In the Deep Freeze

 Let's just say it was an interesting end to January. After a couple of days of snow there was a last minute blast from the polar vortex. Not only were we treated to record breaking low temperatures but a few strange occurrences inside of our house, too! Let's just say Old Man Winter wasn't too subtle about pointing out a few places in the basement that need better insulation.

This really isn't anything new for us and it was mercifully short in duration but this latest episode affected a lot more people than usual. Poor Jack Frost had to work overtime. 

In one of many freakish events, frost formed in two different locations on the inside of our back door. Apparently, cold air found its way past the storm door and into a hole left by a missing screw on the escutcheon plate. Worn away weatherstripping is the suspected culprit for the dead bolt.

In the midst of the big chilly, His Madness noticed the basement walls were "sparkling". What??? A closer look revealed it to be frost, not glitter, but at least it formed in pretty patterns. 

In other places, not so much. The frost was mostly showing up on metal and concrete, until I noticed the kitty door! This relic from the days when milk was delivered to homes in glass bottles has been repurposed by Stewart and Spencer as their personal feline portal to the patio. 

Funny, they weren't interested in hanging out there that day. So, at this point it finally dawned on us that it would probably be a good idea to change the setting of the humidifier so there wasn't so much moisture in the air to condense on all those random cold surfaces, duh!

Moving onto day two, things weren't looking much better!

Apart from the wind and cold, it was a beautiful, sunny day!

While everything outside was frozen solid ( and a few things inside, too) the amaryllis that was supposed to bloom at Christmas finally decided to wake up and put on a show. 

A very slow moving one.

February 2nd . . . still waiting.

Maybe there wasn't enough light coming through the windows?

Thankfully, the polar vortex has moved back. Or somewhere else anyway. All of the frost just disappeared, although I'm not exactly sure where it went. Into the air it condensed out of? I was all ready to mop it up! In any case, it was an adventure and we probably got our money's worth out of Netflix this month. Five years ago, the last time it paid us a visit, it wiped out a lot of my roses. I've replanted them many times with more hardy varieties but since the bunnies find them too delicious to resist, they haven't survived either, This time around there was nothing to lose, ha! Now it's time to start planning a whole new garden!

Happy Ground Hog Day!

I hear Phil predicted an early spring.

Ha,Ha,Ha!!!

Thanks for stopping by!