Peeking In While It is Still January

Hello, Dear One. Did I scare you being away so long? Goodness, I just thought that I would have all kinds of time in January. Yet here it went skipping off like a mountain goat just as every other month does. I freely confess that coming up with blog fodder grows more difficult for me all the time. 

What is that? Well sometimes I take photos based on pattern or textural interest. I think I was hoping that taking a picture would spur me on. Sometimes that works.

Just a few short weeks ago, I thought that God had blessed me and all Mainers with a mild winter and, in fact, He had up to that point. Then winter arrived. I try not to be annoyed with the cold and ice since all children I know seem to enjoy snow. This is Emmanuel and Anneke and Sprocket the Rocket. He is a Tamaskan. He is big. He is still a puppy. I imagine that he will be huge when grown.

Laurel knocking off the icicles. Sam has done it since and so has Adam. Thanks be for helpers! Every member of the family, including my sister, has helped with so much around here.

Adam and Jake in negotiations. Jake was ready to split. Laurel and I had the January birthday boys over for pizza and cake and ice cream and gifts. It was just one of many birthday parties for them. 

Sam looked out at the luge and said it would be ready for sledding in another storm or two. I was surprised that he still thinks of the luge fondly now that he is 17. Jake is 16. John sure made it fun for them.

Here they are in younger years....perhaps 5 and 6 or 6 and 7. I would ask their mom, but then I would have to confess that I stole this picture from her FB page. 

Can you believe the price of groceries? Eggs!

May February be sweet... thanks for stopping by...

Love,

Vee

A Brief Hello

It's now or never—last day of February and, if I hope to keep up with this break neck speed of one post a month, I need to put a word or two down. I think I'll close comments, though, because I don't want anyone to try coming up with something when I am offering so little. 

February was quite cold and snowy. "It's Maine, it's winter," says my sister if I dare mention that it is cold or snowy. We did have a wonderful hint of spring a week or more ago with temps warming to 60° for a few days. Lots of snow melted. Now it is frigid and there's been more snow so the incessant dripping will happen all over again. Probably three times. 

Usually on Wednesdays I have visitors. They climb my snow mountains and linger for lunch. My sister has become a covid grandmother like thousands of others. God bless them. Here are a few pics IF the platform will upload them. We'll see. 

Thanks for stopping in. I will try to do better in March. Maybe. 

Love,

Vee

Sleigh Ride

This is the story of a sleigh ride idea that became a sleigh ride reality—eventually!
*** My grandsons have birthdays so soon after Christmas that it has always been a challenge to give them birthday gifts. For a number of years, John and I talked about this conundrum and, in recent years, we began to wonder about purchasing an experience. Others in the family had been successful going that route...skiing lessons, karate lessons, baseball camp, etc. Anyway, I learned that a local farm gave sleigh rides and that the cost was within the budget and so we were ready to give them this birthday gift in 2016. I was not sure that it would be appreciated because, as boys, they prefer speed and they have a Papa who loves to take them for snowmobile rides...vroom, vroom. For that reason, my daughter suggested that it would not be a great idea. We shelved it.
*** This year, I found myself thinking about sleigh rides yet again. Perhaps it would be a thing that I could give that would also have John's touch on it since he had been involved with former discussions and had been quite sure that the boys would like it...anyway, he would have when he was a kid.
***
I talked it over with my daughter-in-law and she thought it sounded great. When my blogging buddy Michele sent me the lovely sleigh wicker basket, I thought I had a sign from Heaven itself. ☺ 
***
The birthday party arrived and I fairly skipped my way over there. Alas, there was no enthusiasm for the gift. Zero. There may have been some tears shed. Mine. Oh dear. One of the last things I heard about it was my daughter-in-law Michelle saying with steely determination, "They are going on that sleigh ride."
***

Well she was right!

*A Link to a Bangor Daily News article about the sleigh ride farm*

*These beautiful horses are Canadians (name of breed)*

 ~grandsons with their cousin, parents, and aunt and uncle~

 ~the warming hut~

 ~the trail~

 ~heading back~

I have been told that Jakob leaned over to his mother and said, "This was a lot more fun than I thought it would be."
And this nonni said, "phew!"



