No, those are not betting odds! That is the temperature swing we had between yesterday morning and this morning. Yesterday morning it was 50 degrees F and pouring rain with fog. Very strange. Throughout the day the temperature kept dropping. Here is a photo I took of the ice melting on the pool cover because I loved the reflection.

And here it is about one hour later: frozen!

A very strange day. This morning our weather station registered 1.2 degrees F with a minus wind chill. I think it’s about 8 degrees F outside right now at 2:30 p.m. Up and down — a weather yo-yo.

Hailey did not like the freezing rain we had the night before last. She stayed covered up in the towel I used to dry her off when she came in.

I can’t believe it’s really been a whole week since I last blogged. I am really falling down on the job here. I will try to do better in the weeks to come. Promise!

gee mom, I thought you said it was ripping paper. oh well. i had fun anyways. 

signed, bella

We got about 3 inches of snow yesterday. For a while the snow came down fast and furious to the point where I could barely see my neighbor’s house across the street. It was beautiful. But like I said, it’s supposed to warm up (60 degrees on Sunday!) and rain so most of it will wash away and we are in for a slushy not-so-white Christmas. I feel another song  coming on …

I changed the view of the weather cam to point to where I feed the birds. I changed it yesterday so that Rick could see the turkeys too while he was at work. You might see them too! Or you might see the fox visit. For those of you who don’t know, just click on the “Weather” tab at the top of the page and it will take you directly to the cam. It takes a new picture every two minutes or so.

Yesterday I made beef barley soup while it snowed outside. There is something comforting about the smell of browning meat. I put my favorite Christmas album on the iPod (Michael Martin Murphey’s Cowboy Christmas) and danced around the kitchen in-between cooking. At first the dogs didn’t know what to think. What is mommy doing?  What’s wrong with her? But finally Bella joined me and we four-stepped (instead of two-stepped) around the kitchen island. Not that I really know how to do the two-step, but hey, we had fun. Hailey watched us and barked along to the music.

That music takes me back to the few Christmases that we were able to spend at the cabin. One year we were even industrious enough to make our own garland for the tree by popping popcorn and stringing it with cranberries. Here is a photo of one of our cabin Christmases.

I’ve been watching the Hallmark channel quite a bit. They are playing sappy Christmas movies pretty much non-stop. Some are good and very heart-warming, while others can be downright stupid. But mostly they make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside and in the spirit of the season. I think it’s a good thing.

I am working on another Lacy Leaf scarf (remember?) but I made a big mistake and I am having a hard time figuring out how to fix it without taking out any more rows. I might just have to take it down to the knitting shop in Wycoff for help. Bummer. It was coming along so well. This time I am making it in gray.

Last night I got up in the middle of the night and the moon was so bright. I looked out the window to see moon shadows of the trees on the newly fallen snow. Magical. Have you ever seen moon shadows?

 (Sing to the tune of “It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas”)

and yes, I made up the lyrics

This pretty much sums up our weather lately. On Saturday/Saturday night we got about 8 inches of snow, the last inch or so of that was a nice layer of ice from the freezing rain. Right now as I type it’s snowing again outside! I wish the snow would stick around (no pun intended) until Christmas but we are supposed to be warming up to temperatures in the 50’s with rain, so it might all wash away in a big pile of slush. Boohoo. Hopefully some of it will remain. At least it looks Christmas-y outside right now. 

These scenes are from Green Turtle Pond that I took yesterday on my little walk. The shadows were so blue.

While snowplowing the drive with Johnny Saturday, Rick went over the edge of the driveway by mistake and got stuck in the snow. We had to get the Surburban and hook up a tow rope to Johnny. Rick got on Johnny and I got in the truck and slowly backed up. It worked! Fun and games in the winter weather, and it isn’t even officially winter yet by the calendar.

Like I said, today it is snowing and I am being lazy around the wood stove. Remember just the other day I was remarking how we never see the turkeys anymore? Well, lo and behold, when I looked out the front window a little while ago, there they were! Twelve of them! I was so happy to see them!

I was thinking I could revise my little made-up lyrics yet again. Bear with me and maybe I can make you smile today. Here we go …

Okay, maybe I’m being a little bit silly today. Did I get you to sing along?

Oh my! How did two weeks fly by without a blog post? I’m not quite sure. One reason might be that while scooping dog food out of the can while feeding the dogs last week, the tip of my index finger made contact with the sharp rim of the can and sliced an envelope-like deep cut with a flap. It’s been too sore to type with. You don’t realize how many things you do with the tip of your index finger until you lose the use of it! Things like typing, knitting, swiping my iPad, washing my hair, etc. At least the flap is healed over now and I’m not at risk for catching it and ripping it back open. It’s still tender to the touch and a little numb.

At least that’s a reason for not blogging.

We’re getting into the Christmas spirit finally. On Friday I hung all the lighted garlands in the house around doorways, brought up our little fiber optic snowman and plugged them all in for an instant transformation. Saturday found us at our favorite little locally owned nursery to buy our “old-fashioned-style” fir tree. We also bought a wreath for the door and wreaths for the light posts at the top of our driveway. We spent the rest of Saturday decorating the outside of our front door and porch railings. We decided not to put lights on the trees in front this year because we can never get them off until March, so we settled for a lighted entry. It looks good. 

Yesterday dawned gray and gloomy. We walked the dogs and split some firewood, plus carrying over more firewood from the reserve stash in the yard to underneath the deck. Then we tackled trimming the tree. It’s a very pretty tree, plump and full with not much space for ornaments to hang. 

The weather has been gray a lot. It’s also been cold enough for the ponds and lakes to begin freezing over. Last night we had a “wintry mix” overnight and everything is coated with ice. One unlovely thing about living in the East: the icy stuff that falls from the sky instead of snow. We are supposed to get 2-4 inches of snow tomorrow, so we’ll see. If so, it will be the first one this year.

I think we’re ready for winter, so bring it on!