We seldom get real winter weather here in Huntsville, Alabama. But occasionally, it does give us glimpses of snow and ice, maybe even several inches of winter precipitation. The record for snow here in Huntsville came around 1962 or 1963. It was predicted that we would get some flurries that night, but imagine the delight of youngsters (and adults, too!) the next morning when we had 16 inches of snow just waiting to be enjoyed! Schedules took a backseat to this event, especially where we lived on one of the local mountains.

Then, on Christmas Eve, 2010, we got a rare White Christmas with maybe 4 or 5 inches of snow as seen in these two photos.

A more serious record, that of ice, came in the 1960s also. Ice, frozen solid on the ground, means bad news for the wildlife, as well as any hope of moving around. That year we had 12 inches – one foot – of ice on Green Mountain. We were stuck with no way out for a week. But we were okay. We had a wood burning fireplace, canned goods in the basement, and enough food.

With six kids in the house, we made good use of the ice and played in the woods a lot. One of my siblings even found a small, stranded screech owl. We took it home, fed it, and nursed it back to health over the next week and then released it when the ground thawed out. I still remember it, sitting in its cardboard box with a towel, looking at us as if wondering what we would do with it next. Sadly, nowadays I never hear screech owls up on the mountain anymore, and chuck-wills-widows are getting farther away and less frequent up there.

So we are currently predicting winter weather in a day or so. Just in time for a Monday holiday, President’s Day. Hopefully this will be a good opportunity to post some nice winter scenes here and on Facebook.