The Sunday Creative: Extent

Winter Picket Fence, Magdalena, NM, Jan. 2011

Extent (n):

1. The area covered by something: "an enclosure ten acres in extent".

2. The degree to which something has spread; the size or scale of something.

This week's prompt for The Sunday Creative (yes, I know it's Wednesday...) brought to mind a photo I took on Monday during our first (and, as it turned out, much milder) snowstorm of the week. We have a modest wooden plank fence around our yard that doesn't stand out much but, as most rustic things do, takes on a special charm after a light snowfall.

As that storm headed east and pummelled the midwest with snow and ice and even thunder and lightning, New Mexico got a second storm that swirled around the state all day and left nearly a foot of snow in some places, including here. As a special treat it also brought sub-zero(F) cold... zero in Fahrenheit is near minus-20 Celsius, just to give my international readers an idea of how FRICKIN' COLD it is today. We're approaching noon, and the sun is sort of out, and the temperature still hasn't climbed above zero(F) -- something I've never seen in my tenure here in NM. Oh, and did I mention the foot of snow? ;-) I don't find anything particularly charming after a heavy snowfall. But that's just me. Yep, just me, cooling my heels indoors, twitching and pacing and glaring out the window trying to WILL the weather to cut this crap out.

The cats, on the other hand, don't seem to care much either way, as long as they're on the warmer side of the window. This is where I'll be all day, too, unless Dad needs help digging more wood out of the woodpile.

Max and Rocky sleeping through Groundhog Day