The day before yesterday when passing Green Turtle Pond I noticed that my favorite ice formations were back. When I returned from my errands I grabbed the camera and walked down in the 17 degree weather to try and capture them.

Ice globes as I call them, are simply ice that has formed around the bottom of cattails, but I always find them fascinating. The could be little glass vases too, or paperweights. Each one it’s own work of art.

I liked the reflections in these two photos.

There has to be a little wind involved as well for them to form, so the conditions have to be just right. And we’ve had both wind and below-freezing temperatures for the past few days. Perfect!

However in the process of getting these photos I had to walk over a slippery ice-coated rock. My foot slipped and my boot (I was wearing my leather UGGS at the time .. ugh!) went through the ice and my bottom hit pretty hard. I was trying to hold the camera up at the same time, so it wasn’t a pretty fall.

My noisy fall startled a flock of turkeys and they took flight across the lake.

I’m still not sure if the photos were worth the bruise on my bottom, but there you have them!

As Bella predicted, I am now going to bore you with the flip side of the photos that I took on our walk this weekend: not dogs!

The sun is so low in the sky this time of year. It helped to enhance the already somewhat creepy mood that hangs over Jungle Habitat where exotic animals used to roam.

With all our rain and moderate temperatures fungi still flourish. These were still soft and pliable, so they were new.

The moss likes the moisture too.

We have many kinds of parasitic vines here. They wrap around trees and take them prisoner. I find them eerie.

We might not have snow but at least for the past few days we’ve had colder temps that allow some frost.

And some ice to form in leaf-filled shallow puddles.

The week in-between Christmas and New Year’s is always an odd one. Rick used to get the whole week off back when he worked for HP/Agilent but it was mostly because they were trying to be cheap and it was without pay. I always loved having him home, watching movies and playing video games that we’d gotten for Christmas. This week he is working but shorter days.

This week also, without fail, includes my birthday which was yesterday. Having a birthday at this time of year is not always easy or fun. Everything comes at once. But, after all these years I am used to it. I never get stinted for gifts on my birthday. My Mom made sure of that, and my dear husband is the same way. I got an iPad 2! I’ve had an iPad for about a year and a half now and just love it. I’ve been drooling over the “2” since they came out. It has features that the first one didn’t have. And just look at it’s super cute folding cover!

Also for my birthday my two neighbors pretty much kidnapped me and took me out to lunch. I didn’t even know where we were going! The restaurant was great and one I had never been to before. We sat and shared a glass of wine and all our food choices were excellent. On top of buying my lunch they also gave me gifts! What a treat! Part of my gift from neighbor Aileen was this sweet package of fresh eggs from her chickens. The blue-green ones are from her new araucana chickens that just started laying. Almost too pretty to eat!

It hardly seems possible that just one week ago I picked my sister and her hubby up at the train station. Time flies by, doesn’t it? We had a good Christmas. We ate and tried out some new and quite delicious recipes. We drank (but not too much). We played video games and my sister beat us all at bowling with a grand score of 195. We all enjoyed each other’s company.

Also in-between is our weather. Winter has yet to arrive in our part of the country. Just the other day we had nearly two inches of rain. Again. Enough with the rain! It hasn’t really been cold enough to freeze the ground either so everything comes up muddy. Today I think it’s supposed to struggle to get above freezing which will be a welcome change to our 40’s and 50’s. C’mon Mother Nature! I have a new coat that I’m dying to wear and it needs to be cold!

By the way, remember this fox? Neighbor Kim pointed out to me yesterday at lunch that she thinks it was not in fact a fox but a coyote. She said there was an article in the paper about how many coyotes were around now and how to identify them. The more I thought about it and the more I looked at the photos again, I realized she was right. It just might be a coyote. I’m just not used to seeing them around here although we did have one a a few years ago. To see it, follow this link.  Tell me what you think!

Anyway, no real news to impart here, just wanted to catch up.

Our sky this morning.

Presents wrapped? Check.
House clean? Check.
Grocery shopping completed? Almost: picking up prime rib today.
Company arrived? On the way!
Snow falling softly outside? Nope.

Really, if you look back at my posts this time of year they all say the same thing. Rain instead of snow. Temperatures in the 40’s. No snow. Bah Humbug. Etc. Every year it’s the same old song, and this year is no different. It can snow back in Colorado, it can snow in Las Cruces, NM where my in-laws live, and it can even snow in Texas. But New Jersey? Nope. Isn’t snow supposed to fall in the North and not the South?

We’ve had about an inch of rain over the past three days. As if we needed anymore of that! The ground is already so saturated that you sink into our yard when you walk on it. Mud is rampant and brought in on the bottom of dogs’ paws. On my freshly scrubbed floor.

But enough of our un-wished for weather! Be gone I say! On with Christmas!

As I type my sister and her hubby are trundling on a train towards us. They will arrive this afternoon and we will pick them up at the local train station after they make their connection at Penn Station in New York City. It will be nice to have them here for the holiday.  We have plenty of good meals planned for their stay and a visit to the Oakland Diner (better known as the O.D.) so her hubby can see the diner where they filmed Danielle always eating in The Real Housewives of New Jersey. (They even have a salad named after her.)

So, I’ll be busy for the next few days with company. If I don’t post anything beforehand or during their stay, have a safe and happy holiday wherever you are, no matter what weather you have!

Puddled reflections from last night’s rain:

It returns every year right about this time: the Snow Grinch. Me. For me it’s hard to get in the “Christmas spirit” without a little help from the weather. In previous years here for the most part we didn’t get snow until after Christmas, but a few years we did get a little and it was so wonderful! I guess I don’t mind so much if it doesn’t snow, but at least it could be cold and feel like Christmas. This year the weather has been very mild, and as far as I’m concerned it hasn’t snowed yet. I am not counting the rare October snowfall because I wasn’t here to see it! So, I am still waiting. And hoping. For snow.

Our predicted snow of 2-3 inches didn’t happen—just a smattering on the grass and the pool cover. We did, however, get just over three inches of RAIN in 24 hours. That’s a lot of water! Especially when our ground is still soggy from all the other moisture we’ve had. I drove up over the mountain yesterday to a farm store to buy wreaths and they had just enough elevation difference there to get about 2 inches of wet snow. It was lovely to see even if it wasn’t in my yard.

In my heart I know that snow does not make Christmas Christmas. But it would be nice. Last year it didn’t snow before Christmas either except for a slight skiff, then on the day after Christmas we got that blizzard, remember? From then on we didn’t see the ground until late March! So, you just never know.

Tomorrow we are going to cut our tree at a tree farm and it’s supposed to be chilly (in the high 30’s) so maybe that will help kick start my holiday mood!

There is also not much to take photos of this time of year, so I included two sky shots I took last week.