Jeremy

A squirrel on my nursery gate. It’s snowing again here, and it will snow almost every day this week. Winter is taking its time to move on. #MAwx

Small things can have more of an impact than you think. Back in 2024, I started leaving the Holiday Lights on our pine tree the entire winter. Not only is it less work (taking them down in March vs January), but it makes others happy, as seen on this local Facebook post.

Rabbit footprints in the snow

Got rabbits?

If accessibility disappears after a snowstorm then there was never really accessibility to begin with. Winter reveals so much about who our cities prioritize.

We’re overdue for a Norlun trough, no way it happens this weekend, but it would be nice..

Correction: 22.2”

Snowfall total over the past two days is 22.4”. I measured 19.6” yesterday and we got 2.6” overnight. Waltham, MA @wx1box.bsky.social

Dumping snow. And so it begins. #MAwx

Or so we thought🤦🏻‍♂️

There is a special place in hell for people who shovel their stairs and driveway, but not the sidewalk, on a busy street corner which serves as a middle school bus stop

We love the commuter rail🫠

Dark eyed juncos at the bird feeder

Just over 5” of snow. Still snowing with a temp of 29°. Waltham, MA @wx1box.bsky.social

Not the Red Spruces😢 large conifers don’t fare well with high winds, we lost several white pines around here in MA

Red twig dogwood stems covered in icicles

A backyard with a thin layer of fresh snow

Bright blue sky with the sun shining through a gap in the trees

It’s a bluebird day💙 #bluesky #winter

First measurable accumulating snow of the season. Waltham, MA. A half inch of snow fell overnight after a wintry mix and rain fell throughout the afternoon. @wx1box.bsky.social

It’s snowing! #mawx

Gray squirrels here, but they love to perch and leave the hulls behind in neat piles

Monarda didyma seed head with frost

A wilted rudbeckia hirta flower covered in frost

Frosty leaves and basal foliage

Frosty rhododendron leaves that have curled from the cold weather

A hard frost this morning. 22 degrees Fahrenheit. #mawx

The neglected lawn I have left arguably improved since I started leaving some leaf litter as well as raising the deck so violets, self heal etc could thrive. It stays green longer during a dry summer and is thicker than when I used to rake every leaf particle away.

A hard frost this morning with a temp of 24°. The herbaceous perennial layer has withered to brown sticks while the larch still hangs onto its yellow needles.

Fairly uncommon here too (eastern ma) except for the occasional bog or red maple/shrub swamp. Agreed they stand out in our landscape, especially when the oaks and maples have already changed or lost their leaves.

Which is the case for most conifers minus white pine and hemlock, but I’d rather plant a semi native conifer, than something from a different country, or from the west coast.

Yellow larch needles

A closer view of the yellow larch needles

A larch sapling with yellow needles

Larch, also known as Tamarack (Larix larincina) with its iconic yellow needles, a deciduous conifer. #nativeplants #ecoregion59

A gas pump with a sticker of Donald Trump pointing to the diesel ($4.25USD/gallon) saying “I did that”

We love to see it

Ambient Weather Station console

After months of being offline, I finally figured out how to reconnect my weather station to WiFi😊 just in time for winter

0.80” rain overnight which began as a few sleet pellets. Temp is now up to 48°. Wind has started to pick up from the west. Waltham, MA @wx1box.bsky.social

A passing cold front to scatter milkweed around the neighborhood

Seed trays go out by mid December with a burlap cover to prevent rodent digging and to hold moisture

Everything else I scatter before a snowfall; it settles into the ground so the birds are less likely to find them till it melts

Basic light pollution diagram showing four different streetlight set ups ranging from more light pollution on the left to less light pollution on the right. The most pollution option, labelled "very bad" is a street lamp with a round uncovered bulb on top, making a sphere of light in the air. The next option, labelled "bad" has a tiny cap on top, that limits the upward pollution a bit. The "better" option is mostly uncovered on top, limiting pollution above the streetlight. The final option, labelled "best" has a full shroud overtop, limiting the light to only below the streetlight, where it is needed for pedestrians and vehicles.

Lots of folks captioning aurora photos like "for a few minutes we didn't think about politics"

guess I'm built different, every time I'm out trying to see night sky stuff I frequently think about how much light pollution is entirely preventable with just a tiny bit of regulation

Route 16 in nh is pretty bad. Just a rumble strip separating you from a driver going 80mph in their emotional support vehicle