Consider this my love letter to my home.
St. Patrick's Day is fast approaching, as this pair of posters in the Satuit Hardware store's window attest...
The landscape as been transformed by each additional snowstorm. Trees which are lovely in their own right have been draped in velvety white garb that sparkles in the sunlight.
It makes you feel slightly guilty about wishing it would all just go away!
This photo was taken at 8 am this morning in North Scituate. We are running out of places to put all of this snow! I was born and raised on the South Shore, I am a New Englander to the core and I love a good winter as much as the next soul - but enough already!! We're running out of places to put all this snow!
I do have other pictures on my Flickr photostream from today's storm - and the day did get brighter, prettier and more enjoyable! - but nothing says 'enough already' like a front end loader, eh?
There was a steady fluffy snow all morning long, like we were standing in a snowglobe that was gently shaking. My kitten sat entranced at the sliding door to our deck, watching the flurries dancing just beyond the glass.
With the temperatures a bit warmer than yesterday and thus hands that didn't freeze when I tried to hold a camera, I went down to the harbor to see what I could see.
It was 3 degrees Fahrenheit this morning in Scituate.
THREE DEGREES.
I could have gotten a photo of people looking cold as they scurried through the harbor or waited for a train. I could have gotten one of those 'oh look, here's a picture of the bank clock, it really is only THREE DEGREES' shots. I bet I could have even captured an image of a seagull stuck to an ice floe out in the harbor.
But instead, I decided to go back to my archives and give you this image from July. These sandals were left by the side of the path leading from the parking lot to Peggotty Beach, long after the day crowd had gone home. They didn't seem at all sad about being left behind - I suspect these sandals were looking forward to nightfall and a bonfire or something equally fun.
I thought we all could use this image today. Because tomorrow, it may actually get above freezing. And tomorrow, we will be one whole day closer to wearing sandals and basking in the summer sun.
The Friends of the Scituate Library's booksale was this weekend! Oh, it is a wonderful thing, this sale... it does put a crimp in my resolution to simplify, simplify, simplify, though. I console myself with the knowledge that it all goes to a very cause...
The next book sale is in June and is exclusively children's books.
It's stocked my heart with icy, frigid air...
Yeah, it's pretty, fluffy, lovely. Whatever.
This photograph was taken while standing under Little's Bridge on the Scituate side of the North River, looking towards Marshfield, Damon's Point and Fourth Cliff.
Now wait a minute, you might be saying, this doesn't look like it could have been taken today. Today there was a snowstorm, the fourth in a month, so where's the snow?
If you really want to see pictures of today's snowstorm, you can visit my Flickr stream. But personally I'm sick of the stuff! It's stupid and tiresome and I don't want to encourage it by posting photos on my blog. I'm going to completely ignore it and hope it all goes away -
Despite the forecast of more snowstorming next week. Groan.
I spent a good hour on the banks of the North River today, looking for photographs of the water, the marsh, the boatyard, the barnacles on the rocks on the water's edge - but the very last photo I took tonight presented itself when I looked up at the sky instead.
Snow, rain, slush, ice, dirt, sand, puddles... so much for the winter wonderland! The forecast is calling for more snow on Friday, so maybe things will pretty up a bit - but views like this are enough to bring on the winter doldrums!
While the snow was still snow, before the rain crumpled its soft fat flakes into sodden lumps of icy wet, small children in bright colors found joy in sledding down the small incline in the shadow of Lawson Tower.
It was lovely while it lasted.
Lulabelle is a fairly recent addition to the shops of North Scituate, selling lingerie and loungewear. I love their slogan - "Be Pretty. Feel Happy."
I was taken with the way the icicles sparkled along the front of the store, adding to the general air of festivity and fun of the store itself.
It's actually just a crush, won't last, but it's lovely while it lasts...
The Weinery is a shop in North Scituate, run by Dan and Colleen Weiner - hence the name. "Wine, cheese, chocolate, bread and brew - that's what we do!" - although it looks like the recent storm put them into the icicle business, too!
After the blizzard is over and the blue skies return, the world is magical. We had enough sleet and rain mixed in with our snow that everything that accumulated was then kissed with an icy layer. This path on the edge of Scituate Forest was a perfect example of what was left behind.
At the commuter rail station in North Scituate, the plowdriver was busily clearing the almost empty lot as the blizzard dumped snow and sleet. Someone has determinedly cleared off the pay kiosk - honest commuters, even in a storm!
It seems that Scituate is a pretty Irish town - in fact, IrishCentral.com has named us the most Irish town in America!
This picture is from last year's St. Patrick's Day parade - a huge annual event here in Scituate. I did in fact try to get something more current for this post, but let's face it - it's January, a blizzard is roaring up the coast and the whole town looks cold and cranky right now*... so I dipped back into my St. Pat's parade file for something a little more fitting!
* OK, the town just looks cold. I'm the one who looks cold and cranky. I could do with a dose of summer right now!
Damage from the December blizzard can be seen along the lighthouse keeper's cottage walls. Another big storm is barreling up the Eastern Seaboard towards us - I know we're in for a real storm when Matt Noyes at NECN gets that twinkle in his eye as he waves excitedly at his weather map - but it does look like we will avoid the serious coastal flooding that caused us such trouble the last go-round.
One on a side. It comes to little more."
- Robert Frost
This stone wall on Clapp Road in the West End of Scituate is covered with newly fallen snow. On the other side of the wall the Litchfield Preserve connects with the Maxwell Conservation Trust - 225 acres of land in the Scituate Forest preserved as open space for all.
Every small town has one - a bowling alley. Where I grew up, it was in the basement of the community center. In Scituate, it's over the hardware store in the harbor and it's called Satuit Bowlaway.
Some observant readers might notice the size of the pins. In Massachusetts, candlepin bowling is king. My understanding is that it's primarily a New England thing, having been developed in Worcester right here in the Bay State.
Those same birds that went wheeling away over the open water decided I wasn't such a threat after all and settled back on to the jetty. The fellow on the right looks so world-weary and in need of a nap!
Birds take wing over the jetty at Scituate Light.
I spotted these signs on the fence behind the stands at the Scituate High School football field.
This picture looks more like an late autumn scene with the setting sun turning the trees so red - but it was taken just the other day, January 3rd. This is the football field at Scituate High School - the fifty yard line looks pristine.. and lonely.
Scituate High School's team mascot is a sailor. The nautical theme is a pretty common one in this area - our neighbors are the Cohasset Skippers, the Norwell Clippers, the Hull Pirates and the Hingham Harbormen.
That sailor looks pretty tough, doesn't he?
What was your high school mascot?
After so much cold and so much snow, we've hit a temperate spell here in Scituate. The snow on the ground was giving off great gasps of fog as it melted into the warm air... I could say it looked mysterious and romantic, but I am hopelessly pragmatic and all I could think of was a humidifier left running overnight.
When I went out with my camera, the thing that caught my eye was this - pussywillows putting out tentative fuzzy toes into the winter day.
They call them pussy-willows,
But there's no cat to see
Except the little furry toes
That stick out on the tree...
- Margaret Widdemer
