waiting for a hurricane that drives you nuts. Days of countless emails, weather reports, emergency notices, and then there’s the people out everywhere. Trying to get gasoline. Long lines. hitting the stores. I have stockpiled 8 bags of ice in the kitchen freezer in order to cover over the meat in there. If the power stays off too long, I will transfer all the meat to the heavy coolers if necessary. Interestingly enough, people don’t buy ice in advance. I made room for the ice in the freezer and cranked the temperature down a few degrees. I know we can drive west of here and load up coolers with ice, after the rains and wind stop. What is in the freezer now will keep it for at least two days.

TP and Milk. I love it that those two items seem to be the most popular before storms. Do people really think they will run out? Weird. Neither of them are on my preparation list.

The birds know something is happening. They are noisy, and flying back and forth to the feeders. Today, the nuthatches are back. With the downy woodpeckers, they are all over the suet and peanut feeder.

The nuthatch is on the suet while the woodpecker waits patiently. The finches and other birds have been coming in looking for the thistle feeder and the small hanging one, both of which are already down. The last one to take apart will be the primary feeder, which would be blown over. I really need to anchor that permanently now that we found the site where the squirrels can’t leap across the deck or jump from trees.

I also took fall folliage pictures today, figuring that the leaves will get blown away and we will come to an abrupt end of leaf peeping. This view today reminded me of how quickly the leaves changed this year.

Here’s hoping I get to see the gorgeous red colors of our maple in the back, which hasn’t turned yet. That may be good, or not so good. With the leaves on the trees, they tend to crack under their weight with heavy winds and rain. The maple is my birding tree, and one of the prettiest in the fall.

The view of it last November. We generally get the peak of the colors the first week of November. I just hope we don’t lose any more of our mature trees in this storm. It has been a pretty rough couple of years, when it comes to wind damage. Trying to sleep at night while trees crack and fall is not fun. This past two years we have hauled away at least a dozen trees from the property line, and we lost a few conifers in the ice storms before that. Besides the cover they give us, they are home to the birds and squirrels, which is why we have so many birds visiting us. They love the conifers.

Good luck all the east coasters in harm’s way. Stay safe.

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Posted in Birds, Commentary, Howard County, Nature, Weather, West HoCo and tagged birds, commentary, Howard County, nature, weather, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

Finishing the Eat Local Challenge

Posted on October 27, 2012 by AnnieRie

Monday is the last reporting day for our Summer Challenge, to eat at least one meal a week using locally sourced ingredients. Who knows how crazy it will be around here by Monday, but at least I know there will be a number of local meals consumed by us. Many of them involving local eggs.

farm fresh eggs

I made eggs for breakfast today and used up the last of the Canela wheat bread for toast. I will be hardboiling a dozen eggs and putting them aside to make egg salad in case we lose power. We set up a small cooler for lunch foods, placing all the condiments and salad makings in it, the way we ate breakfast and lunch after the derecho in June.

I always have my tuna, cannellini bean and onion salad ingredients on hand, but they aren’t local. Well, the onions are, but not the rest.

Tuscan tuna and bean salad

Hmmm, Tuscan tuna and bean salad, served with local breads and a few of my dill pickles from the jars. Mostly local. I have a loaf of potato onion bread in the freezer from Stone House. I can warm it in the oven tonight to defrost it and save a few hunks to have with a simple salad. Egg salad, or tuna salad. I have celery from the CSA. The only non local items as usual will be condiments like mayo or olive oil.

I am cleaning out the most perishable (and the more pricey) items in the meat/fish freezer, so I will be baking a large whack of wild Alaskan salmon tonight. Since I have been so diligent here in getting ready for this storm, the odds keep getting higher that it will pass us by.

It is only when I have no ice, no water, no batteries and ignore the frantic admonishments on the TV, that we end up with no power. Still, we are crossing our fingers. At least the temperatures aren’t bad. No real high temps, and no subfreezing temps in the future that would make us miserable without A/C or heat.

