FEBRUARY 9th - warm and sunny today, and I suspect there will be LOTS of flowers popping open this week in thge High Ozarks - this one is at our historic homesite and is probably the same flower that was the first to bloom last year. Could we have a LOT of rain please? HAPPY MONDAY TO YOU!

FEBRUARY 6th - a balmy 51 degrees at dawn today - and LOOK at this heirloom daffodill that has spent the past two weeks hiding under about 8" of snow, and now ready to burst forth with a splash of COLORFUL DELIGHT! This is at the old homesite near our gallery - most likely planted more than 100 years ago.

Speaking of the old homesite, yesterday I took a stroll down the county road past our driveway that drops down the hillside several hundred feet and around to our property line below. I scrambled up the very steep slope in a small drainage that goes to an acient spring used by the pioneer family in the 1800's (it's mostly dry now, has been for a loong time from the looks of it). As I was making final approach to this spring I stopped for a momentt to preview the landscape above me.

Then son of a gun, I was taken aback by a pair of eyes staring back at me! I only had a couple seconds for this critter to register in my brain, then in a FLASH it sprang to life and flew right on past me. It was a small, colorful owl - probably a screech owl. (we'd heard one a couple months ago in this general area) Upon close inspection it appeared to have burrowed into the hillside - not a nest, just a daytime cosy spot I guess. WISH I'd seen her soon enough to have grabbed a photo with my phone, but it will just have to remain as a delightful little exchange between us...

HAPPY FRIDAY TO YOU!

FEBRUARY 5th - it was a frosty 24 degrees at dawn today with what seemed like tiny frozen air particales that looked like smoke. Didn't take long to warm up on the trail to the office, and by the beinning of lap #2 I was already in shirt sleeves. Still some cunchy snow left in the shadows, and on our parking lot (even though the lot gets 100% sun during the day it is always the last to melt - and in fact everything in this photo is solid ICE today, 14 days after appearing). HAPPY THURSDAY to you!

FEBRUARY 3rd - the BIG MELT began yesterday and continued all night and today. 51 degrees at dawn. Been more than a week since the snow/ice event arrived, and the melt is welcome. And for just a note of the way things work on the landscape - SOUTH-facing slopes will melt a lot faster than NORTH-facing slopes(south is usually facing towards the warmer sun in winter). In the photo above I'm standing at a north-facing slope and as you can see it's fully snow-and-ice packed and still covered this morning (facing away from the sun, and also is much more shaded, cooler). But the south-facing slope over yonder is totally free of snow and ice - it all melted overnight. This is kind of the same thing that's going on when you hear that "moss always grows on the north side of a tree" - it does this because north-facing things are more shady and will dry out slower and less overall than south-facing things - and moss loves to be wet. Of course, this mossy thing is not always true, but is often is.

Our cabin faces south, but sits on top of a narrow ridge. Our view is of north-facing slopes so the view today is mostly still snow-and-ice covered. But our back yard slopes downhill and faces south so it is mostly melted, as is our trail up to the gallery. The FRONT of our yard - and the driveway coming down from the county road - are on the north side of the ridge and are still solid ice and snow. The trail to the gallery on the north side of the ridge is also still frozen solid. I hope you have a very HAPPY SOUTH-FACING DAY TODAY!

FEBRUARY 2nd - the driveway and everything in the landscape remain solid ICE today, even with overnight temps being at 40 or above, and sunny all day we hope. This stuff doesn't like to melt at all! HAPPY MONDAY TO YOU!

Tractor tracks in our neighbor's pasture next door- still gotta feed the cow s2x per day no matter the weather!

FEBRUARY 1st UPDATE - HAPPY 113th birthday POP!(if were still alive). It's just barely above 10 this morning outside and the snow/ice covered ground is gettitng more difficult to walk on - snow is turning to ICE. I'm now wearing "yak tracks" on my boots fulltime and the hiking is much easier and safer. No doubt melting continues beneath the frozen crust, and process that will likely speed up the next couple of days.

Here are a couple of the "thin" icebergs on the Buffalo River from a couple of days ago...