We had snow!
Almost four inches of the fluffy white stuff.
“Wanna go take snow pictures?” my handsome mountain man asked.
“No.”
I told you! My first reaction when asked if I want to go someplace is always no. It really didn’t take long before I changed my mind, though.
“Okay.”
Mike got up and the dogs got excited. They knew we were going out and they asked if they could go.
“How do they ask?” I know you wanna know.
They dance around. Bondi runs to the door, turns around, and pleads with her eyes. Raini, on the other hand, is vocal. She barks, dashes to the door, turns around and comes back to her kennel. She jumps up and puts her paws at the top of the kennel, barks, and when I look at her, she turns and looks at her leash.
“She wants to wear her leash,” I told Mike. I turned back to Raini, “You don’t need it.” But she was insistent. I humor her. If it makes her happy, she can wear it.
We hadn’t gone far when a snow plow came up behind us. Not wanting to be pushed, Mike moved over and let him go in front of us.
I took a lot... wait a minute. I took a LOT of snow pictures! I’ll show you a few now and the rest at the end.
On an early morning trip to the store, I got the sun coming up and shining on the surface of the Susquehanna.
False fronts on two of the buildings on the main street in Laceyville.
This is the time of year when you can tell who has heat leaking out the top.
The water is low and you can see the old beaver dam on our pretty little creek.
Raini is such a goofball. We buy her these two-color balls and after a while they start to split.
She took her favorite one out to play and decided it needed a good shaking. Well, she lost it and it went flying. We were both surprised to see it had wrapped itself around my rain chain. I laughed as Raini watched it swing back and forth then she made a grab for it. She didn’t get it.
I ran for my camera.
I got back in time to see her grab it.
Rain chain 0.
Raini 1.
Winter and snow and Christmas approaching are all good excuses to do little else but paint. I’ve been spending most days painting Christmas cards.
This guy right here is a little rapscallion. Several times every day he’ll get on my desk and sit right in front of me, staring at my eyes until I look at him. Then I’m a goner. I’ve gotta stop whatever I’m doing and give him a scratch.
“He’s got you trained,” cousin Stacey noted.
Yes he does!
I have noticed that Tiger prefers his water flavored with watercolor paint.
“How can you tell?” you ask.
Easy. If I have water up and haven’t used it yet, he’ll go over and sniff it, but he won’t drink it. But if he comes over and it’s water I’ve been using, he gets a drink.
We were playing our ritual afternoon round of Skip-Bo when Tiger, who’s usually content to sit nearby, crept over and promptly sat down right on the cards!
The other cats are still here and you don’t hear much about them because they’re not attention hounds like this guy!
I will tell you that Spitfire has started an annoying habit.
“What’s that?” you ask.
He’ll get up on the top of my recliner when we’re watching TV at night and he’ll bite and pull my hair.
The turd.
Speaking of Christmas cards...
I painted this little gal right here who’ve I’ve named Miss Merry Mischief, full of delight. That’s the first line of the verse for the inside. After I’d painted it I decided I wanted to put something like “Merry Christmas” on the front. I got it all set up and ran it through the printer.
Aye-yi-yi!
To quote California Susan when I showed her my goof, “Technology isn’t always our friend.”
I have all my Christmas cards designed in the same file and what printed here isn’t even the right page! It’s the inside verse for the scarecrow.
“What scarecrow?” you ask.
Didn’t I show you the scarecrow? Oh. I guess I didn’t. It went to my cousin and I didn’t want her to see it here before she got it in the mail. Here he is.
Even though I’m sorry I ruined my Miss Merry card, I’m just really glad I’d already scanned it into my computer. All I lost was the original.
Speaking of my paintings...
I got a text message from Mike’s cousin Dennis. You may remember (or you not) that Dennis commissioned me to paint portraits of his sons’ dogs Gigi and Charli. Two sons, two different houses. I got a letter from Dennis. “We were at the picture framers today getting the two dog pictures framed for our sons. The framers were quite impressed with your work and thought you might enjoy having the enclosed brochure.”
The brochure was by an established artist named John Keeling.
“Wow!” I said after looking at it. “He gets three hundred dollars for an eight by ten.” Mine are nine by twelve. “Do you think he’s better than me?” I asked Mike.
“No.”
He loves me.
Mike is so supportive and says I undervalue my work and talent.
I sometimes think, when I paint something good, that it’s a fluke. I’m not really that good.
Anyway, that was a little side track because that was a letter I got in the mail. What I got in a text message from Dennis this week were pictures of Gigi and Charli all snug and beautiful in their new frames.
Don’t they look fabulous!
