Today Mother Nature has been busy all day long creating patterns on everything in sight. She is using snow as her medium today. Lovely, fluffy, snow that has been accumulating all day long. Finally.

While she’s been busy outside, I’ve been working on my own pattern while sitting by a cozy fire inside. My chosen medium is yarn. I am attempting the Japanese Vines pattern from Michelle’s blog. Blogger Not Plain Jane is to blame for this newest obsession of mine: lace. I must have started this scarf at least ten times, only to frog it. Have you ever had something that you just couldn’t seem to get right? This was it for me. But I kept trying and finally have it going. It’s very addictive! The pattern is gorgeous (at least I think so). It will be a gift for my friend, Carolyn.

The color is actually a plummy purple but it looks more blue in the photos. Yummy indeed! The yarn is a silk/wool blend from String Theory and is wonderful to work with. It’s hard to put down now that I finally mastered it!

Now back to enjoying our snow ...

Today I’m taking a short break from bringing you armchair travels and instead we are going to come into my back yard. The weather over the past week has been very strange. We’ve had rain and fog.

Friday morning we had thunder, lightning, and pouring rain. In the winter. Saturday morning we had a few brief snow showers that left about an inch of snow. About 11:00 Saturday night we were quite rudely awakened by an enormous clap of thunder, followed by three large dogs jumping up on our bed. Several more very close, blindingly-bright lightning strikes and ground shaking thunder claps followed the first, then torrents of rain pounded down on the roof. In the morning we were greeted with a solid sheet of ice on everything.

Sunday morning it snowed very heavily for about an hour.

An hour later all that was left on the trees were fairy drops, the sun shining through and illuminating them.

Another heavy little snow squall came through late afternoon and left tracings of snow on our front door mat, the pool cover, and the trees.

We are obviously seasonally-challenged here in New Jersey this year.

Sailor Update: Thanks to all who have expressed concern over Sailor’s lymphoma. He has had two chemo treatments and so far all is well. His lymph nodes were down by 50% after the first treatment and the vet was very pleased. This past week they have gone down even more. He has tolerated the chemo very well and each treatment was a different drug. He will continue weekly chemo treatments for another five weeks, then they will be every other week with one in four being just a pill at home. He is eating well and happy. If you didn’t know you’d swear there was nothing wrong with him.

I don’t know what the future holds for him, but all we can do is take one day at a time and make the most of it. Keep sending those good thoughts. I think they are working!

I’m so excited! Rick’s slow-motion video of the hummingbird and dragonfly appeared in a segment called MonsterQuest on the History Channel. A while back the producer had asked his permission to use the footage but you never know if they really will or not. Sure enough about 30 minutes into the show, there it was! The dragonfly (which I never did post to the blog; I need to do that!) came about five minutes later.

It was fun watching something that was filmed in our own back yard show up on television. Well, you might not think it’s exciting, but we do! The segment is an interesting one, so catch it if you can.

Ed.Note: The segment of MonsterQuest is really called “Unidentified Flying Creatures.” Sorry!

Freeze. Thaw. Freeze. Thaw. That seems to be the theme lately. Winter can’t seem to make up its mind. Right now we’re having extremely mild weather. Daytime highs of nearly 60ºF. Rain instead of snow. The icy white blanket that covered our yard has nearly all melted away. Just a few weeks ago our pool looked like an ice skating rink, and if I wasn’t so afraid of tearing the pool cover I’d have gone skating! Now it’s taken on the persona of a reflecting pool.

I liked the reflections of the trees and the way some leaves scattered themselves around.

I imagine it won’t be long before Winter decides to make its return. Blustery winds, snow, frozen ground. Come on, Winter, bring it on! What are you waiting for?

Today Rick wanted to attempt a Bûche de Noel for Christmas dessert tomorrow. Here are the steps involved.

1.
Make certain you have enough kitchen helpers.

2.
Roll up the still warm cake in sugared parchment. Let cool.

3.
Don’t forget to clean the beaters in between usage.

4.
Spread the cooled cake with buttercream frosting.

5.
Roll up the frosted cake.

6.
Cut one piece off the edge of the cake and position on the top to form a branch for your log.

7.
Frost, make meringue mushrooms, and decorate.

Eat and enjoy. (If you can bear to cut into your masterpiece, that is!)