In a Lull....

Just trying to get through each day toward Spring. Do NOT like being cold. Everyone who stops in says it's hot in here. Well to me it is cool and 75° is just not warm enough. I turn the thermostat down to 69° at night. My electric blanket helps some. The humidifier is going strong. I have lost too much weight (not on purpose) so have no fat to help keep me warm. Doc appointment next week. In prep, had full lab work a couple of days ago and am scheduled for CT scan Monday. Something is askew. No energy to create computer art, or do much of anything. Time will tell, I guess. Just another path to travel and explore. I might try frolicking around in here. Maybe cavort a bit as well. 

Spring?

Here I sit watching snowflakes come down on Easter Sunday! I looked outdoors and my daffodils are not yet in bloom. I may cut a few buds and bring them indoors before they are covered as the forecast for snow is up to FOUR inches tomorrow!

It is 32° as I write this at 11 AM. 

Last evening my friendly neighbor brought over a blooming gift after he had finished the yard work. That was a nice surprise! I wonder how soon I can put it in the ground. My mother always did a couple of days after bringing them home from church.

There are five buds and another has opened this morning.

Yesterday my neighbor shared her pictures of loons. I knew of them  being here as I've watched them dip and dive and return further down the lake. I mentioned them to a neighboring lake resident who has also seen them at his lake and has heard them too. I have never heard them, only seen them. The neighbor who shared the pictures heard them this morning! I researched them several years ago and learned a few things.

“Loons return to northern forested lakes and rivers in the springtime, usually in April or early May.

Loons nest in quiet, protected, hidden spots of lakeshore, typically in the lee of islands or in a sheltered back bay. Loons can't walk well on land, so nests are built close to a bank, often with a steep drop off that allows the bird to approach the nest from underwater.

Loons are swimming and diving birds. They have very distinctive bodies: long and low-slung with spear-like beaks and blood-red eyes. In addition to their unusual bodies, they have an eerie, haunting call that some consider a characteristic sound of early summer.”

Today

The sun is shining, I'm happy today. BUT it is COLD outside! I ought to tell you that I do not like the cold - inside it's warm - enough - just - I can do this.....

It's 10:30 now, it is quite windy and the temperature is the SAME...Froze my nose taking out the trash for Tuesday pickup. Hadda to do it! Not a wild critter in sight. Not even a person critter!

My cat is climbing the walls. Heat rises, don'tcha know!

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P.S. Cat on the wall knows all!
 

Weather or NOT!

A cold wind and rain blew through here yesterday and season's change is not well accepted by me. I like to be warm. Big time cool down! I took a short ride around the lake this morning in the golf car and was miserable. My hands froze, my neck froze, my nose froze, my toes froze. I thought I had dressed well. It is after all, only 45° and there wasn't even a bird or critter or pretty leaf to be captured by my camera. In fact there are so many conifers here that not a touch of yellow or orange or red was in my sights. Many of the summer residents have left the area now and just a few of 'we perms' remain to stick it out. I should have stayed in. 

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

"The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play. So we sat in the house. All that cold, cold wet day."

~Dr. Seuss - The Cat in the Hat

>>>>>>It's coming!!!! I must think positive...

"No winter lasts forever;

No spring skips its turn."

~Hal Borland

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

It's Almost Over

I'm talking about the month of January. Now to get through February... Every year it gets harder as I age. I remember the wonderful snow and ice activities of my youth. My glory days remain clearly. So do the days of misadventure.

Going way back in years, probably sometime when I was around age 10 to 14,  I can still see bloody ice from when I fell and gashed my chin open. I always loved to be the end skater of about six or seven other skaters who formed the whip because of the speed of the crack the whip game, being at the end was exciting. I had lost the grip of the person ahead of me and everyone was in total awe to see such a blood puddle before they helped me walk home. My mother used clean snow made into a pack to help the flow and then came the iodine and a bandage. I cannot even see a scar today.

My neighborhood friends, both guys and girls including me, used to sleigh down a kid-made downhill trail on a very steep hill through the woods. This secret sledding place was about a mile up the road from where we lived. We had built lift off humps throughout the trail with snow-covered logs creating drop offs so that when you came to one you went airborne and then landed back down on the trail. The idea was not to fall off, get your wind knocked out, or crash into the trees on the side of the trail. WOW! Our parents never knew about this! It really took guts to go down that hill.

One year, sometime in the 70's when the snow was deep, the air was clear and the sun was out, I saddled up my horse and daughter's pony and we went for a ride on old narrow snow-covered roads in the backwoods. I had misjudged the depth of the drifts and my horse plunged through with the pony following. After many breaks to rest, I thought we were doomed. The end of this story is that my horse got us through, with much urging, breaking the path for the pony and rider behind. Whew! That was a close one.

Another story that comes to mind is when the Mister and I were snowmobiling with a group of others and, although we were well dressed for a long ride, I became very chilled and it's a good thing we got home in time for him to undress me from the suit and to cover me up with warm blankets because, I know now, that hypothermia was definitely beginning. It got to the point when we were heading home that I wanted to sleep on the back of the machine I was so cold.

No personal photographs to go with this today. There are none but for the ones in my mind. They are very real - still. But of course, I made a photomanipulation painting of cracking the whip.

End of stories today. February is just around the corner and then Mother Nature will continue her march through the seasons, as usual.

Hey! It's Winter!

