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?

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!

GOODBYE TO AUTUMN

The leaves are down

upon the ground.

The trees no longer wear

their autumn gowns.

It’s official. Here in New Jersey autumn, with all its spectacular glory, is over. The trees are bare; our neighbors exposed once more. Johnny was switched over to his winter gear on Thursday. We are still waiting for our final leaves to be blown clear of the yard which will probably happen after Thanksgiving since the guy we have do it is running behind. 

This weekend Rick and I did the final wood chores and it’s all now nicely stacked and waiting to be a future cozy fire. We needed a cozy fire yesterday as it only got up to 27 degrees with a chill wind. Brrrr! We had a little skiff of snow the night before, just enough to coat the grass a little.

This particular tree in Long Pond Ironworks was exceptionally spectacular. I stood underneath it for quite some time just taking it all in. Here are a few more photos of its grandeur.

From afar:

From underneath:

Up close and personal:

I know I haven’t blogged much lately. I used to feel compelled to blog, but I don’t anymore. If I don’t have anything interesting to share I don’t blog. Weird, no? I am not stopping blogging, just blogging as the mood strikes me. It’s almost as if the cabin visit this year rewired my whole system. I see things differently now, and I think for the better. 

Thanksgiving is on Thursday and we are looking forward to sharing our feast with friend Carolyn who will be driving down from Rhode Island. After that, before you know it Christmas will be upon us. This year I am going minimalistic on my decorating and I’m going to have just the lighted garlands on the stair banister and around the doorways as I always do and the tree itself. Simple. Pared down. Just like other things in my life.

To end my series of photos of Ms. Magnificent Maple, I thought I’d show you where she lives and whose yard she has graced for a long time now. Do you recognize the house?

Have you ever stressed over a stress test?

Yesterday I had to have a stress test at the doctor’s. Now, I am a really bad person about going to the doctor and before I got sick back in May with strep I hadn’t really been to a doctor since we moved to New Jersey other than when Sam bit me back in 2006 (and you can read about by bizarre emergency room experience here) and the time I was sick with bronchitis, tonsillitis, and laryngitis. I found a doctor in town that I really like. Well, she’s not a doctor, but a nurse practitioner. 

Before we left for Colorado back in September I had a really hard time dealing with the death of Alex. So much so that one night I found myself sleepwalking (which I have done before in the past when I am stressed) and a couple of days later I ended up in the emergency room at the hospital one night with a severe anxiety attack. That was quite the wake-up call and I knew I needed to seek help, which I did. I went to the doctor and talked to her about it and she came up with a solution. It wasn’t the solution I was expecting, but it was the right one. I am feeling so much better now — I can’t begin to tell you the difference it has made. That set me back on track to catch up on having a way over-due physical.

Much to my dismay I was found to have high blood pressure, something which I have never had my entire life. Getting older sucks! She kind of scared me when she said she wanted me to undergo an echocardiogram and a stress test to make sure my high blood pressure wasn’t stemming from something other than late onset of hypertension (which runs in my family). I balked, saying no one else I knew with high blood pressure had ever had either of those tests, that they had just been prescribed blood pressure medication. She countered that it was just good medical practice and what if it really was something else that would otherwise be overlooked? I caved and scheduled appointments.

Two weeks ago I had my echocardiogram and it was really strange. Basically it’s an ultrasound of your heart and its function, but it was weird. It took about a half an hour. As he moved the ultrasound probe around to different areas I could hear my heart which sounded different in each area. Mostly is sounded like a washing machine with lots of water in it. Creepy. They said I wouldn’t know the results for a few weeks and that it just took time before they were read by the physician. They said not to worry unless the tech immediately called in the doctor during the test. They didn’t, so I figured I was going to live. One down, one to go.

I stressed for a few weeks before my stress test was scheduled. The instructions they sent home with me said I couldn’t eat or drink for four hours before my appointment. I should wear comfortable clothing and rubber soled shoes. No body lotion. No underwire bras. They suggested a change of clothing because I was likely to work up a sweat. I had visions in my head of them running me on a treadmill and not being able to breathe if my asthma kicked in. I’ve never been able to run for very long. What was this going to be like? What if I didn’t pass?

I arrived at the doctor’s office and signed in. They had me sign a waiver saying that I realized I might faint, become out of breath, or in rare cases, suffer a heart attack. Great. Within a few minutes the waiting room was filled with elderly people shuffling along pushing their walkers with bright yellow tennis balls attached to the walker’s back feet. It was so congested that I was thinking someone should maybe direct the traffic flow. A few times I had to turn my feet sideways so that they could pass by without running over my toes. (West Milford is home to a really nice retirement/nursing home so we have a lot of elderly people in town.)

While I waited, yet another elderly couple came out of the back office (both pushing walkers) and were putting their coats on. The wife was having a hard time getting the zipper of her coat to cooperate while the husband and the driver of the van that a had come to collect them looked on. She gave up and the younger woman next to me offered to help her. Her husband barked back, “I think she knows quite well how to work a zipper!” The younger woman persisted and was soon zipping up the older woman’s coat while the whole time the husband kept insisting she didn’t need any help. Once zipped into her coat a huge smile broke over her lovely face. She looked around at the office waiting room and said “I never thought I would come to this point in my life,” and shook her head.  I hope I’m able to smile about it when I’m pushing my own walker. I just hope Rick doesn’t need one too or we’ll constantly be bumping into each other.

Where was I  … ah, yes … my stress test.

Right away the nurse put me at ease and told me it wasn’t much of anything. I would be hooked up to the monitor and walking on the treadmill, not running. They would start out slow, then I would be walking uphill a little faster, and finally at a brisk walk, each for about three minutes. It really didn’t amount to much of anything and I passed with flying colors. He also went over my echocardiogram and said it was excellent. So the conclusion was that I have a healthy heart but a slight blood pressure problem.

At least I don’t need a walker. 

I am not really big into Halloween, so these photos are as scary as it gets from me. The photo above looked to me like the tree was kind of evil and it was hunkered down low to the ground to snatch someone up into its long bony fingers … uhm … (those would branches). It seems to scream I’ll get you my pretty! (insert evil laugh).

This window in the old abandoned house also looked rather scary to me. The torn plastic that once covered the window is ripped in the pattern of uneven teeth. The branches in front of it just added to the whole effect. I had the feeling it was beckoning me, no daring me, to come inside. 

Or maybe I just have an over-active imagination!

For the past two years we’ve been without power on Halloween. This year it’s kind of nice to have electricity for the spookiest of nights.

Photos taken at Long Pond Ironworks.