Winter Moves in Overnight with a Texas Style Ice Storm

Two o'clock this morning our heater stopped working. Wouldn't you know it? Last week we had temperatures in the seventies, but today we're in the twenties.

I'm not complaining, though, compared to our counterparts in the northeast that had an Arctic blast of deep freezing snow, we've had a mild winter. This is, after all, Texas. If we don't like the weather we can be sure it will change in a couple of days.

The birds were delighted to have an ample supply of bird food and were making a feast of it all morning. I was able to catch a few of them at the buffet.


They were taking turns at the bird feeder with Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal, a few sparrows, a dove and one stray blackbird who seemed to have lost his flock.

The best shot was when Mr. Cardinal decided to hop on the ground and scout for fallen corn.

When the Internet decided to take a short break this morning as well, I decided it was a good day to do some baking.

We purchased one of those huge bags of triple washed broccoli crowns from Costco last week.

After serving it a a couple of times steamed, it was time to put the rest of it to good use in a broccoli and ham Quiche. This was the perfect day to use the oven.


Here's how the Quiche came out. We had this for lunch today. Yum.

It turns out the HVAC compressor unit just needed to defrost a bit. Jane at Ross Air Conditioning, the service company that has taken care of us for over twenty years told us to turn it off for a few minutes.

After we turned it back on, we were delighted to get warm air out of the vents once again. Their company was iced in by the weather as well, so it's a good thing the heater is working. It's a nice warm feeling...

Back to bird watching.