When there’s a light snowfall and there’s no wind, the trees get laced with white. In the early morning it looks like I’m standing in a black and white photo.

When you have animals you have to get up early and go out. That’s a good thing. A half hour later rain had washed this scene away.

If you’re one of the many who have been shoveling and chipping ice, you can ignore this post. But, I’ve had lots of questions from people who don’t know anything about snow, so I thought I’d share what it looks like from a view other than the HenCam.

This is my mailbox.

With the temperatures above freezing for the last two days, the road crews have been plowing ice, slush and snow off of the streets. It’s mess of road sand and potholes, but better than it was. My driveway is plowed by a nice guy in a pickup truck, but without the DPW equipment, it’s still a sheet of ice. See that humungous snow mound left by the plow? Underneath that are my raspberry bushes. Think I’ll see them by May?

Take a close look. The undisputed Queen of the Coop has claimed her royal perch and is looking down on her subjects.

Candy is having the best time. Between the sleet and the sunshine, the snow mounds have hardened into climbable mountains. The chickens are rather pleased, too. It’s only 10º F, but it’s sunny and they’re reveling in the fresh air, the hay, and some special treats (cottage cheese this morning.)

I’m enjoying the respite from the winter weather, too. It won’t last long. We’re getting the trifecta tomorrow – snow, sleet and rain. Nobody is going to be happy on Saturday.

Snow is falling. Snow will keep falling. Then we’ll get sleet. We’re housebound and barnbound and restless. What to do? Make pie. Not just any pie. I want pie that takes me out of this deep freeze. I want summer.

I keep homemade pie crusts, rolled out into 12-inch circles, tightly wrapped, in my freezer. I get out two. One breaks. No problem. I’ll use that for the top crust. You’ll see.

I pull out a bag of peaches. Last summer I bought a bushel of seconds – tree-ripened, local peaches that had a blemish here or there so the farmer sold them for very little at the end of the farmer’s market. I peeled and sliced the peaches, froze them individually on a cookie sheet and then bagged them. That’s the trick to having individual peach slices and not one huge block. I vacuum packed them, and into the freezer they went.

I hope you’re not expecting a recipe. This is the sort of pie I throw together. But I’ll tell you what I do.

Preheat the oven to 350º F. Let the pie crust defrost enough so that it can be put into a ceramic pie plate.

Toss the frozen peaches with some brown sugar, instant tapioca (to soak up the juices) and some minced crystallized ginger (optional, but ginger is so good in this pie – it brightens it up.) Put the pie filling in the pie plate. Take the broken crust and cut decorative circles with a cookie cutter and place on top.

Bake for about 50 minutes until bubbly and you’ll have summer in winter.