Yet another beautiful sunrise has graced the skies above my house. This time the color does not foretell a storm like it did the last time.

We’ve had temperatures in the 40’s for the past few days and yesterday it rained. With that combination of weather conditions the snow is melting like the wicked witch in the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy tossed a bucket of water on her { I'm melting ...} What a mess. Snow is lovely when it’s freshly fallen, all pristine and white. After a few days it starts to look grimy around the edges where it meets the road and after a rain it just turns to slush. Then it refreezes and we get snow the consistency of a snow cone.

Not much else going on around here. Rick has been pretty much off throughout the holidays, either with a snow day, a paid holiday or taking some vacation days. The days have been lazy and we’ve only gotten in the car to go somewhere a few times. We’ve watched movies: a marathon of the whole Lord of the Rings trilogy, a few old favorites that we finally bought ourselves on DVD like Jean de Florette/Manon of the Spring {French subtitled in English}, and Rich Man, Poor Man the first mini-series ever to air on national TV. (We’re still in the process of watching all 27 hours!) We’ve played video games, played with our iPads, read books and pretty much did whatever we felt like. The dogs did get a few walks in too.

I have no resolutions for the coming year. At least not yet. The year is too new yet and who wants to spoil it with a bunch of regulations and restrictions?

I do know that I want to continue on with pottery classes. Just not the classes I was going to before. When winter is over I will pursue a few places “over the mountain” in Warwick and Sugarloaf. I don’t really relish the idea of driving over there in winter weather. So, I"ll wait. I haven’t shared photos of the last object d’art I made because it needs a bit of touch up work. I’m not really happy with how it came out in the end but I learned a few lessons. One is don’t let other people influence what your vision is. I"ll be posting pics soon. It’s not bad, just not what I truly wanted to do. It’s not me. Enough said.

Does it sound lazy not to have goals all laid out for the new year?

The dogs did enjoy the snow before the big melt. Here are a few pics.

Hailey and Bella

Bella

Hailey attempting to catch a snowball.

Bella trying to look serious.

Alex looking regal.

Hailey looking cute.

Poor Bella just kept collecting balls of snow in her fur! The first pic captures her personality perfectly. See the devilish glint in her eyes?

Mom ... these snow balls are getting heavy ...

And a couple of backyard visitors that aren’t dogs! The blue jay with his feathers that look like an intricate mosaic and two tiny Carolina wrens.

I hope your list of resolutions for this new year doesn’t weigh you down too much!