Preparations are being made. The plates and glasses sit on the sideboard awaiting the setting of the table.

The wine is waiting to be opened.

The dinner party will start soon. Did you get an invitation?

Linked in to Weekly Top Shot

Ah, March. If there ever was a month that couldn't make up its mind, March is it. So far it's given us a few glorious spring-like days, but yesterday it gave us snow flurries and brutally cold cold wind. Downright nasty. Looking back on my blog in past years, entries show up with maple tree buds bursting and neighborly crocus blooming. I think I saw the neighbors' crocus up the other day as I drove past but they were closed up tight due to gray skies. My maple trees show no signs of wanting to bust out all over but I did see about ten robins the other day in my yard. One day they weren't there; the next they were!

March is capricious, that's for sure.

I was surprised and quite pleased by all the visitors brought to my blog by joining in the Rurality Blog Hop this week. My poor little blog hasn't seen that many comments in years. Maybe never! So if you are stopping by again on a return visit, thank you for your kind words the other day.

We are hosting a dinner party tomorrow night for six people plus us. We used to entertain quite a bit but don't so much anymore. Mostly because of the rowdy dogs but quite possibly they were just an excuse. We've done this particular dinner once before and it was a great hit with our guests. We are having cassoulet that we ordered in a "kit" from D'Artagnan in the Hudson Valley who are known for their French goods, most particularly duck products.

Our kit arrived on Wednesday with all the main ingredients that we need: haricot tarbais (large white beans), ventreche (a kind of pancetta), duck leg confit, duck and armagnac sausage, french garlic sausage, duck and veal demi-glace, and of course, duck fat.

Let's just hope that we don't have to change out dining tables like we did the last time. (Last time I was putting the extra leaf in our antique table when the table leg broke. We had to call on our neighbor, who was also coming to our dinner, to help us get our other table up from the basement. What a ta-do!)

Today will be spent grocery shopping and cleaning the house in preparation, so I best get on with it and stop blabbing!

(photo: Shadows at Long Pond when the sky was a strange color: blue!)

Yesterday it rained. Unlike the song rainy days and Mondays always get me down, it was really quite welcome. Besides that, it was Tuesday. At least you don't have to shovel rain and it's a step in the right direction towards spring. 

The dogs tried to persuade me to take them somewhere but for once I didn't give in to them. I just stayed dry inside and started my knitting project of Rick's felted slippers. His old ones have sprouted a hole in the toe. 

At times the rain poured from the sky, drumming on the skylights above me in the sun room. It seemed to come in waves. Whenever it started raining hard all of a sudden, eBay would lift her head up from her spot by the fire and look up as if to say what is that noise??  Once they resigned themselves from not getting to "go for a ride"  the dogs just laid around and didn't even ask to be let outside in the yard.

By late afternoon the rain had stopped and the sun came out for a short while. I loved how the raindrops reflected the sun's rays.

The rain washed most of the snow away except for a few small patches where it had been plowed or shoveled. Things are definitely looking brighter!

Linked in to Rurality Blog Hop

(photos:)

Puddled Reflection

Raindrops on Pine Tree

Raindrops on Branches

Pine Cone Afloat

Today I am going to direct you to Rick's Blog where he has up five short films that were the five finalists in his company's contest to win a brand new Phantom Miro LC320S camera package.  

They are all different, so see which one you would have chosen to win! Each film has a link so you can read more about what inspired these budding film makers and a look into how they did it.

Happy viewing! Let me know which ones you liked best! I know I had my favorite, which unfortunately did not win but came in at second place (Anchor Me Here).

We are now officially on daylight savings time. The dogs seemed to know somehow because they were ready to get up at 6:00 a.m. That's 6:00 a.m. old time. Normally they would wake us up at 6:30. It was really 7:00 a.m. Still not sure how they knew.

Yesterday was a beautiful day! It was sunny and in the 50's although snow covered the ground. We had a bad case of Spring Fever. We bought things we can't use for at least a couple of months.

We knew when we took down the curtains from the pool cabana that they were on their last legs. We've had the cabana for five years and by taking the curtains down and packing them up each year we've managed to keep them in pretty good shape. But, their time was done. They were faded and we'd had to tape the screen once when Bella did not see it and stuck her head through. I had seen a cabana at BJ's where we had purchased the old one. So yesterday morning we headed down that way to take a closer look.

We didn't like the one at BJ's so we also stopped at Home Depot and Lowe's. Home Depot didn't have any, but Lowe's had the perfect one! It was love at first sight. Just wait until you see it! We also bought a mat to put down as a flooring. And a cabana chandelier. And some cushions for the outdoor chairs that are wrought iron. Now I am thinking I need a few potted palms to make our outdoor oasis complete. But not just yet. For now the cabana and its accouterments will have to stay in the garage.

We had the dogs with us so we had to take them home and come back and get the larger items. Sheesh. 

Today we took Alex with us to the Warwick Valley Winery for a pizza and a bottle of wine. We were the only ones sitting out on the patio to eat although the place was pretty much packed with people inside. It wasn't quite warm enough--not really--but we sat in the sun by ourselves, ate our pizza, drank our wine, and tossed Alex the pizza "bones." 

Tonight we plan on grilling hamburgers outside and having oven fries. We might even put those new seat cushions on the chairs just for tonight and sit outside with a glass of wine while cooking our dinner. It's supposed to rain heavily on Tuesday so I will have to bring them back inside, but still, progress is being made towards Spring!

(photos:)

Amaryllis  & Ming Aralia Shadow

Too beautiful to resist

A photo just so you can see how truly HUGE this amaryllis is.