snow mysteries

I love it when it's cold and bright outside, especially when you throw snow into the mix.

It's a lovely, crunchy walk back to the barn for our daily work.

One of the best parts is trying to decipher the mysterious tracks in the snow that appear when the snow sticks around for several days.

This splayed bird shape is probably from a small hawk, diving for a mouse or mole traveling beneath the snow.

Back by the barn, this large tamped-down circle is probably from a gathering of coyotes.

Tracks leading into the circle show that the coyotes came from all directions.  We need to get a trail cam set up back here!

Who are these mysterious companions that made multiple trips to our front pond?  One is certainly cat, but the other is strange.  Four distinct large prints, then a significant space, and then the repeating pattern of 4 prints.  Something surely hopped or loped, but what? 

Of course, bird tracks are unmistakable.

I love seeing the birds come...

...and go...

...around the feeders.  There are plenty of seeds for everyone.

Claudia doesn't seem to mind the snow too much.

The horses, too, have been out every day.

The snow will probably be gone within a day.  The sun has been bright, causing drippy icicles outside...

...and sleepy pets inside.

The snow will be gone, but we'll still have those amazing sunrises and sunsets to look forward to.

Have a great week! 

red pop

Todd's viking hat has reappeared, and that can only mean one thing - SNOW!

I sorely missed snow when we lived in South Carolina, and am so excited for this recent snowfall.  It came down thick...

...but alas, we only got 2 inches.  Still, 2 inches is enough to see wild animal tracks.  The expected ones (probably Claudia):

...but then the unknown tracks, clustered thickly around the edges of both ponds.

The front pond is frozen over...

...and although we lost several trees around the back pond last year, it's still very pretty!

I'm glad I didn't cut down all the multiflora roses last year.  I'm loving these bright red rose hips and have been bringing them into the house all autumn long!

The neighbor's barns provide another pretty pop of red.  I can't see them in the summer, but they're visible after the leaves have fallen.  Aren't they lovely?

And, of course, we've got our cardinals to give another flash of color.

The less-flashy birds are nice to watch, too.  I love, love, love dark-eyed juncos.  They are hopping all over our fields, looking for seed.

The suet feeder always has a guest!

Everyone is busy outside, but this weather is the perfect excuse for us house-dwellers to put up our feet in front of the fire.

Have a great week!

a rush (of activity) and a push (of frosting)

It's the time of year to pull out all of our favorite Christmas decorations!  They were boxed up last year, so it was nice to see some old familiar faces...like these guys.  I hand-cut these Star Wars "snowflakes" for Todd in the early years of our relationship.  A good reminder that I will never, ever indulge in paper cutting by hand again!  #ouch

Our decorations aren't fancy, and they never match.  Some of the interior lights are colored, some are yellow, and some are white.  They line nearly every interior window and are fairly tacky-looking...but I love Christmas lights and I don't care.

We didn't get a tree this year, but have two smaller evergreens that were pressed into service.

All of our ornaments have some significance and many are handmade, like these hanging over our fireplace (we're just starting to build the fireplace frame, so for now this old window is hanging on the wall itself):

I hand-stitched that vintage coat and cross-stitched the Nordic glove, and they are very dear to me...as are these two:

One signifies all the strays that we feed (this particular stray is Clothilde), and the other has Oregon on one side/Indiana on the other...our home states. The others are mostly store bought, but each one means something, so I wanted to hang them up, tree or no tree!

I *love* tiny Christmas trees and put them everywhere...red bows, too.

I love, love, love paperwhites in the winter, so of course I have a little teacup-full in the living room.

At night, with the fireplace on and the mismatched Christmas lights blazing, with the ornaments swaying on their strings and the little trees and pops of red bows and red flannels everywhere, with our cheerful plaid stockings looped over the ends of our bed frame and hanging over the stair railing...it feels very festive indeed! 

I made a Christmas cake for a party this weekend but got no good photos of it.  It's a standard white layer cake with vanilla frosting, but I cut up some waffle cones to serve as pine trees both on top and against the side of the cake. I ran out of time for careful decorating but I think the overall effect was nice:

After covering just one tree, the star icing tip stopped cooperating and no matter how hard I pushed on the bag, only strands of frosting shot out. I gave up and looped them around the trees in a pretty haphazard way.  It was only when washing the tip that I discovered a piece of butter lodged in the end - argh!  Well, now I know, and this information could be useful for when I make this cake again...and I definitely will.

The weather's been chilly overnight but rather mild during the day.  Each morning, the sun warms the light frost, making a pretty little shower over the eaves of the barn.

The cats luxuriate on the heat pad...

...and we watch birds on the tree outside the living room windows.

Sunrises and sunsets have continued to be amazing!  This is our back yard with the sun just coming up.

I like to enjoy these little pleasures in the midst of a very busy time.  Christmas sales are hopping and there's always so much going on this time of year, with first Thanksgiving, then my birthday, and then the few frenetic weeks until Christmas itself.  I love holidays, but I'm always glad for the post-holiday lull, which usually means lots of pajamas and soothing television/favorite books. 

Until then...have a great week!