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The sun is shining brightly today, causing the snow to sparkle like diamonds.
As expected in northeastern Pennsylvania in mid-January, it is also COLD–just fourteen degrees (-10 C) when I ventured out to take these pictures.
My backyard is great for sledding, and this snow should be fast! It snowed about two inches yesterday morning, and then we had intermittent showers of sleet and freezing rain for the rest of the day. Maybe my busy high school children will have a few free minutes sometime this week to go out and enjoy some winter fun! After dipping below zero tonight, the weather is supposed to warm up a bit, perhaps even exceeding the freezing mark by the weekend.
The front hill was always a fun place for sledding, too, and building snow ramps and jumps, until I “ruined” it with retaining walls and shrubbery! No worries, though, there’s still a great run over to the right of the landscaping. You just have to remember to bail out before you hit the rocks in the ditch at the bottom! Sometimes, when the snow is deep enough and the road has not yet been salted or cindered, we can start way up by the swing set and continue down the hill, over the road, and all the way across our across-the-street neighbor’s expansive front yard. Fun times!
The Mountain Fire shrub (Pieris japonica) and the dwarf Alberta spruce don’t seem to mind the cold and still look pretty in the snow. Maybe something to remember for an upcoming “In a Vase Monday”?
Here’s the front entrance garden, where the rhododendrons are showing their displeasure with the chill by drooping their leaves. I believe this a defense mechanism to protect themselves against dehydration. 
Once the temperatures climb above freezing, the leaves will perk up and plump out. 
I’m glad to have had a bit of time outside in the sunshine today, but also glad to now be in the warmth of the house, enjoying the view from inside!
Cosmos and Cleome 
Those views around the garden are really beautiful with everything wearing its lovely white coat!
Even in my mild climate, my Rhododendron does exactly the same thing after frost and snow. It can take a little while for it to unfurl its leaves again, but it does eventually perk back up. 🙂
I love the look of sunshine on bright white snow, even with the frigid temperatures it cheers me up so much more than a damp dreary day. Good for you to bundle up and get outside!
The red highlights on the pieris are nice. I should trudge out back and see if mine does the same but I think it’s more green.
Lovely snowy views. ice predicted for us tonight. We used to live on a road called Wave Road, and it really looked like one. Great for sledding but made it hard to get to work. Oh well…
Beautiful snowy scenes — but I’m looking forward to our warm spell this weekend too! -Beth
Oh my goodness, it looks cold. But what lovely shots of the sun glistening on the snow.
It’s too bad that sunny winter days where we live mean ice cold temperatures. Downtown Binghamton yesterday got to -8 – even colder than the airport! You captured a nice photo of the glistening snow.
Wow, you got much colder than we did. The lowest I saw was 3. Thanks for the compliment; it wasn’t easy to capture the sparkles!
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