Short Story Long

  This lovely postcard is from my great-grandmother's correspondence.  Looking through vintage papers, I realize symbols were used for very different things than what we think these days.  This card is nothing to do with St. Patrick's Day, but I love the four-leaf clover.  In my childhood home, St. Patrick's Day meant wearing green so we didn't get pinched.  After I met my husband, whose mother is half Irish, it took on more significance.  Up until then, I had never had soda bread or corned beef.  My husband makes a great corned beef!   I have been enjoying these beautiful hyacinths - closed and then open.  I'm ready for the life that spring brings.  And they smell light and lovely. Starting in the garden, purple columbines, and tulips.  I planted the tulip (and other) bulbs last fall but can't remember what they're supposed to look like.  It will be a lovely surprise.  We're expecting a lot of snow later this week; I...

Snows, like snowflakes: there are never two alike, and not all snows yield good snowflakes for photographing.   a January snow a November snow Any snow day is a good day for knitting.  Or reading.  Or looking at old photographs.  I was tempted to stay inside but I was in and out all day so I thought I might as well head down to the park and see what I could find.  No good snowflakes, but some lovely little ice globes on pine needles.  I'm knitting a Christmas present, and enjoying Lark Rise to Candleford .  It's time to break out the seasonal favorites .  If it is snowy tomorrow, I might get around to making some pizzelles.  Who knows!  What's your favorite snow-day craft??  

I have a lot of things to say, as always, just not always time to sit and sort it out.

  If you've never been to Colorado, you might think it's mostly cold and snowy.  It's not; we have one of the highest percentages of sunny days in a year.  You might think everyone drives a four-wheel-drive vehicle.  We don't.  Most of us have one 4x4, but many people with only one car don't, and never need that feature.   This year, our January has been really warm and dry; in fact, yesterday my little family all went to the park without coats, though I wished I'd brought my hat!  Today, it's snowing.  I'm home with no where to go, and nothing that must get done except dinner, and I think I'll have time to knit.  And possibly crochet.  My favorite thing about snow is the sound.  Yes, snow has a sound.  Sometimes you can hear it landing on things, but mostly it sounds like the opposite of noise.  Does that make sense?  It's the best I can do to describe it.  Snow and Solitude are friends. 

I'm enjoying a delicious tea that my mother-in-law recommended while BFJ is loading the back of the garage with firewood, and turning my garden beds over for the winter; two boys are watching cartoons, and one is coloring.  Someone pointed me to the perfect barn and giant tree for my afternoon photoshoot.  This evening, I'm invited to a birthday party for one of my favorite little girls.  If I were just binding off the perfect sweater, or sewing down the binding on a sweet little quilt, it would be a flawless fall day. 

It's wet, it's dry; it snows, it blows, it's warm again.  I took this picture earlier this week and didn't download it right away.  Now that I have, I wish I'd taken the time to really get down close and take a few more, but I do like this picture:  I have gotten a few things really cleaned up but you know, other stuff piles up so it seems like I haven't accomplished a lot.  I am hoping to paint.  Did I already say that recently?  I took some 'before' pictures in the hopes that I'll have 'after' pictures soon!! 

The past week, we've had visits from both of our parents and both of their dogs.  My parents were here very briefly but we had a very nice, leisurely visit from BFJ's parents.  Friday, we had a bit of time without agenda so I talked th em into posing for pictures.  I love this one; it tells you what a great couple they are.  We also celebrated three family birthdays.  Besides cake with homemade frosting - yum, we have been enjoying some zucchini bread with zucchini from our garden, some roasted pumpkin seeds from the pumpkins we carved (apparently the green ones are not for carving) and we are working on some local popcorn picked still on-the-cob...  (I bet Theresa and Steve are nodding at the winnowing) Yesterday, I came home from a meeting to find one of my sister-in-laws here, so I wrangled her into shopping at the thrift store and craft store for some Halloween crafting.  She made a black feather wreath for about ...

School's closed and we are all home today.  I'm catching up on laundry, Lost, and knitting projects.

Two snow days in a row, and then the weekend! Sometimes we hear about cities closing schools for a couple of inches of snow. In Colorado, we're prepared for that, so we don't often have snow days, let alone two in a row! Yesterday, we all stayed inside while the wind and snow were blowing. Today, the sun is out and it's time to shovel before you get stuck with icy walks and driveways. We live on a nice street of neighbors; we have several young bucks like BFJ, and several elderly couples; the young guys all get out and shovel the walks so the old folks don't have to. Zoom also helped shovel for some of the older people. At one point, everyone in our family was outside in snow gear but the little people don't keep their mittens on so well. My favorite snow activities include napping, reading, eating, sewing, watching a movie, any of these in front of a fire. But my sister went and bought me some snow pants last year, and now I have no excuse to stay inside while eve...