#2230 "Winter on Long Reach Lane"

I wanted to paint and there was not much time. I headed outside to the front yard at 1:30 pm between the snow to the east and the ice pellets and rain approaching from the west.

The turkeys came over to see what I was doing. There were ten birds in this flock at the start of the winter. One turkey must have entered the food chain or joined another group.

The sky to the northeast was the colour of snow and there were some hints of vertical swaths of falling precipitation. Some ice pellets mixed with freezing rain arrived at Singleton just as I was finishing up. The southerly wind picked up as well and the wind chill started to get significant. I have frozen my hands a few times and they do not do well with wind chill anymore. The combination of wind and increasing humidity with the impending rain put a chill right through me. I think that maybe the strength of plein air might be that it is less likely that you will overwork the subject matter. The elements force you to forge ahead. Charge!

The winter had been a classic polar vortex dominated event with a split upper flow and lots of freezing rain and ice pellets. The snow and ice was really accumulating. The lane had been a frozen sheet of thick ice since early January. A significant thaw was on the way with this approaching storm which would place Singleton Lake in the warm sector with rain for a couple of days. It looked like I would be able to take the cleats off my boots.

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