Rain Soaked Denton County Courthouse

A few days ago, ice and sleet and snow. . . Tonight, rain and 70 degrees. . . Definitely a North Texas winter.

After the rains washed all the gunk out of the air – I was able to take these spiffy night pics of the Old Denton County Courthouse on the square. I particularly like how the decorated trees and landscape lighting make the limestone almost glow in some of the shots. . .

The Denton County Courthouse lit up after a light rainshower. . .from the northwest corner of the square. . .

. . .from the west, looking from the empty lot. . .

. . .from the southwest corner of the square. . .

. . .closer shot of the lit up clocktower. . .

. . .across the corner, still looking from the southwest. . .

. . .from the south. . .

. . .looking head on from the archway. . .

. . .with the glowing trees in the front. . .

. . .from the southeast. . .

. . .another closeup of the clocktower. . .

. . .from the northeast corner of the square.

January Ice Storm

One of our North Texas ice storms blew through tonight. A few days back it was 70 degrees. . . in a few more days, probably back. It all ended up being a whole lot of nothing since the ground was way too warm to sustain the winter mix. . . but for a few hours at least, we had a little winter around here. . .

The front bushes had a light coating of ice the night before. . .

. . .as did the north side of the house. This was the most ice ive seen stick since moving in August 2003. . .

. . .the next morning, the ice had begun to melt, but was still sticking in spots. . .

. . .close up of the frozen holly bush in the front garden. . .

. . .there was a dusting of sleet and snow on the ground. . .

. . .a sunny day in the neighborhood, despite the ice. An afternoon of this will melt it all by the time the sun goes back down. . .

. . .in the shadows along the roof, the ice was still sticking to the house. . .

. . .icicles along the roofline. . .

. . .on the north side, the fence had a good 1/8 inch of ice stick. . .

. . .another 1/8 inch of ice stuck to the road as well. Probably would have been more, but the ground was too warm in the days leading up to this sleet/ice storm. As it stood, most of this was gone by the afternoon. . .

. . .ice coating the rear window and onstar antenna on the grand prix. . .

. . .it was a rolling Popsicle. . .i wanted to go drive around on the ice and try not to slide into the nearest tree. . . but thinking the ice sticking to the paint would cause damage when i open try to open the door. . .sigh. . .

. . .the city trashcan was also frozen. . .

. . .as well was the pile of landscaping materials i had in the driveway. . .

. . .the city's field next door, with a slight dusting of ice and sleet. . .

. . .the city's weeds, covered in the ice. When the sun hit this right, the entire field glistened. . .

. . .the branches on the front yard tree leaned a little from the weight of the ice. . .

. . .but not much. . .

. . .what little of the ice/sleet that stuck in the front yard lawn. . .

. . .and on the backyard plastic chairs. . .

. . .a icy tree in the backyard. . .

. . .the trees behind the house covered in ice.