Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Not a white Christmas

Old bridge and steers - near Bowmansdale, Pennsylvania
It didn’t snow on Roundtop for Christmas this year. In fact, the ski area on the mountain was not even able to make enough snow over the past few weeks to open for the season yet. The week between Christmas and New Year’s is normally their biggest week of the year, so when they lose Christmas week, much of the season goes with it. I’ve lived on Roundtop Mtn. nearly 20 years now, and I believe this is only the second time the ski area hasn’t been open for Christmas week (though they’ve had some close calls).

As I am typing, it is raining again. The rain today will certainly push 2011’s rain total above 60 inches, which is nearly twice what this area normally sees. Given the weird weather this year, I’m about half afraid 2012 will bring no rain at all.

Snow or no snow, Christmas on Roundtop is both fun and hectic. Without skiers, the holiday was much quieter than is typical—unless you count the nightly raccoon attacks on the bird feeders, which has shortened my sleep every night this week. I’d be happily content to let the raccoon eat all the bird seed and even the feeders themselves, if only Baby Dog wouldn’t wake me up with her barking to announce their arrival.

I did take advantage of the quiet to wander through the brown forests of the mountain. Not much is going on. The woods are still and quiet and brown, and I’m starting to find the snowless winter difficult to photograph in any way that I find interesting. Better lighting would help or at least clearer skies, though I find it hard to get very excited about winter without snow.

4 comments:

Cathy said...

No snow here either :( Unless you want to count the burst of sleet I got on Saturday. But does make you wonder if we are getting dump of massive snow in January or a freaky snow storm in the spring.

Carolyn H said...

Cathy: I had sleet on Saturday, too. Not a huge amount and the sleet was tiny, so I didn't get any photos. After "Snowtober" it wouldn't half surprise me if I go all winter without snow and then get dumped on in April. :(

Unknown said...

Still an awesome sky! Didn't get to you be4 Christmas - hope you had a merry one!

Carolyn H said...

Emille: At least the December skies are interesting, even though the landscape has no snow. Thanks for stopping by!