Winter Wonderland

our backyard - with the snow cover
for our car windshield hanging
on the handrail.  Obviously, we never
expected it to snow overnight. 

This Arizona girl is like a kid in a candy store. I just can't get enough of the beautiful seasons here. You'd think after about freezing to death last winter, I would be thrilled that this winter has been so warm and so little snow, but I will admit, I was kind of missing the snow.

We had decided to go to the Farsang Festival in downtown Miskolc on Saturday, February 3.  (More about the festival in another post)  We awoke to a very slushy wet rainey/snowey day.  We decided to go anyway - after all how many opportunities do we have to attend Farsang Festival in Miskolc, Hungary?  Farsang is a celebration to "scare away" winter.  On Sunday, we were sure that the celebration had worked.  It was a beautiful day with blue skies and quite warm.  I was a little disappointed thinking that our chance for snow was over.  Then came Monday!  . . .

Our backyard orchard and grapevines

Maybe the birds need some food and a fireplace
to make their home more inviting?  :) 

This is in our backyard.  We're not sure what it is - a dog house?  a place to store firewood?  Currently it appears to be a place where random "junk" has been stored.

Even the power lines are blanketed in snow.  

Not so sure that Elder Moser is loving the snow quite as much as I am.  

Yea - snow.  I was so excited I went outside in my pajamas and took pictures of our yard.  It wasn't even cold, so I decided to get dressed and build a snowman.  This one is a little better than my first attempt at snowman engineering.  Until . . . we returned from our walk and noticed he had a big crack in his middle and was leaning back.

We quickly stood him up and supported his back side. Mission accomplished - or so we thought.

This is what he looks like this morning.  Perhaps I just need to stick to my Arizona sunshine activities.  Not sure I have a future in building snowmen!  Sure was fun to try though.  And I thought he was pretty cute.  "Once there was a snowman, small, small, boom!"

This is the street leading up to our house.  It is always beautiful - in the spring it is covered with pink blossoms, summer - green leaves, fall - beautiful autumn colors, and winter - a frozen wonderland. 

On the corner of the street to our house.  Diablo Etterem & Pizzeria is one of the first restaurants we ate at when we first arrived in Miskolc.  Coincidentally we ended up moving just up the street from  here.  

The following pictures were taken on our morning walk.

A house at the end of our street.
I love the red tile roof with the
contrast of the white snow.

Following in the footsteps of those
who have gone before - (there must be a church talk in this somewhere)   

Even the trash cans and bins look better with their snow fur trim.

Can't quite figure out how this happened?  You
would think it would have fallen off when the
bin was opened. 

No children here today, but it sure looks picturesque.

Powdered donuts anyone?

As we walk up the steps as we approach the Avas, there are several
manhole covers like this.  We hear the rushing water each time we
walk by.  Obviously it is not cold enough for it to freeze.

       
Snow in every nook and cranny.

On the right is a community garden, on the left is an arboretum.

This is one of our favorite sign dilemmas.  The sign on the right seems to say "no grandpas with grandchildren"  However - the sign on the left . . .

say "Grandpas and children are welcome"  So okay - they are allowed in this area, but how to do they enter or leave the area because they are banned from the exit/entrance area.  

The entrance to the arboretum

Even a fire hydrant looks cute with its little snow cap