Seasonal

Apparently it’s that time of year again…

Saturday 21st November.

As is always the day after the storm passes through, there is blue sky and sunshine to enjoy and complement the brilliant white snow.  Sadly after a very mild November which saw a lot of trees holding on to their leaves, this turned out to be a very destructive storm as the snow was very heavy and wet.  The leaves then allow a lot more of the snow to accumulate, putting a lot of extra stress on to the trees and a lot came down taking the power with them.  We were fortunate in that regard, but 40,000 folks in metro Detroit were not.

Our giant Smokebush on the side of our house succumbed unfortunately.  I took the first and last photos above standing right underneath it yesterday, this morning two thirds of it was on the ground.

We can’t clean it up until later this week, when the warmer temps will melt the snow again, so we took ourselves off to our local State Park and strapped the bits of plastic to our feet again for the first time this season.  Conditions were less than perfect, what with wet snow and warm ground, but it was nice to be out enjoying the fresh air and getting some exercise.

Despite two little falls I managed ok… which is more than can be said about Andrew!  In fairness he’s trying to get the compacted snow off the base of his ski’s, but it would make a great photo for a caption contest!

Stuck In Spring-ter!

The calendar tells me it’s the first week of Spring but it’s actually been colder here than the first week of Winter was back in December!  We’re feeling a bit trapped between that no-mans land between Winter and Spring, hence the “Spring-ter” in the post title if you haven’t figured it out yet.

Whilst the weather makes up its mind which way to go I thought I’d show you a few photos of the last days of Winter, a bit late as they’re from the first two weekends in March, but I’ve had strep throat and my step-father is in hospital in England after suffering a nasty fall.  No broken bones, amazingly, but he’s pretty banged up and needed stitches on his face, he’s being kept in for a few days for observation and to make sure that he’s able to get about under his own steam again.

These first few are from our skiing trip to Petoskey.  We forgot the camera on the first day, which is a shame as it was beautiful and sunny and just so pretty.  These are from the Sunday when it was grey and show showery all day, it wasn’t very cold though, not much below freezing and the snow conditions were perfect.  And as Andrew always says, it doesn’t matter how dull the day, or how many people are on the slopes, he can spot me a mile off!

 

And as you can see, on Sunday we practically had the place to ourselves.  Anyone who had come up for the weekend was leaving by Sunday lunchtime for the drive home, but as we weren’t leaving until the Monday it worked out perfectly.

And on the Monday, before leaving, we walked along the harbour in Petoskey as it was a stunning day.  Actually, let me rephrase that, we walked ON the harbour in Petoskey!  Little Traverse Bay was completely frozen over, there were tire tracks on it from trucks heading out to do some ice fishing, and snow-mobile tracks too plus lots of footprints!

Back at home a weekend later and the weather couldn’t have been more different, highs of 21C soon put paid to all of our remaining snow.

Since then we’ve been back down to -8C, mostly after the official start of Spring, but at least that’s given us plenty of indoor time to continue ripping out the bathroom, which is now a big empty space, warts and all.  And we have a lot of work ahead of us!  But more on that another time.

Randomly On My Camera

I take quite a lot of photos over the course of a week or two, most never make it on to this blog, but I thought perhaps I might show you a few once in a while.  Right now there’s a lot of photos of Winter and snow and I could fill up post after post with them but that would get old very quickly!

Trails at our local State Park.

Some Sock Love.

Fingerless Mitts – they match a cowl I made 18 months ago.

Christmas Cactus – Flowering for the second time

Back To The Park For Cross Country Skiing

Andrew had a birthday at the end of February.  Naturally there were Giraffe themed birthday cards and Giraffe themed socks!

And rather randomly taking up space in my dining room right now…

Yes, we’re getting ready for a bathroom remodel!  Looking forward to it but not looking forward to it if you know what I mean!

We’re heading up north again this weekend for more downhill skiing and our camping friends are coming with us for a break although they don’t ski.  We have a little condo booked right beside the State Park in Petoskey that we all love to go to in the Summer months and we’ve all taken Monday off too so we’re making a longer weekend of it.  I’m hoping for lots of knitting time in between bouts of vigorous exercise!

Just Chillin’

Cross country skiing in Mayberry Park on Saturday, waiting for Andrew who decided to add an extra loop, whereas I knew how I’d be feeling the next day if I added even one extra foot to my normal circuit!

Perching my derriere on a picnic bench in the sunshine.

