Snow and Amaryllis

Winter Storm 'Nemo' walloped us pretty hard here in southeastern Massachusetts -- 2 feet of snow and no power for 30 hours. Thanks to lots of insulation the temperature in the house only went down to the 40's when it was 15 outside, but still, when the power came back on at 3:30am I threw off the down quilt and yelled 'hallelujah', then lay awake for quite a while waiting for the pinging in the baseboard they would mean the furnace was up and running.
We have solar power, but it's tied into the grid, and doesn't work when the power is out.   And we didn't make any electricity until a day after power was back because there was a foot of snow covering the panels.
I was eating dinner and heard the whoosh and thud of snow sliding off the panels, and turned back to my meal much more cheerful.

Today Sol and I went out to dig
through the pile of snow that slid off. After two warm days it was still deep. Here's the path I cleared between the back gate and the deck:









I was worried the cold would kill my house plants, but they have survived, including my pink amaryllis, back for the third year.  It had been dormant so long I was losing hope, but last week a flower bud suddenly nosed it's way out of the bulb:

What a welcome sight in the midst of so much cold and snow!