So far we are very lucky to have a nicely warmed home. I will say that the bathroom is only +60° and that is because we keep the "back rooms" closed. Of course the bedroom ceilings are still open to the rafters but that's OK. 

I found this poem years ago and changed it to suit my state. I also have saved the graphic, and now have made it into a photomanipulation to show you what happened in the old days gone by. Ummmm.... Keep warm folks. Count your blessings. Mother Nature is in control even over Old Man Winter.

A Pennsylvania Poem

It’s winter in Pennsylvania

And the gentle breezes blow

Seventy miles an hour

At thirty-five below.

Oh how I love Pennsylvania

When the snow’s up to your butt

You take a breath of winter air

And your nose gets frozen shut.

Yes, the weather here is wonderful,

So I guess I’ll hang around

I could never leave Pennsylvania

‘Cause I’m frozen to the ground!

~orig. by Tom Weaver, MN~

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Winter Day

The sun is shining brightly. The lake is completely frozen. There are no ice fishermen in sight. The wind is blowing. Two joggers went by. Crazy fools! I see feral cat prints in the snow. I looked out the kitchen and dining room windows as I checked e-mail and caught a movement on the snow by the shed. She was all alone under the hemlock tree.  I couldn't find her mate anywhere. I wonder if her feet were cold. It's a good thing the windows are clean.

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Cold Enough

Our grandson is an avid fisherman and caught this largemouth bass on a freshwater lake that wasn't yet frozen, but he was sure dressed warm enough to have had an ice fishing experience. Froze his face off!

The below image is his original perch photo made into my creations. It was posing for this picture on a snow covered deck at lakeside.

 First 

 Final-It's what I saw!

Soon there will be ice fishermen on our lake here and they will be very successful as they always are. It's cold enough.

 Please click on image to feel the Brrrrrrrrr!

It is Here!

Old Man WINTER arrived with a bang! Not much snow is covering the ground, but the cold and the blustery winds slipped in overnight. The cinder truck just drove by.  It was 10° when we crawled out of warm beds and is still under 20° at noon.  We intended to go to the laundromat this morning but changed plans. A few more items in the baskets won't make much of a different in load sizes. The Mister helps as it is difficult for me to carry the baskets.

For an unknown reason, I have no desire to bake anything. My knitting projects are finished for the moment. What can I get into now???? The Christmas cards are sent - some via e-mail, others via snail mail. The gifts to family were enclosed. A few gifts to friends were sent and received. I think I just might step outdoors and clean out the cobwebs that are lurking under my hair. I'll have a short conversation with James. Then perhaps I will be motivated to do something productive! I am ready to keep warm.

Please click on image to see my warm and pretty socks!

CCC... Cold!!!

 I'm definitely staying indoors today.

Yes, minus 14 degrees!

Click on image to verify with a closer look.

ZZZZZZZ!

A local news reporter took this picture in front of a bank that is about 9 miles south of us! He was up one hour before I took mine. Did I miss something?

Sunrise 7:09am

Yes, they came back after being completely removed yesterday. You should see the ones in the back of the cabin. We can't get to them in the deep snow and they almost touch the ground.  SPRING! WHERE ARE YOU??? WILL YOU COME SOON???

Yes, it's Cold

I don't know what the temperature went down to during the night but it IS colder today. I took this picture at 8am. 

 A neighbor, who lives about eight miles away, has a larger log home with a wood stove, two Eden Pure infrared heaters and their oil furnace going! Here, we only have the propane gas fireplace and are comfortable.  The interior of the cabin measures 24' x 36' which is 864 square feet. Remember that we have no ceilings and the rooms are open right up to the rafters.

I have shown these items before, and still like knowing and showing how we prepare for winter. The leaf blower actually will blow away light snow from areas we travel when we go out. The big snow blower will take care of deeper and heavier accumulations AND the pile in front of the truck from the township snowplow. We cover this blower with one of my old horse muck buckets! It keeps snow off of the engine. "Whatever works" is the theme here. The chair is for resting during outdoor task periods. (When age creeps in, stamina sneaks out.)

Of course there is the snow shovel, snow and ice scraper and broom handy. The ice slicer pellets are kept in refillable containers. This stuff is an all-natural high performance granual de-icer which makes getting to the truck and mailbox possible when conditions are icy. If a visitor comes when we're not home he can tell us about it. Please don't set off the mouse trap though! The four little ice block coolers are leaving space in my refrigerator freezer during cold weather.

The generator is important to us all year around. 

The cabin holds sturdy arms around me.

It is permanence.

It is safety.

It is sanctuary.

It is Tranquillity.

  

CCCOOOLLLDDD!

Two things:  I want Spring to hurry...

I went to the hardware store today and took pictures.  Probably will post story addition and pictures of interior of store tomorrow.

In the meantime, back at the cabin James is cold and the lake atmosphere is really frozen!

DE ICE! Day 7

Exactly one week ago I saw ice forming. The geese and ducks had left the lake. I was expecting completion of lake ice by this week. Well, it didn't happen. Mother Nature won again. She always does, I should have known better. 

The Canada geese arrived back this morning. I wonder where they went for one week.

Then I looked back and realized the ice didn't get fully formed and become "safe for travel" until mid-January! Silly me.

DE ICE! DAY 2

Yep! It sure comin' 'n fisherman comin' ina few daz!

Goosies gone...duckies gone...