The SSFC Eat Local Challenge is ending, but the ten of us are talking about how we will address winter eating, using locally sourced items. Sometime in the future, our google reader will have the details, and we will continue finding ways to eat local foods year round.

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Hurricane Prep, The Smaller Items

Posted on October 26, 2012 by AnnieRie

Everyone always tells you what to do with the large ticket items. Water, ice, batteries, medications.

What about those little things? Like having a real phone in the house. All those fancy phones aren’t hardwired and require the power to be working for them to operate. My antique phone 😉

We also use UPS’s throughout the house to be able to charge cell phones and run small lamps with CFL bulbs. And, to run the cable modem and wireless router. At least for a short while.

How about the weather radio? And, of course a smart phone to check on things even without power. Like how long BGE will take to get power restored.

We have flashlights of all shapes and sizes in every room we use regularly, like the family room, kitchen, bath and bedroom.

We hope this storm will blow out to sea, but who knows. I suppose the more we prepare, the greater the possibility it will all be for nothing. It seems that only when we are caught unaware, like with the June derecho, that we have problems.

Thankfully, we are at one of the higher elevations in the county so we will be spared from flooding. And, with a new roof and a solidly built brick house, we can weather the winds. I spent all day today bringing in items that may blow around, with the exception of the bird feeders. They will come down at the last moment. Those squirrel deterrents will blow everywhere.

Here’s hoping this hurricane will miss us.

hocoblogs@@@

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Posted in Birds, Commentary, Howard County, Nature, Weather and tagged birds, commentary, community, Howard County, nature, weather. Bookmark the permalink.

The Dark Eyed Junco is Back

Posted on October 23, 2012 by AnnieRie

I know the seasons are changing when the juncoes return to my yard. We saw the first one this morning. Not the one in the picture below, because it disappeared too fast to capture. They become less jittery when it really gets cold and even my coming outdoors doesn’t bother them while they feed. Here is one very inquisitive bird from last winter.

dark eyed junco

They feed on the ground, and wander around under the bushes and the feeders. The chickadees and finches push the less desirable food out of the feeder to get to their favorites, and the juncoes get the leftovers that drop. Their return reminded me to look and see if the Centennial walks are up on the Howard Bird Club site.

It is fall birding season and yes, the Howard County Bird Club is again offering their weekly walks in November in Centennial Park. It is where we first learned to identify new birds, by sight and sound. It is also where we are learning more about waterfowl, as a change from the birds that visit our yard feeders.

These easy walks good for beginning birders start at 8 am. in the west area parking lot, entered off Centennial Lane. They are the 4th, 11th, 18th and 25th of November. Club members bring scopes to let you get really good looks at the birds. It is 2-3 hours at a leisurely pace, and a great way to spend a November Sunday morning.

Some pictures from two years ago. The trip reports, available on the web site, show you what we found that November day in 2010.

great blue heron over Centennial Lake

3 male and one female mallard on a pond off the main trail

Oh, and when we go off the main trail, we often flush out other inhabitants of the park, like this young buck.

The buck, mallard and heron pictures were from the 14th, a day we did not see the cedar waxwings that were there on the 7th.

cedar waxwings

This is fall migration season. It is interesting to see what birds will stop at the lake on their semiannual flights. The bird club does these walks every spring and fall. Put them on your calendar and join us.

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A Fall Saturday in West HoCo

Posted on October 20, 2012 by AnnieRie

Just some random pictures and suggestions for fun things to check out, and some of the early leaf pictures. With all the festivals out there, we could pick and choose what we would like to do today. Don’t forget the local farms still have mazes and pumpkins galore, through the rest of the month.

I started out the day organizing the groups out at the conservancy for a family hike. We had about three dozen people show up this morning, including a dedicated group of volunteers. Dividing the attendees up into age appropriate smaller groups is the way we conduct these fall and spring family wanderings. No real topic for these. Just an appreciation of what you can find on the trails.

A recent addition to the natural play area is the carved owl. The detail is stunning.