Postscript: Yes, I was invited on this sleigh ride, but I declined. I just wasn't sure that it would be that much fun. 

My World This Week

A nice Valentine collage may make up for the mess I am about to show you. And why even bother with my own images when PicMonkey has so many lovely ones from which to choose?

~PicMonkey Collage~

Most days I sit around looking out the windows. Just call me Mrs. Kravitz. This huge maple tree was taken down way last summer. A portion of it fell down in a storm the week that John was in the hospital last May.  It has taken a long time to chop it up and haul it off. This was the last bit. I was thinking of it as lawn art and am a little sad to see it go.

I have tried to keep the deck cleared, but the last ice storm nearly did us all in. I still have a lot of ice on the deck.

The good news is that the stairs are clear.

~Bootprint Angel~

~Shovel Ready~

↑This is my spot for dumping extra snow. There are precious few places left. Underneath this snow is my set of whimsical stairs that John made me.

↑If all else fails, I can push the snow all the way into the ravine.

~The bear is buried.~

↑Snow does cover a lot of unsightly messes. This falling down fence is not mine. I would really like it gone and I won't replace it as my neighbor did. You can see the difference between the ancient fence and the new fence.

It is true that I have become a bit ding-toed walking on all this ice. I have heard that one should walk like a pigeon, but then my brother-in-law told me I should walk like a duck. Is he teasing me? Either way, I am wearing my cleats a lot.

↑There's a whole lot of ice chopping going on. 

The good news about all the ice is that, when it is time to paint this spring, there'll not need to be a lot of scraping.

~Back to looking out windows...~

Another day, another storm, another lovely morning in Maine, she said wryly. Very.

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

P.S. Nearly the end of today's storm and just the beginning of clean-up. We have many storms coming...Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday... Yikes! 😖

Sleigh Ride? I Think Not

I am still in my jammies today for no good reason as I do not have a cold, though I am cold. Perhaps I'm in solidarity with the folks anticipating a blizzard, which, bless God, will miss us. We did prepare with the purchase of food and the plowing of the driveway. Those things don't go to waste. ***
I've been watching one episode after the next of Monarch of the Glen on Netflix this week and all thanks to Judy at Cranberry Morning and more for the scenery than the story. Gorgeous! (Judy is a full-blown Anglophile and today she may just be featuring something from her travels in Great Britain.) Now I had tried to watch MotG back when it was new and never could get interested, but seeing Archie dodging buckets in season 1, episode 1 clicked with me. Things had been leaking around here, too. Ahem. Yes, things are also a bit threadbare here. Ever noticed that front hall carpet at Glenbogle? I am already halfway through Season Three. When the big changes come...Season Four or Five, I'm bailing.

This watching of old PBS programming is reminiscent of the winter five years ago when I watched one show after another of Larkrise to Candleford. My mother had passed and I needed diversion of the highest order.  Larkrise to Candleford helped get me through until spring when I could gain some equilibrium.

***

I made applesauce bread last night while the wind whipped around and we were comforted to eat it still warm and slathered with butter. (The recipe has been added at the bottom of the post.) ***
I bought a pork loin early in the week that lasted us many meals. I kept trying to reinvent the leftovers — pork with potatoes, pork on potatoes, pork on toast. It's gone now, which is probably good. I'm moving on to Cheesy Corn Chowder tonight, thanks to Dotsie at Podso. (My recipe is in the recipe box located in my sidebar.) ***
 I keep thinking that I want to go on a sleigh ride. What possesses me? It's way too cold for that. I'm pretty sure that sleigh rides sound more fun than they are. Do they sound like fun to you? Have you ever been on one?
ツ






Vee's Applesauce Bread
Ingredients:

- 1 1/2cups flour
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup white sugar (feel free to skimp if applesauce is also sweetened)
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 1 cup applesauce
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/8 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup walnuts are optional

Method:

1. preheat oven to 350°
2. grease and flour a standard bread loaf pan
3. mix eggs, sugar, oil, add in applesauce, mix well
4. Into flour, add dry ingredients and, using whisk, stir well
5. Add flour mixture slowly to wet mixture
6. When well incorporated, fold in walnuts, if desired

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 60 minutes. Test for doneness with a toothpick or cake tester. It may take up to 20 minutes longer.

