PHOTO-A-DAY CHALLENGE
Winter Scenes, Sushi With Friends, Snowy Dogs, and Bright Flowers
Second week of January, 2024
Another winter storm arrived this week, but by Sunday, most of the snow melted. The temperatures rose to almost 50ºF (10ºC). A rainstorm blew in over the mountains, and we had wind gusts up to 89 mph in the valley, while Carson City’s wind gusted up to over 70 mph.
Luckily, the fence stayed upright, and I only saw one fence board that came down. The shed was another story — the wind blew off the door and a side panel, so it will have to be replaced.
The lead photo was taken on Tuesday as the next storm was moving in. In the morning, the lake was covered in a thin film of ice. By late afternoon, the wind had broken up the ice, which was piling up on the beach.
Last week, I took a photo of the golf course with green grass. This week, the grass was covered in a layer of snow! We got at least a foot of snow in the valley, while the mountains got more. The biggest local story in the news was an avalanche at a ski resort near Lake Tahoe.
I was invited to lunch at a sushi restaurant with two friends from work on Tuesday. I’m not a fan of seafood, so I ordered two veggie rolls. One roll had cucumbers, carrots, lettuce, and avocado. The other was deep-friend in tempura batter and had seaweed, broccoli, and jalapeños.
They talked me into trying a roll with a piece of fried tempura shrimp in the middle. Once I got past the fact that it was seafood, I realized I liked the taste…but because it was deep-fried, I told myself it tasted like chicken.
When the snowstorm hit on Wednesday night, I had to laugh at the dogs coming into the house covered in snow. They love it. At one point, they were outside playing and wrestling and rolling in the snow. We had to cover the couch with blankets because they like to sleep on it, and it would have been soaked that night.
This is what the neighborhood looked like on Thursday morning. I went for my walk, then decided it was time to shovel the sidewalk and as much of the driveway as I could. I shoveled the neighbor’s sidewalk, too, because she’s usually gone during the day. I like walking on shoveled sidewalks much better than walking through deep snow.
Thursday and Friday were both “snow days” for school and state offices. I was on my regular days off for both, so they didn’t affect my schedule at all.
I went to Trader Joe’s on Friday, looking for “healthy” snacks and ingredients for that weekend’s work lunches. I remembered that I wanted to look for eucalyptus branches. I’d seen them used on a YouTube channel, placed in the shower so the steam releases the essential oils.
There were bouquets of huge, bright orange daisies next to the eucalyptus, and I had to buy them too. I took them to work with me on Saturday, along with half the eucalyptus branches and put them in a vase to brighten up my office.
I left the house early on Sunday so I could go for a walk before work. I took the back roads instead of the freeway and had to pull over for some photos of an incredible sunrise above the city.
As I mentioned above, we had wind gusts of up to 89 mph Saturday night. The wind broke up the ice forming on the lake and carved out glacier-looking formations along the eastern shore.
I tried to walk out onto the ice for better pictures when I quickly realized that wasn’t going to work. The ice wasn’t solid — it was made up of small pieces piled up together — so my feet sank into the cold water right away. Thankfully, it was only about six inches deep, so only my feet got wet.
This was my week in photographs! Dennett started this Photo-a-Day Challenge during the summer of 2020, and since then, many others have joined, including Anne Bonfert, Erika Burkhalter, Susan Alison, Ellie Jacobson, Penny Grubb, Sandra B, K. Barrett, Jillian Amatt - Artistic Voyages, Barb Dalton, Barbara Radisavljevic, Jane Frost (Jane Grows Garden Rooms), and more!
