Cold weather musings

I like living where there are four seasons.  There are times that nature seems to overlook spring and jumps from winter to summer.  On a rare year we may  have only a glimpse of fall before winter arrives after our summer.  The promise of change is good for my soul and knowing some of the wonderful things that come with each time of year is encouraging in so many ways. 

Snow brings such pristine beauty into my life and I enjoy it for that reason and others.  I like the brisk, crisp air, unless I have some respiratory disorder that causes pain when I breathe in the frigid air.    Icicles are constantly changing and when there is light on these formations it is like a splotlight on nature's crystal sculptures.  The light can be artificial or from the sun, the loveliness still exists.

I don't mind shoveling snow, in small amounts.  I am grateful that at our house we have a tractor to clear much of the walk and the driveway, the roads around our farm buildings.  Usually this extends to neighbor's homes as well.  The danger of slipping on the ice or having a solid chunk of ice from the roof drop onto an unsuspecting soul, maybe me,  that is getting harder to bear as my years go by.

Cold weather brings opportunities for fun that would be impossible without it.  I grew up skating on frozen ponds and rivers, sleigh riding, digging snow tunnels, enjoying a good snowball fight.  Didn't do much in the way of skiing, the places offering such were too far distant and expensive in my young life.  However all of my children enjoy that activity as does my spouse.  I like the fun side of winter, even when I have graduated to more of a spectator rather than participant.

This particular season, 2012-13, has brought a good winter, but it is getting a little long in the tooth.  I am ready for a change of pace. February can be a dreary month when one is bombarded with foggy days and continual gloom.  March, just the name signifies marching to warmer, green things, dirt.  As far as the work load, there will be an increase with outdoor chores.  Some of those precious reading times by a warm fire will dwindle.  Yep, think I am ready for March, even the mud that goes with it.  It has been a long, icy season and I am thinking seed catalogs, crocuses. about now.  How about you?

Winter Joys

        Last week on a cold winter night my husband and I returned home from watching a high school ballgame.  As we departed the car we noticed the prints of deer hooves right at the point of where our garage door drops down.  Some of our local deer, who have been eating our hay crop in the barn prior to our getting it sold and down the road, are now sampling the evergreen shrubs that grow on either side of our doorway. Cheeky things!  Is nothing safe?  But how nice that they are still around, minus the hay.  They have been cleaning up any scraps left in the barn from the clearing out of the hay bales.  The critters may come just as close to the house during warmer months but we don't see the tracks unless we have snow.

Another joy of winter months is the blooming of my Christmas cactus.  I inherited this lovely thing from my mother-in-law and I would guess that parts of it might be 50 years old.  She kept it on her dryer in her sun room, now it basks in front of my living room window.  When it arrived I moved it around a bit in our house trying to discover where it was most comfortable.  It took some doing but this window is a match, although the plant sticks out a mite and mars a perfect view of the TV from a certain chair.  The plant takes preference in my book.

Early this fall the plant got an involuntary pruning.  My one year old grandson knocked it off its perch and sent it crashing to the floor (carpeted, of course.)  One side broke off rather badly, down to the base.  Other sections flew.  The child was safe and that was the most important since it is a plant about the size of 3 basketballs in a large heavy clay pot.  The pot survived too. Blessings all around. I shook the plant back into place, more or less, added some new soil and wondered if it would want to bloom this winter season.  Then again it might decided all these years of beauty were too much effort and it was time to dry and wither.

It has gotten watered along with the rest of the houseplants, about once a week, maybe every 10 days or so because I suddenly recall that is a chore that needs tending.  December arrived, no buds forming.   I couldn't blame the plant after such a jolt.  However by mid month buds started forming. 

This year my beautiful friend has decided to be a New Year cactus, rather than Christmas. The blooms are the old fashioned variety that are hard to find these days in the nursery stores.  The deep rose blossoms are layered and hang gracefully.  They keep coming, so far only on the side facing the window.  Some years this plant has cheered up my winter days well into April.  Once it decides to take a rest I give it an intended pruning and share cuttings with neighbors and friends who are interested.  It has been a lovely heirloom from a lovely lady.  She was a great friend, and now her plant carries that relationship forward in memory.

