The First Snowfall 2024
It started off as a day of much needed rain, which then developed into snow - the first of the season.
Until now, it's been unusually dry and warm here at my farm, but yesterday we got a couple inches of wet snow - enough to cover much of the landscape in white. Fortunately, all the plants are tucked away in temperature-controlled greenhouses and hoop houses, but we are still in the process of preparing for the winter season ahead. Soon all the shrubs, hedges, and cold-sensitive garden containers will be covered in burlap.
Here are a few photos, enjoy.
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- Even if one is not a big fan of cold weather, there is always a bit of excitement with the first snow of the season. On this early morning, my stable manager, Helen Peparo, captured some photos of the newly fallen snow from inside and outside the stable.
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- We got enough snow just to cover the ground and the tops of the boxwood. My allée is still due to be covered in protective burlap, but this snow will be brushed off all the boxwood around the farm by hand… and broom.
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- Jude “JJ” Junior, one of my five donkeys, is looking out onto the snow covered pasture. Donkeys are not as adaptable to the cold weather as horses, but my donkeys don’t seem to mind the chill in the air or the snow under their hooves.
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- Meanwhile, my Friesian horses and Fell pony enjoy the cooler temperatures. They stayed inside overnight while the storm passed through, but were then let out into my run-in paddock first thing in the morning.
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- This is Mayo, also known as “May-May’ – one of my two stable kittens. This is the first snow for the feline sisters, and while May May appears to be hiding under the boxwood here, it didn’t take long before she was out exploring her winter wonderland.
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- This photo shows the gray skies. Gray skies are caused by a phenomenon called a temperature inversion, where cold air near the ground is trapped by a layer of warmer air above, leading to the formation of thick, flat stratus clouds that block sunlight and leave only gray.
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- Footprints in the snow… I wonder what little creature left them.
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- While the morning skies were gray, some patches of color were still visible down below. Here, one can see the reddish tint of the blueberry bushes and the green in the lawn and boxwood.
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- These are the stone pavers outside my Tenant House – outlined in snow. The Old Farmer’s Almanac predicts this winter will be wet and cold. We certainly need more precipitation, so we’ll see.
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- My operations manager, Matt Krack, took this closeup of the snow melting on fallen leaf later in the day. Snow forms when the temperature is at or below 32-degrees Fahrenheit. At this temperature, water vapor in the atmosphere condenses directly into ice crystals. The day warmed quickly to the mid 40s.
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- The pachysandra in front of my Winter House was nearly all covered in snow…
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- … And so were the horizontal tops of the antique fence rails.
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- Snow fell around the apple trees, leaving patches of earth still exposed.
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- But it did stick to the stone walls.
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- This is the snow covered ground through the mid section of my long pergola. The uprights for this pergola are antique granite posts from China – originally used as grape supports. They’re perfect as posts because they don’t rot over time like the wood overhead.
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- And the cobblestones in the courtyard outside my stable are also coated with snow.
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- And by late afternoon, the sun was back out and the skies were blue. Today’s weather is expected to be mostly sunny with partly cloudy skies and temperatures in the high 40s. And the next chance of rain… maybe Tuesday.
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