SNOW!!!

....and lots of it.  So what, you might say?
1.  I live in southern ARIZONA,the place where people who want to get away from the cold and snow come for the winter.
2.  I took these photos at NOON.  Yes, we got snow the first two days of the year, which was freaky enough, but it melted by 9:00.
3.  Not only was Madera Canyon closed but the road heading up there was closed about 1.5 miles in, just past the elementary school.
4.  The HIGH temperature today was 39°/3.9°. 

When I saw this photo on my computer, I said out loud, "This is friggin' beautiful!"  It had to be my blip.  I took 200+ photographs.  I know it's early in the year but I figured this is a sight I won't often see so I put in 6 extras.  In the first one you'll see how hard it was snowing. Then a Curve-billed thrasher snagging some suet on his tongue. Next is snow on a table, measured at three inches but by 1:30 it had added an inch.  I couldn't resist another thrasher looking pretty pissed as he was ducking and hiding, a wren who decided to sit it out on the patio, and lastly,  a Verdin picking at an orange on the dead cholla. Please take a look at them because I am pretty excited.

Mom is starting to learn a few things about birds.  When I came back into the room she told me "there was just a red bird...uh...cardinal there."  I was pretty impressed.  One of the first things I did was clear a couple of ports on the nectar feeder and chop up some of the ice in the dishes.  I also threw some seed on top of the snow.

By three o'clock it was turning into slush.  The bad part is that it was too cold for it to melt completely so there was little run off. We don't have storm drains; we count on the the water running into washes and arroyos.  We're expecting another hard freeze tonight (mid-20's) so it's likely to be very icy for hours tomorrow...the day I have to go out early to have our taxes done.

Q: What time is it when little white flakes fall past the classroom window?
A: Snow and Tell.