The temperature we woke up to on Sunday morning…

Ice on the inside of the bathroom windows on Sunday morning.  We had ice on practically all of the windows, it was a bit of an overwhelming kind of cold…

The forecast for Sunday and also for Monday…

But my feet are toasty warm in my new furry slipper booties….

The only problem is, Andrew now wants a pair too!

This Week I’m…

…Digging out from Winter Storm Linus which brought us 16.7″ of snow to start the week with.  I stayed at home and worked on Monday, before digging out the driveway and paths and then digging out my neighbour’s son and his car after he got himself completely stuck at the entrance to our street.

…Staying indoors and working on my new socks, Alluvial Deposits:

And casting on yet more socks, like you do.  These are another of the Harry Potter themed socks that I told myself last Summer I would knit more of, 7 months later here are “Socks For The Deputy Headmistress”.  Or as I called my project on Ravelry “Socks For Sheer Dumb Luck” taken from one of Minnerva McGonagill’s quotes from the first HP book and film, which I can still hear ringing around my head.

…Trying to keep warm.  I need more socks because we’re back in the deep freeze, so I’m also not spending a great deal of time outside at the moment.  All my hand knits are coming in useful right now though, especially at 6:30am when I leave my house for the drive to work.  This was the temperature earlier today, after it had warmed up a few degrees.

…Looking forward to the weekend after a seriously stressy week at work that involved a lot of forward budget planning that had to be re-done all over again after I noticed that Accounting had given us starting figures that were a year out of date; and two license servers that decided to have hard disk failures a day apart from each other that left me scrambling to get them back on line and minimize the impact to the users.  But there’s always someone who complains…. and then emails GM level managers to bitch and complain some more.

Still, there’s always next week…

Moonlight Wishes

Back again with a sweet and very simple little LOTV card, one for my lovely friend Di I think!  Miss Pinkness herself, lol!  Thanks also for your concern about our snowy weather here, luckily we don’t get the “lake effect” snow like they do in Buffalo and places like that, so we’ve only got about 3″ on the ground.  Just enough to make it look really pretty but not enough to be too hazardous for driving and getting about.  It’s supposed to warm up again at the weekend and be above freezing with rain instead of snow so it might all get washed away anyway.

So back to my card, I coloured her with Prisma pencils and matted on to pink scrap card.

I didn’t mean to colour her in pink, I must have been channeling Di!  Every time I go to colour something it seems to end up that colour no matter what my intentions are!  I also used various Stickles too.

The sentiment is from Penny Black and was popped up on a bit of foam tape.  And that’s it, very clean and simple.

 

Card Recipe:

• Card ~ Blank and pink card from DCWV
• Ink: Martha Stewart Hibiscus ~ Image was stamped by a friend
• Stamps: LOTV Moonlight Wishes ~ Penny Black Winter Wonders clear set
• Embellies: Prisma Pencils ~ Stickles Xmas Red, Fruit Punch, Crystal, Frosted Lace & Yellow

 

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Challenges:

Pixies Snippets Challenge ~ Use Up Your Scraps

Sister Act Card Challenge ~ Anything Goes

Crafty Hazel’s Christmas Extra ~ Anything Goes

Christmas Stampin’ All Year Long ~ Anything Goes

LOTV Challenge ~ Merry Christmas

Cute Card Thursday ~ Stars

Weekly Christmas Card Challenges ~ Colour Combo or Anything Goes

Simon Says Monday Challenge ~ To The Moon

Good News / Bad News

It’s a kind of a good news/bad news situation here.

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The good news, most definitely, is that we’re finally done raking the leaves for this year…

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The bad news is that we’re done raking the leaves for this year because Winter has arrived!

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Possibly the worse news is that we’ve skipped December and January and seemed to have landed in the middle of February as it was -12C outside this morning with a wicked wind making it feel more like -22C.  In fact we haven’t actually been above freezing during the daytime for six days, although it was only just on the cusp or just below, and not much colder than that at night either until yesterday.  It makes me wonder what February has in store for us!

Chin, chin.  I’m off to get a warm cuppa and sit by the fire.

 

A Christmassy Post

Before the year runs out on us completely I thought I’d put up a couple of snaps of our Christmas house.  Your guide for this little tour is Bou, short for Caribou, as that’s what he is.  Of course, in Europe, he’d be known as a Reindeer. **

He’s a very cheeky little chappy that gets up to all kinds of mischief along with his henchman, aka my hubby.  You might get to see him again later in the week as I got a ball winder for Christmas and Bou seems to think it’s his personal merry-go-round!  I’ve caught him sitting on it holding on to the spindle egging Andrew on to give him a twirl!  But here on Christmas Eve, he was conducting a house tour for you all and I forgot to publish it!

