A beautiful morning

I looked out my window this morning, and the beauty out there took my breath away. The view is just the tall pine trees in the neighbors yard, but they were illuminated by golden light, against a bright blue sky--truly magnificent. The light was almost Maxfield Parrish-ish, which I always love.


(No, we look NOTHING like these people, even when I go out to feed the chickens in my pajamas!)

This winter has been so weird--more days that felt like April than December (or January or February, for that matter).

My guys are at a Klondike Derby in 40+ degree weather (and mud to the armpits, I am sure, since it rained the last 2 days), and so last night BigGirl and I ate 2 heart shaped boxes of chocolates while we watched "Breaking Dawn, pt. 1" together. We had a great time!

This morning, I did get to watch my neighbor repeatedly hitting the tire on his pickup truck with a sledge hammer. Now it is parked just barely in his driveway--I think it is axel problems. Maybe my car problems are contagious. My poor gray boringmobile has entered the automotive version of hospice care. I do not think there is any recovery for this.

Now I need to go do useful things!

Winter Wonderland

Today, I dropped off the car at the mechanics for an oil change (which reminded me of my favorite sign at a quick lube place: "How long has it REALLY been?") and I walked home. It is so beautiful today--the sky is a bright clear blue, all the sunlight is gold and it reflects and sparkles on the snow diamonds and all the shadows are blue/purple/gray. The time and temp sign at the bank says it's 21 degrees, which explains why it is so sparkly--it has to be fairly warm (relatively speaking!) to snow, but when it gets really cold it crystallizes all the surface snow so it is bright reflective prisms. It is very beautiful--although the wind was a bit brisk.

That last storm (the one where I could hear the flakes) was an ice storm that dropped ice pellets for hours and made a thick crust over everything. Walking across it is an adventure! SmallDaughter LOVES it--but she can easily walk on the crust--not so for me--every few steps I break through up to my shins!

Also, it froze the barn door shut, so I have to wait for the sun to warm things up a little before I can go feed the chickens!