Day after the Days Before, 2013

Nearly all the holiday decorations are put away.  I started to write All, and then thought about how I keep finding one here, one there, that I have missed.  Today was one of those “getting back to whatever is normal” days.   My furniture is back in place.  Husband gone on a trip, vacuum out, washing machine sloshing away, I was glad to have a warm wood fire to keep the house comfortable in our below zero temperatures.

            We have these below zero temperatures outside, snow of a fairly good depth, and yet I needed to dust.  Seems unfair, somehow.  Summer and dirt roads, yes, but now?  However it has always happened so I am no longer questioning it, just dull acceptance.  One of those  many eternal chores.

            Our squirrel of the last entry now has a name.  She is Miss Suzy, named after a favorite heroine in a childhood book of my children. My daughter reminded me about Miss Suzy and it is a perfect fit for this bustle of grey fur.  Miss Suzy put on a wonderful performance on New Year’s Day as we gathered around the table to eat dinner.  She was up and down, back and forth, even jumping from one pine tree to another.  All humans were highly entertained, no matter what their age, the youngest wanting to go play too.  Suzy goes way up high into the pines, these are 35 year old pine trees, and comes down just as fast as she goes up.  Somewhere along the way she has deposited the burden she was carrying when she started up the tree trunk.  I do want her to be safe from the predators of our neighborhood and hope that she finds a place for resting after all the exertions she puts forth.

            Now it is time to go read my current book.  Isn’t reading wonderful?!!  It has transported me to many places, situations, taught me much since I was a child.  This is one habit I want never to break!  Happy New Year to All!

Squirrel Lessons for Me

            We have a resident squirrel at our house.  She provides much entertainment for me and my cat, Benny.  I am sure the entertainment for each not quite the same.  While I am admiring this bunch of active fur Benny is hunched down as low as he can get in front of the patio doors, slowing creeping, inch by inch, closer to the glass door.  Pure cat!  Squirrel saved by a pane of glass!

            I have given her the female gender because she is so busy, so storing up for the winter, even though the winter is here.  She makes me think of the ladies in my village when canning season is upon them.

  This grey little “lady” is swift of foot and keeps at it, back and forth from our woodshed to the nearest big pine tree. The earth is covered with a few inches of snow. It is a fair distance, out in the open, passing along a sidewalk, then an apple tree and sandbox, on behind the swing set and zip, up the pine tree. Sometimes she pauses on top of the sandbox lid, taking a breather, but always on the alert.  She makes this run while packing an item as big as her own head in her jaws.  I am guessing it is a dried apple that she has previously pocketed away in the woodshed in warmer days, when I was through harvesting my own apples. 

            It is not even a minute before she is back down on the ground, checking out a fallen pine cone or two and then a dash back to the shed for yet another burden. 

            She has to be brave, we have an outdoor cat with two kittens.  Maybe she knows they are a lazy variety as they often turn their backs on her activities.  We also have families of magpies that call that same pine “home.”  There seems to be no threat from that department.

            So industrious, so intent on what she is doing.  She could provide several lessons for most humans about how to conduct their lives, how to be successful.  It always makes me think that I need to be better at prioritizing what is important in the eternal scheme of things.  I admire her so much, I just had to write about her.  Hope you have enjoyed it.

Delight or Drudgery?

It is time for Christmas Cards, and it is a time I like.  This does take lots of time, there is the list of recipients, the writing of notes or perhaps a letter revealing the events of the last 12 months in your lives,  the addressing, the stamping, sealing and mailing.  It is not an overnight task at my house, the process has to be dovetailed in with the chores of daily living.  I always wish I had started to do it earlier, like some of my well organized friends.  However I have learned that whether early in the season or late, the sending and receiving is what is important, even if the card arrives after Christmas. 