Two of the naturalists took families with little ones on a loop around the farmhouse and out on the edge of the grasslands. They got an up close look at one of the abandoned nests in the bluebird boxes. They could see exactly what birds use to make their nests.

They all visited the barn and learned more about the local farms, as there are now exhibits of early farming tools inside, courtesy of a local Girl Scout troop.

The farmhouse is surrounded by brilliant fall color. We seem to be getting near that peak where the colors are brightest.

It seems everyone had a great time. There were also other small groups of visitors, going birding, playing in the field, gardening, having engagement photos shot by a photographer, and checking out the building for future use for a wedding. It was a pretty full parking lot this morning.

After I left at noon, my husband and I decided to indulge in a Saturday brunch at Bistro Blanc. Marc, the chef, started at 3 am today to roast a suckling pig. He really has a great time doing special events like this. They had a wine tasting and a wine sale going on today. We enjoyed the “pig” buffet. It was set up with some interesting, seasonal mostly local side dishes, like Southern style greens, some biscuits, root veggies with chestnuts. Casual, informal and a chance to see some of our fellow west countians.

Then, home to do some minor clean up. We will be doing major leaf clean up this week, with the leaves going in our compost, and some for the rake and take program. Our partner in this, a neighbor down the road, comes and gets what we don’t use, for her compost piles. The yard really exploded in color this week. That frost a week ago is what did it.

Unfortunately, my mums got beaten down by the rain.

There were lots of runners and bikers out on our roads today, getting some exercise while enjoying the scenery. It will get better out here for the next few weeks, so head out and visit the local farms, or just take a ride. Me, I am waiting patiently to capture this year’s peak at sunset, like this one I got a few years back. I need the perfect light to do it though. It looks like the woods are on fire.

Have a great fall weekend, wherever you wander. We are off to Baugher’s tomorrow to pick apples. A bit beyond west hoco, but still a great place to visit. Particularly if I get some of their black walnuts for baking this fall.

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Posted in Food, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Nature, Real Food, Restaurants, Volunteering, Weather, West HoCo, Wine and tagged Food, hoco loco, Howard County, howard county conservancy, local businesses, Locavore, real food, volunteering, weather, West HoCo, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Leaf Peeping and A Winery Visit

Posted on October 19, 2012 by AnnieRie

In the Shenandoah. Near the Appalachian Trail. The leaves are in full color these days. A good weekend to enjoy them. We had a date to meet a fellow radio amateur to pick up a crank up tower. He lives near Manassas. I don’t need an excuse to head west on I-66 and find some fall color.

the view from Linden

And, of course, add some chardonnay and rosé to our cellar. I like to get rosé to take to my brother’s for Thanksgiving. He cooks. I bring wine. Nice arrangement we have. The day started out a little dreary but got better as we drove west. I love sitting in the enclosed sun room and taking in the views.

Have a little cheese and sausage, with a Hardscrabble Chardonnay. Believe it or not, it does well with the sausage. The cheeses and sausage are local VA made. And, the 2009 Hardscrabble is a huge chardonnay. The type you want to put away for a few years. It will only get better.

The vineyard itself was lovely, as the grape vines are turning color as well as the trees and shrubs. The parking lot was full, so we were down in the overflow. Lots of leaf peepers out. Everyone was pouring wine today, including Jim and Shari. Haven’t seen Shari since the barrel tasting so it was nice to visit today. I bet the coming weekends are going to be crazy with the weather prediction of sunny and 70s. We did check out some of the grapes near the winery. Still a few clusters hanging. I know the late harvest grapes are still out there. The rest have been harvested.

We took the back roads home. Loving the views along the way.

leaving Linden

somewhere near Rectortown

Trying to identify what this is — have not seen it before. Off to check out my naturalist books.

Unidentified plants, all along the edge of a property near Purcellville

All in all a great day. Oh, and the second time near Atoka where an eagle flew over us. As usual, too fast for me to grab the camera, but that white head is so distinct. If you have time this weekend head west and check out the foliage. Even better, check out a winery. Grape vines are beautiful in the fall.