The Years To Remember

  Susan brought flowers, Theresa and Bruce brought wine. The company of family and friends has made my least favorite season pass pleasantly this year. I'm tired! I’ve had company of one sort or another all week and time has flown by accordingly. Sunday - I went with my friend Annette and her friend Rebecca,  to a Native American storytelling session by Julian Brave Noisecat. It was OK, but the dinner we had after was much nicer. It turns out that Rebecca will be on the Craftsbury VT trip with me next week as we belong to the same ski club. Small world moment for sure. Monday - my Norway trip companions came by to organize some non-skiing activities for Oslo, and work out some logistics. I served pumpkin bread and tea, then later broccoli cheddar soup. It was time well spent. Afterwards, I went out for a walk and noticed there were a couple of line workers at the  top of the communications tower behind my house. It was cold enough on the ground,  I can't imagine how ...

 Nothing says 'Spring Is Coming' like this combo: - No jacket or hat needed with - Morning tea outside, while - Shoveling 4 inches of a very heavy snow, sleet, rain mix.   Just a lovely way to start my day! Honestly, any temperature above freezing feels warm!   I could've used the snow blower, but a strength training workout seemed appropriate.  A nor'easter is expected on Monday to add to the joy! Hopefully it will also add inches to the slopes as my sister and brother-in-law are coming to ski at Gore Mt. with me this week. When I yearn to get into my garden and it's still buried under the snow, I'll go to my favorite garden center and wander their shop and greenhouses. It was filled with treasures, but I bought nothing; just feasted my eyes on growing things. I've never seen such large pitcher plants each having many of these flowers. This textile sculpture was beautiful, but at nearly $600 I refrained. Even more beautiful, but $700! A closeup of the fiber...

  Another mental health greenhouse stop on my travels. I bought a mint plant and a primrose to brighten up my space. I know mint is renowned for being an aggressive spreader, so I'm going to be very careful about where I plant it in the yard. Perhaps it will be a container plant. The numbers are in and we endured 19 consecutive days in which the temperatures stayed below the freezing point. We are into the high thirties now, so the snow cover is slowly melting. Now I can stop complaining about our miserable weather! Maybe. Another casualty of this harsh winter. It was a very ramshackle barn but it couldn't withstand this winter. The house behind it was just built in the fall. Peggy and Rich came over for our (hopefully) final meeting to arrange a trip for the X-C ski club for 2027. We had a phone consult with a travel agency so now we just wait for their Chamonix proposal, send it to the club and I am bowing out. I joined the group with high hopes, but it just isn't what I...

2/8/26  I’m so tired of freezing cold weather. We are dipping back into negative readings for the next two days, so I’ll be home keeping warm. Thankfully I went skiing at Gore Mountain yesterday and had a great day! I skied from 9 am to 1 pm straight and my legs got quite a workout. This mountain is at least twice as high as Mohawk in CT so each run takes about 30 minutes. I was so proud of myself and my improvements! I took two lifts to the top of the mountain for the first time ever! It was gorgeous up there - like a winter wonderland. We had après ski drinks in the lodge and this is the view of the lower mountain. I seem to have developed sniffly nose which I hope won’t turn out to be a cold. I'll be drinking green tea to try to head off any infection. It looks like a blizzard with snow and gusty winds blowing it all over the place. I put out some extra bird seed because I feel so badly for the birds. I think it snowed about 3 inches overnight, but it's hard to tell with all...

  Brave souls on the lake were clearing a skating oval. I would love to know the ice thickness;  I'd guess it hasn't been this thick for years. Sunday - This is the warming trend we’ll be experiencing this coming week. Yes, I said "warming trend" because it hasn't reached 20°F in over a week. Not even getting close to the melting point (32°F) though. It is also lightly snowing as I write this, but no mention of that in the forecast! Climatologically speaking, we are past the average coldest days of winter, which is around the 20th of January. That doesn't always translate into local weather conditions though.  Plans have been cancelled and I've been keeping myself entertained at home for the most part. I even got in the hot tub yesterday morning and it was so good to listen to birds foraging for food in their calm and unhurried way. Yesterday’s walk was a challenge. As I marveled at how my boots and gloves were keeping my extremities toasty, I forgot a fac...