It’s sunny this morning in Boston, a brief respite before tomorrow’s predicted rain. Teazle is excitedly (and vocally) watching birds fluffed along the branches of the trees outside, and Hanna and I are sitting on the couch reading and writing and listening to the BBC classical music stream while watching cars get stuck in the snowdrifts on our corner.

Yesterday, the hill outside our living room window was turned into a sledding hill until the travel ban was lifted at 4pm.

I promised photos to several people yesterday from the “snow emergency” here in Boston, so this morning while Hanna did yoga in the living room I tumbled into my boots and winter gear and re-learned how to hike through knee-high drifts in order to bring you some pictures from our snowy neighborhood.

As a baseline, here’s what the view from our window was like around two o’clock yesterday afternoon:

Shortly after I took this picture, the poor red car had it’s rear bumper sheared off by a neighbor’s car that skidded through the intersection.

Thankfully, no one was hurt!

By the time we went to bed around 9pm, this was the view out that same window (note the red car, sans bumper, now half buried in snow).

Waking up this morning, it was difficult to see outside, so I decided to venture out.

You can see I was perhaps the second person to leave the building on foot this morning; with the snow still falling and blowing, and a travel ban in effect state-wide, few people are bothering to dig out.

We have no sidewalk currently!

And these cars aren’t going anywhere soon…

Above, wind whips snow across a nearly-deserted Commonwealth Avenue (this was taken about 7:30 this morning).

Snowplows were out in full force on the main roads, trying to stay on top of clearing the fallen snow.

But most apartment buildings showed little signs of activity.

I saw a few people out on foot who weren’t municipal workers, but the lack of traffic was eerie, particularly at usually-busy intersections (below is Harvard Avenue looking south from Commonwealth).

Side streets had higher drifts, and as I made my way back home through Brookline’s residential neighborhoods, I saw a few people out trying to clear snow from their sidewalks and cars.

These cars aren’t going anywhere soon!

The playground was deserted.

I was the first pair of feet to walk up our cul-de-sac on my return journey.

… and then I had to climb over this to get to the back door!

Now we’re enjoying breakfast and planning to nap the day away inside. Stay warm and safe everyone!

We had a proper snowfall in Boston last night for the first time in a couple of years (!), and with temperatures predicted to remain in the twenties this coming week hopefully winter is here to stay … at least into the New Year.

While Hanna was doing yoga this afternoon, I walked out (and up) Corey Hill. Corey Hill in Brookline is one of the neighborhoods the abuts our section of Allston, and one about which I have serious real estate envy.

I mean, the downside about Corey Hill is that, well, it’s a hill. So living on it would be akin to living anywhere  in San Francisco: you’d get your cardio walking to and from work every day, no problem — whether you wanted to or not. But the upside is that they have lots of brilliant little turn-of-the-twentieth-century houses, most of which are still in pretty decent repair, and many of which have been converted into multi-unit dwellings.

I’ve always had a thing for photographing flights of stairs, and the Corey Hill neighborhood definitely provides ample opportunity.

Even before I moved to Boston, I liked wandering around neighborhoods that weren’t my own to engage in “what if…” imaginings about the life one would have living there, or the home-making possibilities of the houses therein.

(For example, what’s with the pink door below the stair?)

At the summit of Corey Hill is a public park which lends itself to sledding (the man in the black coat was a supervising adult waiting for his sprongs to return from the latest run). In July, this is a favored spot for watching Boston’s city fireworks.

In addition to adorable brick cottages, there’s this imposing art deco structure near the summit park, and also a few truly outstanding Victorians (I assume vestiges of the original settlements).

One of the cool things about snow is the way it makes you see color in a whole new way. Like the greens and yellows behind the row of icicles on this recessed garage…

…and the turquoise on this second-floor balcony.

While I suppose the “house” below might be a little too tiny for us, I’d like to imagine that some day — if we stay in Boston — our little household of two humans and two cats might be able to afford a home of our own in a neighborhood not entirely unlike this one.