First Snow

YES! And I think more is forecast for the end of the week.

Background image taken by my neighbor this morning.

Well I must say I did get some Christmas cards completed and snail mailed. I'm ashamed to say they aren't very fancy this year due to stress of printer failures, and lack of other supplies. I will also be sending many more via e-mail messages. I really like creating nice ones, but.........

Ice not formed on lake yet.

Ice not formed on stepping stones.

The window view includes a happy orchid.

It is warm indoors —

And...Yard Guy dressed James!! YAY!

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Bits 'n Pieces

A little bit of color, a little bit of snow and pieces of roast are the topics of today, plus some tiny critters.

The geese in the foreground of the painting I created seemed to fit in here. I just discovered how to create my own backgrounds in the ArtRage Lite program. I often forget about this simple old application that doesn't need internet to function.

The first snow fell yesterday afternoon. Schools had two hour delays this morning in this area. My neighbor captured the calm scene this morning. Her shots save me from going out into the cold. I do not like to be cold!

A two pound beef roast has been lingering in the freezer waiting to be pulled out and cooked. These days the crock pot is a bit heavy for me but I got 'er done. Then the electric knife went to work. Now what? It really is tasty and juicy. Of course I taste tested after all day waiting to clean up and put my kitchen back together. Perhaps I'll freeze a couple of slices in each of several single serving packets. Tomorrow.......

A granddaughter raises these little critters and I think they are cute! Too much work for me, but she has tons of knowledge and does well with her nature projects. She is an artist and talented photographer as well.

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Waiting for Real Spring

In the meantime I kept busy today - INDOORS! I awoke this morning to see that almost all of the dozen of daffodils I had cut as buds are open. In fact, later on they were ALL open and making me smile!

I went to work nipping the anthers out of the Easter lily as the pollen is affecting my nose! There are a total of five buds on this lovely gift and only two are open so far, so they have had their 'surgery.'

The next thing I did was shake the soil off of the amaryllis bulb. Unfortunately I found it to be soft and I think it is a goner. I'm drying it out more in front of the heater and will save it anyway.

The three hyacinth bulbs have now had the soil shaken off and are further drying in one of my special blue tubs on top of dry potting soil. Perhaps these will be ok - they are hard and the tops still need to dry more. 

So back to cleaning out a file or two. See YA!

This 'n That

Get ready for a mixed bag here! I'll start with yesterday. I want to show you that I really do use my pottery and do so every day. The dish drainer usually contains my cereal bowl (microwave oatmeal from scratch), my soup bowl (thicker and larger than the cereal bowl), my coffee cup and my wobbly tea cup which is also used for chicken broth.

I had a visit from Al the Potmaker to deliver two more candle cups. This past holiday I gave two away to my helpers and kept two which now hold succulents. These are special. They are called "Winter Woods" and the scent is "Tuscarora Timber." His picture is much better than mine so I'll show it first. Neat conception and art!!

The tax account lady stopped in with my return for signatures. Good news - a federal tax refund this year. Less is more! I broke her arm when making her take gas $ from me for her door to door service. Just kidding, but it was hard to convince her that it was necessary for me to feel OK about her traveling 28 miles each way, four times! It sure made my life easier.

The fun part of today is that when I woke up and looked out, the giant snowflakes were swirling and landing here! I have always said Mother Nature makes the rules - yes, she sure does. The daffodils seem to be bearing up "ok" so far. 

To start my day I put a very thoughtful gift into action. Last year a SC beach friend who had lost her husband in June, 2020 sent me his trusty coffee pot. She remembered that I like percolated coffee and packed it up and mailed it from her home in WV. I never used it until this morning as my(old) four cup (2 large cups) pot below, was working fine but is heavier!

Yes there is a new guy in town. He's is tall and handsome. After some research I actually found one for sale on the internet. Amazing! Over 50 years old is my "NEW" one! (According to the internet photo and description below.)

My coffee was just as tasty and even a bit hotter! 

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Stolen Subject Material

I have special bloggers that I check daily. Today one very talented artist and farming woman posted after being absent for a while. One of her images hit me hard! It was a simple one of her little shanty. I snatched it and created a photomanipulation and then a GIF to show her image in a different way. This is the only place I will publish the GIF but not her original image. Just couldn't help myself for the thievery. The weather did it.

Snow Here

Mother Nature gave us snow and promises more to come on Saturday. I must say that snow is nicer to look at than all of the mud out there lately!

Images #3 & #4—The crack in the ice under the snow covering, that goes from my dock to the dam, shifted and it looks like something left tracks. This has happened before and is an interesting sight. The snow cover is rippled.

Today.......

The next two images below were taken on January 6.

I really like this image! Used Zoom full out!

Please click on image to view full beauty.

Snow event on Saturday may be even prettier. I await the event.

Winter Watch

Yes, the lake finally is starting to freeze. There is snow on top of the frozen sections and the dipper ducks are staying at open water along the edge. There is a light snow falling. The snow plow went through - not plowing - spreading cinders. I was able to hang my yarn wreath on the front porch logs by the front door and set out a small green glass Christmas tree next to Henry after bringing in the Thanksgiving ceramic pumpkin.

The next big project will to have someone remove James' leaves and snuggle him in for the season with his scarf. Oh! I also will try to remove my 49 year old ceramic tree from the linen closet without breaking off the top. Will have to tilt it to get it past the door openings. I sure do want to have those cheery lights on for the month of December as in all of the past years. I'll have to let you know how that works out!!

Dinner last night was too much for one meal, so I'll have a repeat tonight. I had put together a dinner for one with 14 of the garlic herb shrimp from Schwan's and discovered that I only could eat 1/2! They were very good and filling over a small portion of rice and freshly cooked broccoli.

Let the season begin!

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Sunday Special

Ceremony: KILLING THE CANDLE

After waking up and checking the candle at 7:30am, I saw that it burned again all night long. I was shocked that it was still flickering! THAT is a total of 72 hours of burn time. I even put a plate under it this time in case the pot cracked. Now I shall snuff it out and am satisfied that my experiment is complete.  Next action - clean the pot! Re-use the pot! 

Didn’t have kill it after all. It flickered out after 73 hours. After cleaning out, it holds exactly two cups of fluid!

Some more snow shots. Winter is here!

I like being in, looking out!