Baby, it’s cold outside! Every day we add a new icicle, and every day the older icicles get longer and longer.

Yep, winter is here. The snow that I was skeptically optimistic about amounted to less than one inch. Not even enough to be cost efficient to run Johnny. Now it will probably just turn into ice with the deep freeze weather pattern we are in for the next three or four days. Just look at our weather station statistics upon my getting up this morning:

Less than 1 degree. The dogs want to go in and out like they normally do, but I won’t let them. It’s just too darn cold. Opening and closing the door only lets cold air in and all that lovely warmth emanating from the wood stove is lost. (Our new stove works great by the way.)

Even the snow shovel is wearing a sheath of ice complete with its very own set of icicles.

In times like this, comfort food is called for. How about some [what we call around our house], pork chops & beans?

I’m not sure where the recipe started; either with my Mother or my Grandmother. But since I can’t ask either one of them I am going to assume my Grandmother started it. The recipe is simple. Take bone-in pork chops, rub them with salt, pepper and a little rubbed sage. Pan fry them to brown them. Open a can of your favorite baked beans, spread them in a baking dish and put the pork chops on top of the beans. Push the chops down into the beans so that they are mostly submerged. Bake at 375 F until done, but be careful not to overcook the chops. Serve with steamed/boiled potatoes.

And eggplant parmesan. Recipe here.

Here’s hoping you stay warm wherever you are today!

Just look at my feet and tell me what you see. Anything wrong? Uhm, I didn’t realize I had put on two unmatched shoes this morning until I got to the grocery store and looked down. Good grief. One old Merrill yard shoe (complete with hole) and one newer Merrill. One grey and one brown. Such a class act. I hope no one noticed.

Even though my day started off on the wrong foot, it’s not going badly. I just got back from taking the two big dogs for a walk in the wintry white greyness that is hanging around outside today. It looks like winter and if feels like winter. The snowfall from the other day is staying solidly in place, probably because of the coating of ice on top that is like a layer of shellac. Crunchy stuff, that. It’s just above freezing and that’s a heat wave compared to the frigid cold moving our way. Friday’s high temperature is supposed to be 10 F. brrrrrrrrrrr. Even some snow here and there over the next few days. But we all know how well the weather can be predicted, especially snowfall. I am sceptically optimistic.

Even though it’s white and grey outside, look what I get to look at inside to brighten up my day.

Gorgeous, isn’t it? Neighbor Aileen gave me this lovely amaryllis bulb for Christmas and it’s just now starting to bloom. I took it outside for a photo shoot because I liked the contrast of winter and spring.

And, look what I kept alive since last year and managed to force it to bloom again this year! What green fingers I am acquiring here on the East Coast! I am thrilled!

All summer long it lived outside and thrived. I brought it in before the first hard frost and stopped watering it. About three weeks ago I started watering it again. The growth you see here has all taken place in about one week. Here is a link to what it looked like last year blooming.

Bringing in a little sunshine with its warm color, here is the first half of my scarf completed. I’ve now started on the other half. I am just loving this pattern!

and even more sunshine for the soul ...

I hope you find a little sunshine in your day today too!

In my next life I want to come back as a weather person. They get paid lots of bucks and never have to be right. They never seem to be held accountable for getting it wrong.

We’ve heard nothing for days on the news but what a storm was headed our way. Snow totals were projected only to be re-adjusted, seemingly on an hourly basis. Consulting different online weather sites was even more confusing with very different snow projection totals. In the end it was pretty much a disappointing bust. We may have a little over 3 inches to show for all their hype. Big deal.

The grocery store this morning was packed with people cramming the aisles—all in a foul mood. I couldn’t wait to get our few essentials and get the heck out of there. Honestly, you’d think we were going to be snowed in for a week the way they were all acting. And it hadn’t even really started to snow yet. Give me a break folks!

To add insult to injury, our Wii took a hike today. We sat down all ready to have Rick rescue Pitfall Harry from his latest and greatest dilemma only to find it couldn’t read any of our game discs anymore. So sad. We hope that after repairs they will be able to save all our game data (and trust me, we have a lot of games in various stages of progress!) and all will be restored to normal. If not, we’ll have to start all over again which will really be a royal pain.

Feeling cheated and grumpy here tonight.

The Snow Queen must have been jealous because yesterday morning she swept through, covering up the work of the Ice Queen with a fresh coating of fluffy white new snow. So there, she said. I can cover up all your work just like that. Of course, the Ice Queen’s work is still there, lying treacherously only an inch below. Some of the tree branches still carry their icy coating and our driveway shows no improvement. Our local stores are all sold out of ice melt. Me thinks the Ice Queen still rules.

Bella likes it when the Snow Queen comes. She likes to try and catch snowflakes in her mouth just like any other little kid.

Yesterday the Ice Queen paid us a visit. She captured everything in her icy grip. Bare branches, pine needles, and buds awaiting the spring were all trapped in their icy prisons like flies in amber.

She left ice sculptures behind.

She made a crystalline carpet out of the grass that crunched underfoot and sounded like glass breaking when walked upon.

Thankfully she didn’t do any damage. We may have lost a few small branches but nothing big. It could have been much worse.