Here we are with snow on the ground and still a week away from Valentine's day, yet looking out my living room window, I can feel and hear the changes that are going on outside.  The sun is beating warmer on my window even though the icy wind is keeping the air cold.  I can hear the windchimes along with the birds out on my feeders.  It's as though Mother Nature is telling me that spring is just around the corner.  It's a slow process, but the ice and snow is starting to melt... more so, now that we are seeing daylight a little longer now.

I do know that I am ready for the season's change.  It feels stuffy inside this cottage.  A little drab and dull.  I want to wash the windows and open them to air out the rooms.  I want to take down the curtains and wash them, clean the light fixtures and change over the heavy quilt on the bed to a light and airy comforter.  I want fresh flowers on the kitchen table and I want to smell the scent of bleach throughout the house.  I also want to sweep off the porch and steps and put a couple of rocking chairs  out there.  As much as I hate the chore....I would like to tear apart every shelf in the house and organize what to keep and toss out the rest.  I want to be more organized.

I guess that's it for now.......

Carol gets off her soap box and takes a bow before walking away!!!

My heart goes out tonight to anyone who is homeless and on the streets.  The temps have been dropping all afternoon and when I took the dog out, I was getting uncomfortably cold and I had a coat on.  Even Fred was shivering by the time we came back inside only moments later.

Here we are, inside with the warmth of the furnace and the oven as I am baking chicken at the moment.  I will have to refill the humidifier because it is so dry in here, but we are warm and cozy.

While outside, I looked up to the moon and the air is so clear that stars just sparkled.  I was amazed at how many I could see tonight.  I remember a night just like this Fifteen years ago when I was outside looking at the black night sky with all those stars in the cold New England winter night.  I was freezing and as I looked down,  There was Steve, catching me with a kiss.  I will never forget that moment.  It's one of my favorite memories.

Back to the present...... Steve will be home from work within the next couple of hours and we will have our dinner and watch TV, snuggled up together before we retire for the night.

It's getting late, but the dog needed to go out one more time before I retired for the evening.  It's still snowing, but, very lightly.  It was so quiet out in the back yard and because the snow is so dry, it sparkles like little diamonds floating down and landing in small mounds on the evergreen boughs.

Looking up, a sliver of moon shone through the parting and thinning clouds and the crooked, bare, limbs of the old oak tree in our back yard created a frame around this scene.

Winter may not be my favorite season, but I have to say, there is a soft beauty no other season can match.  In just a few short weeks, it will be sugaring time with shiny buckets attached to the sugar maples all through the back roads of this small state.  The sap will be collected and the sugar houses will be fired up, working day and night until the sweet maple syrup has been boiled down to perfection.

So, with this, I will go to bed and be lulled to sleep by the hum of the furnace.

Sweet Dreams.....

Here we are, Mid-winter.  We still have six more weeks of winter to go.  Why does it seem that winter is longer than the other three seasons?  There never seems to be enough time for summer and autumn.  They fly by so fast, at least, here in New Hampshire.  Anyway.....I am now thinking of spring gardens and a complete spring cleaning inside the house.  I will be so glad when I can open the windows and air out this cottage.

Well, here we are......... A new year, 2009.  We are having a little snow activity this morning, but sunshine is just around the corner.  Between two ice storms and the snow, we are in good shape with water levels.  They say we may have more snow by Saturday.  Yup..... It's January!!

I should get out and get some errands run today, but I think I'll wait until this afternoon when the roads are not as slushy.  This is the time of year when Steve would rather not  be in New England.  If he could, he would be basking in the sun and enjoying the sites of central Florida.  I will consentrate on the upcoming Spring and think of plans for my gardens.  Until that time, I will continue to make rib sticking meals, find recipies that I can use with my Kitchen Aid mixer and try to organize our home.

So, here we are. Christmas week. I don't know about anyone else, but, this is going to be a full week for our house. I still have a few gifts coming from "Santa's Brownies"........you know......The UPS guys!!, I am trying my hand for the first time making a yule log cake. I'll let you know how it all turns out. My wrapping is almost done, but I still have a bunch of fudge to make for my candy tins for the neighbors.

By now, I'm usually burned out, ready to have all the gift wrapped presents out of my site and counting the days for when I can take the Christmas tree down, and my house back to normal. For some reason I don't feel that way this year. For the first time in over fifteen years, I will leave the tree up until New Years. I have no desire to take it down and starting last night, the tree will be lit around the clock until Christmas day.

Because of everyones work schedules this year, I will have a feast ready late Christmas Eve as my hungry family will be coming in shifts. Sally will be bouncing off of walls even after she is put to bed. As tradition, Vern and Dee will spend the night here too. Santa knows to come to our house for Sally. The cookies and hot chocolate are already to be set out for him. She will open one gift before going to bed and then the adults will open our gifts before ending the day. Of course, we will all have our hot chocolate toast at 9pm to my Mother, Jamy and friends and family who passed over the past few years.

Despite the fact that it may rain on Christmas Eve, we will have a white Christmas this year. From Friday through Sunday, we picked up more that a foot and a half of snow. It is beautiful. Should we get the rain and hardly any more snow for the season after Christmas day, we would be more than grateful. An early spring would also be appreciated.

So, off I go......time to get back into my housework and baking. Just in case I don't get back here before the holidays.....

Merry Christmas!!

It started on Thursday night.  One of the worst weather conditions that can hit the north east is an ice storm.  They usually come in the very early spring, but not this one.  We lost power before I went to bed, so, I went to bed knowing it was going to be a long night.

