Sunrise over the backyard this morning.

I know I haven’t posted much over the weekend. Well, okay, not at all. Black Lynne was in residence but I think she’s left now. For those of you who know me personally, you’ll understand. Sometimes there is just a black cloud over my head and no matter how much I try and shake it off, its persistence is maddening. If I dodge left, it follows; dodging right has the same effect. Sometimes it comes with rain, thunder, and even lightning. Thankfully this time there was only a touch of rain.

Perhaps I can blame it on the wind. (Or maybe I should just admit I’m a moody little bugger.)  But I do believe it has something to do with the barometric pressure of which I seem to be closely aligned with. It seems magnified being this close to sea level. The dogs feel it too and get very jumpy. We had a big blow overnight on Friday night into the day on Saturday. The wind woke me up out of a sound sleep. It barreled through the trees with a steady freight train roar, the gusts shaking the house. It woke up the old ghost in the attic, forcing it to walk the floorboards above me. (Not really sure what causes this phenomenon to occur but it happens whenever the wind is really bad, and believe me it sounds like someone is walking in the attic. Creepy.) Phantom tree branches scraped against the house like gnarly fingers on a chalk board. We lost power several times during the day on Saturday but at least we didn’t lose any big trees. Our neighbor across the street lost a big one that came down over the road. We lost a few small ones that got uprooted, and lots of large branches all over the front yard, but thankfully nothing major. Our flag blew right off the flag pole and ended up in the neighbor’s yard across the street: undamaged I might add. I HATE wind.

The wind did cooperate on Sunday and settled down so that we could put up the outside Christmas lights and decorations. All went well except for one small thing. Rick was hanging wreaths above the four downstairs windows and I was holding the ladder for him. When I looked up I caught a blur of motion before I felt something hit my chin hard. ouch! A large flashlight had fallen out of his pocket and found me on its way down. I have a small bruise and a somewhat tender chin—nothing big. I’m just glad it hit me there instead of in the eye or on the nose. But, the outside of the house looks nice and festive!

The wind did knock plenty of pine cones out of our tree which seems to have an overly large supply this year. I picked them all up and saved them for lighting fires in the wood stove. Look at how many!

Bella got her sutures out on Friday, but the vet still insists that we not let her out with the other dogs and to curtail her activity level. I asked the vet if she’d like to come home with us and help out with that. Honestly, Bella is feeling so good it’s a constant struggle to not let her run. The vet was adamant, however, so we will continue to follow instructions for another two weeks. Bella can’t wait to be free again to do as she’d like and I can’t wait for my freedom again either.

Yesterday I boiled down the turkey carcass and made turkey pot pie with the last of the turkey. It was the perfect day for it since it was rainy and grey out. Yum! I love turkey or chicken pot pies made with broth from scratch. The only frozen ingredient is the peas, otherwise I use only fresh carrots, celery, and onions with a biscuit dough topping (also from scratch).  I made extra filling so I could have it to freeze for another meal later on. Rick declared it the best ever but I just think he forgets from year to year how good it is.

I finished one slipper (double sole and all) and started on the next one. I had to remind myself how to roll the cuff and use the same technique to attach the second sole! (Letty, I promise to do a post on this!)

I have most of my Christmas shopping done already. This is the first year I can remember that I’ve been so far ahead of the game. I have to admit that I did most of it online—just too easy!

Johnny gets his winter gear on tomorrow. Off with the mowing deck and on with the snow blower! The snow poles are up on the driveway, so now we just have to wait for the white stuff to start falling from the sky. Fingers crossed.

I think that about catches up all that’s happening around here. More to come soon! Thanks for stopping by!

Greetings fellow readers! As I look out on this day I see gloomy skies, fog and drizzle. As the day wears on the fog gets thicker and thicker. It’s so dark outside! I am keeping cozy by the fire with plenty to do however. My pumpkin pie is in the oven baking, filling the house with a wonderful aroma, the cranberry sauce is done (in my Mom’s crystal bowl).

With a few of the Thanksgiving tasks taken care of I’ll be settling down now in front of the fire to have a mini marathon of my favorite Christmas movies. Have you seen any of these?

They never fail to jump start my holiday mood. Since Thanksgiving is so late this year, I need all the help I can get. Why is it that I don’t ever really start thinking about Christmas until Thanksgiving? I wish they would insert another month in-between. That would be much more to my liking. That way you’d have plenty of time to gear up for the holiday season. Yikes! Christmas is in just a few short weeks!

