A Frozen Land

 Winter has hit fast and hard this year but it does bring some charms along with its harshness. There is nothing so beautiful as an ice encrusted forest, or a frozen landscape. There is plenty of time for reflecting, planning, and reassessment with the cold months that I never find time for in the nicer weather. 

Frozen stream on the Alander Mountain trail.

We are in another cold snap with the high temps in the low 20's°F. Lows are single digits. Saturday I dragged myself off to a hike over in Massachusetts because the original location was too cold. It was a 6.2 mile out and back hike up Alander Mountain in snow that only required spikes, not snowshoes. There was no wind so I worked up quite a sweat on the 1200' elevation gain. We admired the slopes absolutely covered in mountain laurel and made plans to get over here in the spring when the blooms fill the forest.

At the top!

It was nice to socialize with everyone even though I saw many of them on NYE. We stopped for an early dinner at the diner where I got a mountain sized serving of pork stir fry which will feed me another day as well. 

Sunday was another early morning to get myself off to Lake Placid to volunteer with ORDA. When I pulled out of the garage, I was dismayed to find snow falling and covering the roads. It was a tense 45 minute drive to get to our meetup location where Jenn took over the driving and the snow stopped. 

A cross-country ski competition kept us busy for 3 hours. Usually you need to do 4 hours to get a free ski ticket, but the conditions were fairly brutal so they made exceptions. 

My job at the transponder station - what fun.

Peggy, Jenn, and I were assigned with attaching transponders to all the 289 women competitors at the start of the race. This required working with our gloves off in 12°F temperatures. FOR THREE HOURS. We quickly put hand warmers in our pockets to keep our hands from freezing. It wasn't too bad until the last hour, but I just jumped and danced to the music that was being played, to keep from freezing. 

Jenn, Peggy, and me at Mt Van Hovenberg. Two down jackets, two fleece lined pants,
 along with toe and hand warmers did the job of keeping me unfrozen. Mostly.

We had planned to get in some skiing ourselves, but after we warmed up and had lunch, we just couldn't face more time out in the cold. When I got home, I slept for 2 hours under heaps of blankets and still woke up chilled. Finally a bowl of soup and cup of tea chased away any remaining chills.

Sue Ellen has been trying to convince my to downhill ski tomorrow, but I am looking forward to a zero day at home. 

Monday 1/5/26

Sunrise temperature is 12°F so I may as well dress like a polar bear.
It also snowed overnight, with more to come this afternoon. 

I purposely have nowhere to go today and the last two days have left the house in disarray as I rummaged through all my closets to find the appropriate gear for different activities. Today is the day to organize and get things done. I'll also look for a condo to rent for a week or so down south to get away from the cold for a while. I miss riding my bike!

I've been drinking loads of herbal tea, and like everything else, the cost has risen about 40% from last year. I've been reading about sustainable gardening lately and notice I already grow lots of herbs that have many health benefits along with a taste or smell I already love. Lavender, sage, rosemary, thyme, and lemon balm. Another little project has emerged - drying herbs to make my own teas. I'll start with the rosemary I brought in the house to winter over. The rest will have to wait til spring. 

In the meantime, I'm enjoying this amaryllis Dale gave me.