The rain froze on everything it touched including the bare tree branches and the evergreen boughs of the pines.  Sometime during the night I woke to the familiar sound of heavy branches of trees breaking and falling to the ground and on the roofs of the mobile homes throughout the neighborhood.  That horrible popping sound just before the limbs fell, sent chills down my back as I laid there in the dark praying that no harm would come to our neighbors or us.  I snuggled into Steve, hoping sleep would send me back to dreamland.

Sleep came in spurts that night and I couldn't wait for daylight when we would find out how much damage we encountered outside our door.  Friday morning dawned and still the electricity was out.  Steve still went to work and Ken and I took a ride to see how bad the town suffered through the night.  Some streets were closed due to trees and wires downed from the storm and some areas looked like battle zones while others were a beautiful, sparkling wonderland.  Traffic lights were down in all the towns we went through and all stores and gas stations were closed.  Steve and I spoke over the cell phones and we met up at Lowe's in Epping.  Lowe's had it's own generator system and so they were open for business.  We bought the electrical supplies we needed to hook up the generator and headed home.

Well, fate had it so that our generator didn't work.  It is now in the shop being fixed so this won't happen again.  We were able to use our gas stove top and we have kerosene lanterns and emergency candles. We stayed warm and had dinner out before coming home and going to bed early.  Come Saturday morning, nothing had changed.  We were still without power.  Poor Steve.  This was his birthday and I couldn't even bake him his cake.  We took a ride, had dinner out again and when we got home......low and behold.......we had lights in the park as we drove in.  Our red lights and lit Santa on our porch was the best sight I had seen in two days.

Today, Sunday, there are still many communities without power.  Dee and Verne had Vernes parents from Farmington spend the night and cousin Jim and Marlene from Derry are staying with us tonight.  I hope the rest of the towns have power by tomorrow.  We have even seen utility trucks from as far as Quebec, Canada here to help with restoring power.

After all of this, we are expected to have unseasonably temps into the high fifties for the next couple of days!!!  Well, that's New England for you.  As for tonight???......I am sitting here enjoying the sound of Christmas Carols, a lit Christmas tree, the glow of the electric wood stove and the warmth of the furnace.  My prayers reach out to those who are still without power tonight. May they all find warmth and love tonight.

Here it is, not quite four-thirty in the afternoon and the lights outside are on, the Christmas tree is lit, and the desk lamp is on in the livingroom.  I look out my window by the desk and the lights are glowing from neighborhood windows against a quickly darkening sky.

There is just a dusting of snow clinging to the lawns and fir trees.  Just enough to know that it is winter beyond the window.  It's icy cold too, yet so warm and cozy here inside.

The hypnotic drone of the dishwasher lulled my body into relaxation and set my mind to drift back to childhood and to days very much like this one.  The small mill town street filled with children all bundled up in woolen coats, hats and mittens.  Outside play would have ended with the lighting of the street lights which served as a signal that it was time to be inside for supper.

My Mother would be in the kitchen with her apron on cooking dinner to be ready for five o'clock.  I'd set my mittens and hat on the register to dry, hang up my coat and wash up before setting the kitchen table.

The television wouldn't go on until six o'clock when my Father would watch the news after supper.  Children in the first and second grade didn't have homework after school, like today, so I would go into my room and play while my Mother cleaned the kitchen.  When the dishes were done and food put away, I would take my bath and brush my teeth before watching TV myself before going to bed.

About this time of year, channel nine in New Hampshire would broadcast Santa Clause from the North Pole.  I always listened close to hear the names he would call and the letters to Santa he would read.  I would keep my fingers crossed, hoping he would read my letter.  It was hard to see sometimes because of the snow.  Little did I know at that young age that it was the bad reception that was causing that problem!

When Santa was over it was time for me to be in bed.  I would kiss my parents goodnight, they would turn of my light and I would snuggle down into the bedding to dream of the things I wanted Santa to bring me.

The ringing of the phone brings me back to the reality of the present and I sigh with contentment, my grateful heart filled with joy for my special memories.

May we all enjoy the warmth of this Christmas season, the love of family and friends and for the perfect love of the atonement, Jesus gave us with his birth.

One of my favorite birds is the Junco.  I'm told they are here year round, but I seem to only see them just before Thanksgiving until the end of winter.  I get all excited, like a kid, when I first see one near my feeders.  Years ago, one hit my den window and fell, head first, into the snow below the window.  I went outside, pulled him out and held him in my hands, wrapped in a soft towel until he was ready to fly again and then let him go near my feeders.

It's just one of those experiences that means so much in my life.

Enjoy your day and seek small miracles along the way.

It's not always a good thing to have all your communication systems run by the same company.  I'm not sure what Comcast's problems are, but, it seems they have been having more "Blackout" times than normal lately.

When I woke up this morning, I couldn't use my phone, computer (internet) or television.  It's an eerie feeling when you can't communicate with the world around you.  Thank goodness I have a tabletop radio that works well and I was able to get our local radio station.

This did make me think, though.  It wouldn't take much for our communication systems to be knocked out in this country and everything from grocery store cash registers, bank ATM machines, and emergency services like 911 would not be able to work.

Today's technology is great, but I like having a few "Old fashioned" things around that would keep me connected to the world.  As long as we still have electricity things like radios, scanners and CB radios would still be working.

Oh well, things are back to normal right now and it's time for me to get into this day.