When the mailman, or woman in my case, delivers a greeting from a friend or relative it warms my heart.  First I do some thinking about the individual who chose to send us a card, grateful that we are sufficiently a part their lives to receive a card.  Then I am warmed again as I open and peruse the contents.  Finally I want to find a spot to display the card as part of my Christmas decorations.  In this way I am reminded of the friend and our association for several weeks, depending on when it arrived.

I have yet to get this year's cards in the mail.  I do have the list out, the boxes of cards chosen and today finished up my annual letter.  I have wondered if those getting my missives will be bored by the "same old, same old," descriptions of the life of me and my husband.  I have decided that doesn't matter.  What matters is how I feel about them.  One has just recently buried her husband and I need to keep that in mind while I am in the midst of this annual production.  Normally she is one who just sends a card, no note, etc.  but I think this year I need to reach a little more than usual.  I wonder if there are some who have been seriously ill, or had circumstances in their lives that I might have assisted, had I known.  Still, this is the one time of year that we pause and wish goodness for others in this special way.

This year I want to feel like each card to my friends is like a birthday card for our Savior, after all it is His  birth that brings all of these good feelings into my heart.  I know He wants us all to come to the celebration of His coming to earth.

To Keep or to Toss---groceries

I read Prevention magazine.  Recently I was going through an article on saving at the supermarket and found it interesting to share.   You know how we are always being told to read the labels, to note the sell-by date, the expiration date, etc. so we can keep our families healthy.  I thought this bit of info might be worth sharing.


If stored properly, that means 40 degrees or below these items are still good.  Milk for a week past the sell-by date.  Eggs 3-4 weeks past the sell-by date.  Hard cheese (once opened) is good 2-4 months past the sell-by date.  Yogurt, 10-14 days past the sell-by date. Lunch meat 3-5 days past sell-by date.

For milk hit the dairy aisle right before checking out to minimize the amount of time milk is left unrefrigerated, and store it on a shelf pushed far back, where the air is coldest.  Store eggs in the original container on a refrigerator shelf rather than on th door, where eggs are vulnerable to temperature fluctuations.  Wrap cheese in moisture-proof plastic or foil; if the outside of hard cheese has visible mold, trim off the mold and a 1/2 inch area of cheese below it.  Yogurt is best stored at around 39 degrees F., a good temp for your fridge.  Don't be deterred by separation---simply stir and enjoy.  Store lunch meat in the meat compartment---it is specially designed to keep cool air in.

When I think of the groceries I have tossed, and of course, the money out of my food budget that accompanies it.  One thing I have discovered on my own is that if we can keep things air tight they certainly last longer, whether it is cookies or celery, the rule applies.  There, my tip for the day.  A good one for Thanksgiving when we have leftovers in abundance.

Just Thinking Overtime

           My brain gets a workout now and then, this is the results of one of those times.  It has been a long time since I blogged on this site,  I know I need to do some "fixing" so I will be more happy with it.  Suggestions are welcome.  I write all the time, just don't share,  so why blog?

           Sometimes I think being a human is very hard.  We have thinking powers and so are faced with decisions.  We are responsible for ourselves, we are responsible to others.  We have obligations to fulfill, we make promises, bargains….much involved with other humans. 

            Other living things on this earth are dependent on us.  Consider  the pets we enjoy---eat, sleep, roll over, play, entertain, show affection, maybe guard.  On a farm animals may help with work, or produce a desired product for the humans, but still they are cared for totally by us.  Plants are cared for by us or nature, wild and tame animals the same.  Humans----have it harder.

            We are connected to other humans.  We are happy, sad, we get hurt feelings, we argue, we take revenge.  We have to work to provide for our livelihood one way or another.  Sometimes we hate the work we have to do.

            Short of being a hermit, there is no other way.  It is part of the plan, our journey may be over cobblestones and full of potholes.  Most journeys are.  That seems to be the times we grow the most, at least when we look back on the potholes we have navigated.

            In the long run, life is good.  We just have to remind ourselves of that every so often.