In our entrance hall there’s a bakers rack that I decorate every year, with some bought fake greenery and some of the trimmings from the Christmas tree.

There’s also some fresh Poinsettias and a potted Norfolk Island Palm, along with lighted garlands up the stairwell.

We spend most of our time in the family room, so this is the most heavily decorated area in the house, the fireplace and mantel always look very festive, and on the main wall, the TV/display unit holds a good number of decorations too.

There are coloured lights hidden on the top that look really cozy lit up at night.

The cubbies have little bits of greenery mixed with candles and tea light holders.

And here’s the carnage on Christmas morning, with our make shift bed on the floor, the presents before opening and the Christmas tree just behind us over the half wall.

And finally, here’s the view you’ve always wanted to see.  Me on Christmas morning, along with Bou, in my pyjamas and Mrs Claus hat.  Breakfast consisted of mince pies and coffee, fuel for the present opening that was about to take place.  And in the spirit of doing things entirely our way, we cooked and ate our turkey dinner and skyped with our families wearing those very same pyjamas and Christmas hats!  They may roll their eyes at us but growing old is mandatory, growing up is entirely optional!

If I don’t catch you again, have a wonderful, happy and peaceful New Year.  Me?  I’ll probably be spending it in my pyjamas!  Chin, chin!

**Many years ago both Andrew and I worked for Aston Martin.  Andrew was a development engineer and among a lot of things, did hot and cold testing work.  One February they were doing cold work in Ajerplog, Sweden and on their day off, drove the Aston along the snow packed roads and across the Arctic Circle.  On their way back he still vividly remembers having to stop and wait for a herd of reindeer to cross the road right in front of them.  That’s a memory I would dearly love to have, and to this day, I still envy him for that experience.

And Out Of The Darkness Came The Light

Solstice Blessings to you all.

Today is the Winter Solstice for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, the day when the sun has reached it’s Southernmost point on the horizon. The day that has the shortest number of daylight hours.  The darkest day of the year.  But from Sunday, the sun will then begin the slow trek Northwards once more.  However, a few days before and after the Solstice the change is so imperceptible that it appears to stand still.  In fact the word Solstice comes from the Latin, meaning “sun” and “to stand still”.  The wheel of the year is turning once more towards the light.

Tonight in my home, I will light a candle to chase away the darkness and take a little time out of the hurly burly of Christmas preparation for a little quiet reflection.

I’ll leave you with a lovely poem, written by Susan Cooper, entitled The Shortest Day.  Have a wonderful, peaceful day.

The Shortest Day

And so the shortest day came and the year died
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive,
And when the new year’s sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, reveling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us – Listen!!
All the long echoes sing the same delight,
This shortest day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome Yule.

~ Susan Cooper

A (Nut) Cracking Weekend!

Yes it was, but possibly not the kind you have in mind!  I was thinking more the Tchaikovsky kind.  You know, ballet, famous classical pieces, toys that come alive at midnight kind.

I can’t believe that I’ve never seen this performance before, or any ballet for that matter.  It was very good and a lot of fun too.

Winter Storm Electra popped in to town too at the weekend, snowing for most of Saturday and leaving us with about 7″ or so.  I had to drive to Ann Arbor in it in order to see the ballet.  I work in AA, so I know it only takes 30 minutes to get there normally, however, because of the snow we left very early for the 2pm performance.  It took us an hour and 10 minutes to get there and we had a quick packed lunch sandwich in the car before heading in to the venue.  The plan had been to get dinner in AA after the show but we decided against that and drove slowly and carefully home instead.  It just wasn’t worth the hassle to be honest.

Sunday morning it was still snowing gently, but after breakfast we went out and cleared the driveway.

We were wet and cold by the time it was done as it was quite windy out and the snow kept getting blown back into our faces!  We got another couple of inches on Sunday and we’re supposed to get 1 – 3″ tonight too, so I think we can safely say that Winter has arrived!  We stayed inside the rest of the day, I got the rest of the house decorated, dusted and tidied, finished my nephew’s birthday card and then made a nice roast chicken dinner before settling in front of the fire with some knitting.

I’m very tired this morning, the snow blower is heavy to push around and my shoulders are aching, so I apologise if this post is a bit disjointed but I haven’t had any wake up coffee yet!  I’ll be back in a day or two to show you the card I made.  Til then, chin chin, and keep warm!