Cool on wire rack

Yummy! Better the second day...

In Anticipation of Marble Season

Some years ago now, I made my grandsons some marble bags, if one could call them that. They were  simple pouches made from painter's cloth and with ties that require wrapping about the top because they have no drawstrings. Pathetic. I have been looking for something more suitable ever since. 

I found it! *This tutorial* is just wonderful and I can not recommend it highly enough. Even I understood it. Oh there is that one unfortunate bit where she doesn't mention that she sewed a channel for the drawstring, but she did show it so that's good.

Even though I made the bag a little larger than suggested, it's not quite big enough for a marble bag so this will serve as my prototype. I must get something besides ribbon as the drawstring, too — way too prissy for boys.

My poor husband has been suffering this winter because of all the hard work involved with shoveling snow. My arms may hurt, but his neck bothers him most. I saw *this nifty pillow* on Pinterest and created one that better suits him, which means that his is a bit narrower in the center and wider. He finds it helpful.

***

If I don't use these photos, the opportunity will be lost. The red really popped against the snow. John is unimpressed with this shot because he says one can't see the house. Well I can't help it if the snowbanks are this high!

This is a lovely home in our neighborhood...

and that is how it will look in spring. Why, yes, I did climb a tree to take the shot. ; >  Yes, it is the very same house, but John was going way too fast as we passed by for me to get the entire structure.

Be it ever so humble...this is our wee home nestled behind mammoth snowbanks and at the edge of the forest. We have since had nearly ten additional inches of snow. The good news is that the storms are slowing down and not coming as often.

Gotta love a man who'll carry in the purse! A wonderful day to you...

On the Slopes

Usually, I am very content to be home, yet every now and then, even in winter, even after a snowfall, I find myself eager to get out of the house. I was last out two weeks ago, just to prove the point. This time I had two great reasons to get out and about. I wanted to see the grandsons hit the slopes!

~over wintry roads~

Yes, last year may have been the Year of the Luge; however, this year is the Year of the Slope. The grands are on winter break so maternal grandparents and parents pooled resources for them to take skiing lessons. 

There is a charming little ski area very close by, which makes it handy. It is called Lost Valley and would you believe that John and I got lost there? ☺ Anyway, our daughter-in-law found us because we surely couldn't find her or the boys. The boys were up along the ridge and out of sight, but would be coming down eventually. We waited at the bottom of the slope near the ski lift where I amused myself by taking photos of the lifts.

I was amazed by all the little tykes zipping around on skis and snowboards then...

Their mom spies them right away. I was having troubles.

~same photo as above without arrows~

 One is to the left of the instructor and the other is behind her.

Here's Jake (the younger) waiting for instructions. It was good to see how attentive he was!

~Jake to the left and Sam to the right~

Following the leader in for a brief break at the lodge.

Lost Valley had fallen on hard times and was not expected to open this year. We are so glad that they did. Perhaps, one day, they'll be able to afford some updates to the lodge and return it to its former glory. I remember visiting a number of times over 40 years ago.

While chatting with the boys at break time, Sam shared that they had been having a lot of fun and that he was very tired. The day before, he had made a wrong turn and wound up going down a steeper hill all alone. I asked him how he managed to keep calm and get to the bottom without falling, which he had managed to do. He said, "I didn't keep calm. I was trying hard not to scream all the way down." Oh my! It had to have been exciting.

↑ Every mom might appreciate the option my daughter-in-law used with one tired Jake. Ha!

Our last look as the boys get on the lift and never look back.  It was interesting to see how skiing is taught. I hope that they get to graduate to poles soon. It's tough getting around otherwise.  See you next week!