Green down here, but white in the mountains

Mother Nature dumped a good deal of snow on the higher elevations in Vermont and northern New York. Reports indicate that up to three feet of snow fell on some mountaintops. No snow fell here in Whiting, but we're able to see it in the distance.

Snow is visible on the tops of the distant Adirondack mountains in New York State.

Sunset - Oct. 22, 2012

Yesterday's sunset of oranges, pinks, violets and blues seen through our front yard maples.

Get ready, Leafers

Reliable sources tell me that northeast Vermont is near or at peak fall foliage color at the moment. The rest of the state is lagging a week or more behind. In this area, there is already spectacular color here and there, but the majority of leaves are still green. I'm guessing the next two weekends will be prime-time for fall colors in the Whiting area.

Here's what the area looks like at the moment.

Adirondack view

Looking west toward the Adirondacks this afternoon.

Glorious evening sky follows storms

The area experienced some severe storms yesterday (Saturday), though we fared considerably better than our friends in southern New England and the New York City region. There were tornado warnings around our old home in Connecticut and a couple of tornadoes touched down briefly in eastern New York City.

I had just parked the car in a Middlebury parking lot a little after four-thirty in the afternoon when the skies opened up. It was like being in a car-wash gone haywire. What must have been 50-60 mph winds were forcing the torrential downpour into a horizontal direction. The wind bounced my car around considerably and seemed intent on flipping it over. It began gusting from what I perceived to be the south and continued for about ten minutes, though it seemed like forever. The wind direction then changed dramatically. It seemed to be coming from the west for a few minutes.

By five o'clock, the heavy winds and downpours were over. About an hour later, we went out to dinner at Rosie's Restaurant (it was prime rib night, but none of us ordered that) in a light rain. After dinner, as we drove through Cornwall on our way home, a spectacular double-rainbow emerged over the Green Mountains in the eastern sky. People pulled their cars over along Route 30 to look at it and photograph it. The kids were mesmerized. I was shocked to hear children of the video-game era remarking, "This is the coolest thing I've ever seen!" I didn't have my camera with me - I must learn to bring that thing wherever I go - and the cameras in our cellphones just weren't equal to the task. We reached home in Whiting with just enough life left in the rainbow to take a bunch of photos and a short video.

The rainbow vanished as the sun set behind the Adirondack Mountains. But Mother Nature was not yet finished with her colorful evening display. She treated us to this dramatic sunset.

And, this, photographically explains our greatest problem so far living in Whiting: We never know which direction to look! The views in every direction are simply spectacular. We are almost fearful of the natural beauty that awaits in the Vermont fall and winter ahead.