As the Sun Shines...

... I stay indoors doing this and that. The most exciting thing today was when I looked out my kitchen window and saw a beautiful red fox trotting across the snowy beachfront. I have never seen a fox here, though I know they are - because trappers in the past have caught them. THEN I was browsing a Facebook page and saw a beautiful red fox image taken by Chris Buckman and posted by my favorite SC Chief Meteorologist, Ed Piotrowski, WNEP. That was a surprise! The photographer named his Fancy the Fox. I have named mine Fluffy. Sorry, not able to grab his picture! He had a lovely fluffy tail.

I love seeing the sun, but the wind is blowing and it has not reached 18° yet at 11AM. So I went to work in the kitchen. Made egg salad for lunch and have a beef stew simmering on the stove. You know, beef, broth, carrots, onions, celery, tomato sauce and rice. It's time consuming to chop and prepare but it will be a good dinner. It's a bit sad that I no longer can knit or crochet but I can find things to do to keep busy. Keeping busy is the key to getting through winter, in my opinion. 

Since the cobbler I made with the pineapple chunks was a real success, I'm going to make another tomorrow. This will be with mandarin orange pieces. Stay tuned in.

Change and Same

Hootin' Anni, a blogger in Texas, posted a sketch of a fox. She really is a talented sketch artist, among her other areas of expertise. Her sketch is copyrighted so I can't show it here but I thought I'd make one too. This is a sketch that I made of "Wolfie" my friend's pet. This is how she describes him: "Oh, that face, oh those eyes! That he is loved is no surprise! Wolfie is our Pomeranian prize!"

Of course I made my sketch with photomanipulation. I first erased the background of the original photo and then changed the color image to black and white. The end result is what I made to be my sketch.

 I only ever sketched once and it was a drawing of my grandmother sitting in her rocking chair. I just don't ever really sketch. BUT - this one and only sketch documents the old lamp that is in the cabin living room!

click on image to view larger

Anni's site if you wish to see Anni's REAL fox sketch go here:

Real Fox Sketch

Missed!

This morning as I looked out the window I saw a large brown hairy critter with a big fat tail on the dirt road just a little bit up the hill. It was just sitting there and I yelled to the Mister, "I see a beaver! Come! NOW!" He was in the bathroom and soon came as the critter was moving into the berm grasses. "THAT is NOT a beaver," he said, it's a woodchuck and the largest I have ever seen!" Well darn! I thought I could catch a shot of the beaver that is damaging the trees around here and I was very disappointed, but the Mister was correct, as I soon realized after watching it move. In the photos below (not mine) you might understand why I  was fooled.

woodchuck

 beaver

Today was our usual bi-weekly trip to the grocery store in another town. I said to him as we traveled along, "I should have brought the camera because we might see something interesting." Well, don't you just know at the very moment I completed this statement we came upon  a scrawny and scruffy red fox walking across the road right in front of us! It seemed disoriented and lost and was not loping as we have observed one before. When we slowed down it saw us and turned and walked back to where it had entered. We do not purposely participate in "road killing" and avoid it if possible. When we went on, we talked about the fox's confused looks and agreed that it was either sick or, even worse, had rabies! Poor thing! It might  have been better off if we had run it over then and there. Well...no camera so no proof of this incident. The photo below (not mine) looks somewhat like it.

Further on down the road I saw the most beautiful pattern that was made when a farmer had mowed hay down on a hillside. IF I had my camera with me the lovely sight would have been captured in the lens to show you this pattern. Light green, dark green, ribbons of wavy lines on a hillside and up close to boot! I'm sorry. Lesson learned. 

The field looked like this:

(This is NOT my photo)

The best thing of the day is that we didn't miss the opportunity to pick up fresh corn from our local growers at the farm stand and we shall have a corn-on-the-cob supper!! (Butter supply is now very good after shopping trip.)