To my weather forecaster: please sing another tune.

The forecast was for 100% chance of snow until 11:a.m. this morning.   Fortunately, we did not wake up to snowflakes falling and more snow on the ground.  It's cloudy, rainy and cold.  Day 231.....

The only way to combat this constant dreariness is to go to my basement to water my blossoming petunias and calibrachoa.  All those little blossoms give me hope for spring to really arrive.   After I water my plants I usually play a song or two on my keyboard while I'm waiting for the fire in the wood furnace to take off.   

My plants love music.   They need a song or two first thing in the morning to make them happy and I'm more than glad to oblige.

Summertime

Say Goodbye to Facebook and Twitter.

I have decided that I spend too much time there.  After more than a week of no Facebook and Twitter, it turns out that I was right.

About Time. 
(There's a really great movie with that title.  If  you haven't seen it, you should)

The clock is always ticking.  What to do today?

Telephone family or friends?  Better yet, visit them in person.  I will admit to not being very good at telephoning and I don't know why that is.  I will try to do better.

Favorite hobby?  Play music, work in my gardens? Clean House?  Ugh!

There are some positive reasons to wander around on Facebook and Twitter, but there are too many negative ones to justify the time spent there. 

I've decided to spend my time making connections that are real.  Not just a click of a mouse button.

“They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.” ― Andy Warhol

“One day spent with someone you love can change everything.” ― Mitch Albom

A side note:  I noticed the "comments" setting on my blog were not working.  I think I have fixed that problem. 

The weather and other things.

 We had snow falling again this morning.  Not this much, but a nice inch of snow, which made me think about how long this winter has been and how many times our neighbors, Mike and Theresa plowed our driveway.  A lot!

They even go so far as to ask someone else to take care of it if they aren't here.  How awesome is that?

Mike on top of our ramp for the NYE sled run.

Yesterday, one of our other neighbors, Adam, used his skidster for some maintenance on the road and also added some shale here and there to the soft spots.  We appreciate it very much because for more than twenty years Retired Mountain took care of all of the maintenance on the road.  Since it is about a half of mile long there was always lots to do.

Good neighbors are a wonderful benefit of living in the country.  I would not want to be living in a city and not have a clue about the people who live next door or across the street. 

Thanks neighbors!

Merry Christmas! There's nothing like the holiday season.

I will be adding the stuffing to my turkey and putting it in the oven soon.   It's snowing and so we will be having a very white Christmas.  The forecast is for 1-3 inches of snow today.

Retired Mountain Man and I didn't put up a tree this year.  It's just too much trouble.  I am posting a photo of the blossoms on my azalea plant instead. 

"Fa La La La La ....."

Breaking news: The Easter Bunny has moved to Arizona...

He says he won't be back here until the temperature warms up to 70 degrees.  I can't say that I blame him.  Who wants to hop around in this stuff?

The calendar says it's Spring.   It's not truly Spring until we don't have to keep a fire around the clock.

 Each morning I go to the basement to put some wood on the fire in the furnace. We call that room our "Wood" Room, but it's probably what most people would call their Furnace Room.   It's not  a "finished" room which means you can make a bit of a mess in there and it doesn't matter.

It's where my friend Ann and I have made many of our Christmas wreathes.  A lot of small construction projects happen there from building shelves to constructing the acoustic panels for our music room.  When our sons were around, it was the place to age the venison and to cut it up for packaging in the freezer.  It's also a great storage area and the place for our second freezer and refrigerator.

It's best use other than as our furnace room is that it's a great space for my shelves with my "Grow" lights.  Retired Mountain Man and I bought the shelves from the hardware store and attached rows of fluorescent shop lights underneath each shelf.  There are four shelves which allows for plenty of room to start my garden plants.

When I head down there each morning to put another log on the fire, this is what greets me.  A little bit of sunshine.

Not only that, there is the promise of some ripe cherry tomatoes soon.

There's also some geraniums which don't have blossoms yet and about a dozen begonias.  The begonias are all beginning to sprout and some have formed leaves.  

I couldn't resist one more photo of the flowers

So what if the Easter Bunny has fled to Arizona!  Maybe the Easter Bunny has become a bit of a light-weight...  

You know, Hasenpheffer tastes really good.  Rabbit braised in a red wine gravy flavored with bacon, shallots, currant jelly and...