Our dinner party was a huge success. The food was wonderful, the guests all got along and had a great time and everything went according to plan. 

The day of the party was a little strange because it snowed most of the afternoon. Big, fluffy flakes that mostly evaporated as soon as they hit the ground but did in fact manage to pile up enough to leave the branches and grassy areas coated with white. At least it didn't stick to the roads. I didn't take any photos because, well, frankly I'm tired of taking white photos and showing them here on the blog. And I'm certain you are getting tired of me prattling on and on about our weather as well.

The temperatures haven't varied very much since last month. Yesterday it barely got above freezing! Our nighttime temperatures are still dipping down in to the 20's. As I type this entry this morning at 8:30 it's only 24. I am tired of wearing jackets and gloves and layering my tops two deep. Tired of lugging firewood up the stairs (our stash for this year is running dangerously low).

Today we are expecting more snow--this time leading to one or two inches, then some ice, then rain. I hope this year's spring is really sweet and pleasant to make up for its late start. At least I sure hope so. If it ever does get here that is!

I am tired of pointing my camera at the colors of gray, white and brown. I'd much rather point it towards blue and green.

(photo: Doorway to … Spring?)

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.

Need I say more? This was the scene around our house on Friday morning. Just this week the snow had finally melted from the flower beds next to the pool and I saw that my daffodils had broken ground. I was so excited to see them! Now they are  covered with snow once again. We got about five inches overnight and it continued on to snow another two inches or so during the day yesterday. But, our temperatures are supposed to be "spring-like" this weekend so we'll see. Still, it's disheartening.

It was pretty though. It was the kind of snow that left all the tree branches looking that they had been traced with a fat white marker.

If you like that kind of thing, that is. And I normally do except that I am tired of it. That's very unusual for me since I am the one always hoping and wishing for snow. But I've had enough this year. I'm done! Especially since daylight savings time goes into effect tonight, which to me always signals the start of warmer weather. It seems early this year and I'm not ready. What's the point of having it be nice and light in the evening if one can't enjoy it? Plus I was just getting in tune with the sun coming up earlier each day. Now it's going to be harder to get out of bed at a decent time because of the darkness.

Spring will come. I know it will. It's just the waiting that's hard.

Photo P. S. : I know my white balance is different in the first pic but I liked it because it looked cold.

We've been doing without our glass shower door for about two weeks now. It's a real annoyance because we have to tilt the shower head to the back wall and basically stand in the corner so as not to splash a lot of water outside the shower.

We renovated our bathroom about four years ago: completely ripped out everything and changed the whole configuration of the layout, including changing the doorway. The person who did the renovation (Tim, who has done all our other extensive reno's like the kitchen, powder room and guest bath) used a local company for the frameless shower.

We'd been putting up with the door not closing for about four months or so and I finally called Tim to come and take a look. He couldn't see any way to adjust it or just what the problem was so he called the company to come and take a look.

When the service person showed up he immediately took the door off its hinge and could see that the problem was the fact that the glass was pulling away from the metal rail. He said we were lucky that one day we hadn't opened up the door only to have the entire glass panel fall out, that it was that close to disaster. Gee, now that would have been an exciting way to kick off a morning! 

He didn't have any rails with him, so he took our door away with him. We were under the understanding that even though the door was out of warranty, there would be no cost to us. I asked how long it would be before we got the door back and he said, "oh, about seven days." Right.

I called last week to inquire about when they might be bringing it back but it wasn't completed yet. Finally, a few days later (and after Tim called them too) they called to set up a time to deliver our repaired door. The receptionist told me that there would be a charge of $85.00. I argued back saying I thought there was not going to be a charge and she said it was a service charge for re-hanging the door. I told her I was not happy about that, that no one had mentioned any additional charges. I mentioned that I could probably get Tim to come over and hang the door for free. She transferred me to her manager and he and I went through the whole thing again. He put me on hold for about five minutes and I suspect he was calling Tim during that time because he came back on and told me there would be no charge, that the door should never have failed like that to begin with.

I'm glad I didn't just cave in and say I'd pay the service fee. 

I am also glad to report that our shower door has just been installed. I can't wait for tomorrow morning.

(photos: Trees in My Pool)

You may have noticed that I haven't had much to say in the past week. I've been struggling with writing blog posts for whatever reason. I've started three different post and just abandoned them.

The weather has not been very conducive to getting out of the house. Over the weekend we had a nasty, cold, biting wind and being outside for any time past five minutes was no fun. It's hard to walk the dogs right now since there is so much salt on our street that the crystals act like little ball bearings and I'm afraid I will fall if the dogs pull hard on their leashes. We've had a couple of tiny "snows" again that just coat everything. Yesterday we had a mix of snow and rain which turned in to a gentle rain for most of the day. Even the rain could not wash away what we still have left on the ground from our snowfall of twelve inches.

Winter starts to look downright ugly about this time. The snow that is left is dirty and hard. Days without grayness are hard to come by. I'm ready for spring!

With Rick in Florida on a business trip until Thursday I am left to my own devices. I do things like watch movies I've been wanting to see again. Like Out of Africa …  I had a farm in Africa at the foot of the Ngong Hills. That opening line alone can start me to sniffling. There are so many wonderful lines in this movie that I was almost tempted to sit with a pad of paper and write them down. The soundtrack by John Barry is so suited to the sweeping vistas of the African veldt. Just beautiful. It makes me cry too. So why do I watch? Because it's worth it.

Yesterday the wind was not blowing and the temperature was decent (high 30's) and knowing that rain was moving in later that afternoon I decided to go to Skylands for a walk. I don't know why but I decided to walk the two loops that are about 3 miles versus the one lower loop that I usually take, which is only a little over a mile. Silly me.

The sky was gray and stippled when I started out.

But look! These bushes think spring is on the way! Maybe they know something we don't. I don't know what they are, do you? 

Added Later: I found out they are witch hazel bushes and always bloom in February amid the snow!

About halfway through my walk I started to see little tiny snow pellets drifting down. Hmm, I thought myself, what's that all about? It was only noon and we weren't supposed to get any precipitation until later. 

As I walked along I heard the unmistakeable thunk, thunk, thunk of a large woodpecker working away. Pileated! Sure enough, there he was high in a tree. He had a huge hole!

He didn't care that I was right underneath him at all. He could not decide whether to work on his really big hole or the two other ones on the other side of the tree that he had started. By this time the tiny little snow pellets had turned to big, fat, wet flakes. I hurriedly took a few photos of him before walking on.

Soon the flakes were coming down in sideways sheets and I was not close to the car. I walked as fast as I could with my hood up and my camera zipped into my jacket, making it look like I had a big tummy. Why oh why did I choose to walk both loops? Thank goodness I had worn a jacket with a hood!

With  no harm done I was back at the car and on my way home from my wet walk. It was good to get out but I should have gone on a different day!

(top photo: Through the Window of the Gatehouse)

Note: After I got home and got a look at this pileated woodpecker he looks odd to me. His markings are off I think. His face is very white! Too white. Strange …