I’ll also be working on these while watching the movies: Rick’s slippers. Don’t worry, I know they look big enough to be clown shoes but they get thrown in the washer and felted down to a normal size. Cozy and warm, and my favorite pattern of all to knit! (More on that later.)

I might even get to start this:

I need a thriller right about now!

Hope your holiday is cozy and packed full of all the things you love!

Dress No. 4: Black dress, ruffles (Rick wants me to call them tiers instead of ruffles), asymmetrical shoulders was worn in the end. At least it won’t have the dubious aura surrounding it as the I-got-drunk-in-the-cobalt-blue dress does. I may never be able to wear that cobalt blue dress in mixed company again. Well, at least not the company I was with last night since they all know the story now.

Back to clothes with dog hair and dog slobber on them today to finish up the business of raking/blowing leaves. In other words, back to normal life on four acres in way-out-of the-suburbs New Jersey.

“X” marks the spot over my house.

What follows is basically a discussion that Rick and I had when he came home from work tonight. I was asking him what I should wear to our “Champagne & Candlelight” evening out at Skylands Manor on Saturday. It went something like this.

Me:
What should I wear? Something fancy or not quite as fancy? (Note: I spent three hours down in Wayne today trying on clothes with nothing to show for it.)

Rick:
You have a closet full of things!

Me:
Uhm… okay. I have a a handful of dresses that might work. Some are really party dresses.

Rick:
You have tons of stuff to wear!

Me:
Okay. I have the little slit-down-to my nearly-navel little gold number I wore to the Opera last year.

Rick:
Yeah, I really like that one. Maybe too much for this event though.

Me:
Okay, you’re probably right. Too much cleavage for this crowd.  I have the little classic black dress, you know, the A-line one with the cap sleeves that I wore down the shore this summer?

Rick:
What’s A-line mean? What are cap sleeves?

Me:
Hmm. Okay, never mind. Or I have the the cobalt blue dress with the stone necklace neckline with the ruffles. Remember, I wore it on vacation in Cancun? I wore it the night I got so tipsy before our flight back that you had to pack for me? (It’s still a tad wrinkled from your packing.)

Rick:
No, I don’t remember that one. What’s a necklace neckline? (Excuse me, who was the

tipsy one here?)

Me:
Okay. Great. How about the black dress with the asymmetrical shoulder, ruffles, that I wore when we went to New Orleans?

Rick:
Don’t know. Don’t remember that one. But I do know what ruffles are.

Sigh.

The question is: what should I wear? Any votes?

Not much going on around here lately. We spent a quiet weekend doing mostly chores. Saturday we finished stacking the two cords of wood, so now we’re ready for colder weather. Our weather over the weekend, however, was balmy and sunny—and mid 60’s! Now, I ask you Mother Nature, why couldn’t you have given us this weather earlier on so the trees would have been happier? Speaking of the trees, that’s another time consuming chore. I ran Johnny over the yard again to mulch the final leaves that had fallen and Rick did leaf blowing duty in various spots. The big oak in the back yard still has leaves, so I’ll wait until they drop to go over the back yard once more and then it will be time for us to change out the mowing deck for the snow blower.

We did take time out on Sunday morning to take the dogs for a walk on the old Jungle Habitat grounds. Not much remains of the old enclosures except some fencing and tall, heavy wrought steel gates. Some of them look like they used to keep T-Rexes and velociraptors captive. You just have to use your imagination. But in reality, where lions, tigers, and elephants used to roam there are now only squirrels, chipmunks, deer and bear, bicyclists and dog walkers. The dogs love it because they can be off-lead, meet other dogs and people. On this walk we didn’t see any other dogs.

I hadn’t realized there was so much bittersweet growing here! It covered the trees. Next time I come I’m bringing my garden clipper so I can take some home with me! I know it’s parasitic but it’s so pretty.

And talking about parasitic ... the vines here are pretty creepy. They take over the trees.

This one looks like it created a loop to catch someone or something in.

The bark of some kind of birch tree glowing silvery-gold in the sun.

A watering hole along the way is always a good thing Bella says.

The moon looks like it’s being embraced by the tree branches, don’t you think?

We do a loop of about a mile and a half. It’s a nice walk along the abandoned road system with some short climbs. The dogs were pooped when we got home and slept while Rick and I did the outside chores. A very full weekend of just “stuff.”