Thus when we have a snow storm that lasts several days, it is a major event. Most people are snowed in because side streets don’t get plowed and those side streets are on steep hills anyway. We’re the only place in the US that has hills that go from sea level to three hundred-fifty feet in ten blocks and gets snow. Our marine influence means that we don’t really get snow. We get an ice and snow sandwich. Right now we have a solid layer of ice under about a foot of snow. There is a half-inch layer of ice on top of our snow now, and more snow is falling to cover that ice.
So we have hills, the ice/snow layers and something else. Our neighbor was bragging about his four wheel drive jeep. It goes everywhere. His jeep is not going to go over the down tree in his driveway. We have vegetation that brings down power lines and blocks roads. Douglas firs particularly delight in throwing huge branches at us. Madrone are evergreen. Their broad leaves catch the snow putting weight on trunks made brittle by freezing temperatures and down they come. When it snows here, the power goes out.
The flower stand was in my greenhouse getting dried out enough to paint when we needed to go to Texas for a funeral. Okay, I still had time to paint the thing and get it to the intersection for Valentines Day. We left for Texas. My daughter called and told us what was coming in.
We returned home to a winter wonderland. By sticking to the main roads we were able to drive as far as the bottom of our driveway. I’m afraid the best that is going to happen for Valentines day is pictures. I may make myself a huge bouquet with a hundred tulips that won’t be any good by the time we defrost.