Where is our snow?

I miss it. Last year at this time we had well over a foot of snow on the ground, and when I looked out our living room window, I had cute little birds like this staring back at me...

...an American Goldfinch in the snow.

...he's killing me with the head tilt! That little move ratchets up the cute-o-meter like nothing else...

Male American Goldfinches are always pretty, especially in the summer when their breeding plumage glows gold in the sun, but in the winter, when they return to their basic plumage, they fade to an olive brown with only a hint of their former glory around their eyes and neck. Suddenly, they blend with the browns and greys of dead winter and barely raise a second glance, but when snowflakes fall and they sit with a backdrop of bright white snow, they once again glow gold and demand attention!

"I'm a ball of fluff, and I can melt any heart..."

Yesterday we had three flakes of snow. It was supposed to be an inch, but it fizzled into rain. I have snow gear galore—boots, gloves, down pants and a down coat, and a panda bear hat to top it all off—but unfortunately, no where to wear it! Hurry up and get here snow...

(I took these photos 12-12-10. We had snow, snow, snow then.)

About our rain...

We've had our wettest year on record. It has rained almost every other day this year...about 72 inches of rain, which scored us another record—the wettest city in the nation's top 100 largest cities. My hubby, Rick, filled me in on the stats last week. We normally get 137 days of rain. This year, we've had 187 days. If only all the rain this month had been snow... :-)

P.S. Happy Birthday, Dad!!!