Mike and I were watching TV a couple of nights ago when we see on the security camera someone with a flashlight walking around the end of our driveway.
“Is he in the ditch or something?” I asked Mike, but of course he didn’t know.
I called the across-the-street neighbor and asked her.
“I just happened to go out in the kitchen and saw a white van stopped at the end of your driveway. I thought it was a delivery van,” Sally said.
We’ve had deliveries left at the end of our driveway before.
“Maybe he has two-wheel drive and was afraid to come up our (snow-covered) driveway,” Mike guessed.
Mike took the car down and came back with a box.
“That looks like a flower box,” I said. I’ve seen a flower box before because my cute little red-haired brother sent me Stargazer Lilies once. And the words, “Fresh flowers” on the outside was another clue.
Inside were a dozen long-stemmed red roses. The card was from my handsome brother-in-law Cork and his girlfriend, Dee in appreciation for the painting of their pup, Matty Lou.
I called and thanked him.
“How are the strawberries?” he asked.
“What strawberries?”
“There’s supposed to be chocolate covered strawberries, too,” Cork said.
I went with Mike this time as we went down to see if he’d missed a box. He didn’t. We even checked the mailbox in case he put them in there.
“Darn!” I said. “I had my mouth all set for chocolate covered strawberries!”
The roses started opening the next day and they’re beautiful! It’s also the first time I’ve ever gotten a dozen roses. Who knew I only had to wait sixty-six years?
I made my little sister’s recipe for a cranberry cake. I used frozen cranberries because after throwing out two bags of fresh ones, I wasn’t doing that again.
The recipe specifically says if you’re using frozen cranberries to let them sit out for ten minutes or so, otherwise it’ll freeze the cake mix.
Well, let me you! When you read something like that, you’d better heed their advice!
I didn’t remember to get the cranberries out and I needed to get the cake in the oven. I waited a few minutes but not nearly long enough.
“It’ll be all right,” Me says to Myself.
Guess what?
Me gave Myself some bad advice! This is all the further I got before it froze solid and I couldn’t spread it anymore.
I figured I could put it in the oven for a few minutes, pull it out and spread it once it thawed. That worked moderately well.
When it was done, I could see it had bonded with my cake pan. I took it to the dinner at church anyway and warned, “You may need a jackhammer to get it out of the pan.”
I was right! It stuck like crazy glue! I prepared the pan the way the recipe said to. Next time I’ll go back to the old-fashioned way and use shortening and flower — err, flour — if there is a next time!
Hatch has found his way into our garage. He comes in and sleeps in Itsy’s old car seat, which lives in the garage. We came back from the store and as we pulled in the driveway, Mike said, “Watch and see if Hatch comes out.”
Sure enough, as soon as the door started going up, he came out — and I had my camera ready to catch him.
Hatch is here almost every morning for his hot breakfast.
“A hot breakfast?” you query.
In the morning I scrape whatever our cats didn’t eat the day before into a bowl for Hatch. Then I open two cans of soft food. One I divvy up for the four inside cats and the other I divide in half and give Hatch half. The other half goes in the fridge for the next day. I add some of our cats’ good dry cat food into Hatch’s bowl, (I put the cheapest stuff I can find out in the cat room) and a half can of soft food. I use a few tablespoons of hot water to rinse the tin and pour it over Hatch’s food. This morning he was sitting in the cat room, watching out the window for me.
Hatch and I have an understanding. He won’t leave if I don’t try to pet him. I respect that.
We had a beautiful sunrise.
After the sun came up and I was getting water for a second cup o’joe, I looked out the window and saw everything covered in a layer of white. Frost? Raini and I went out to take a picture for you.
Sunset.
One more thing I’ve been meaning to tell you for weeks now. I found a way to help me fall asleep. Normally I use a pillow speaker and a podcast to drift off to sleepy land, but since I’ve been using this method, I’ve not turned on my podcasts once.
“Well, tell us!” you say.
It’s the Random Word Sleep Technique. Pick a random word and picture it in your head, then let another completely unrelated word follow. You don’t have to go fast — pauses are fine — just don’t build a story. I caught myself story‑building the other night. I thought “driveway,” then saw our car in the driveway and said “car,” followed by “garage.” I only got three words in before realizing I was making a story. The trick is to keep them random. You might think “lamp, pancake, river, shoelace, trumpet.” The sillier they are, the better. Your brain gets distracted from worries, drifts into nonsense, and before you know it, you’re asleep.
It works really well for me but it doesn’t work for Mike.
Let’s end with a few more pictures.
With that, let’s call this one done!
Done!
