salty 'flakes and birthday cakes

 It has been a busy month indeed.  I turned 50!  Todd worked in the freezing cold after I'd gone to bed to install a big plywood sign on the porch so that it would be the first thing I saw when I woke up.

We had plans to hike at a national wildlife refuge about 90 minutes away, but the temperature dropped.  I don't mind winter hiking, but it has to be at least 25 degrees!  Now we have to consider Pepita as well.  She has a double coat, but her feet get cold quickly.  

The roads weren't great either, so we decided to stay in.  We made salt dough ornaments...

...played board games, listened to podcasts, and in general had a great snowed-in pajama day, complete with my usual homemade birthday brownie (and Todd had tracked down some Ben and Jerry's Oat of This Swirled ice cream!).  

By the way, I highly recommend salt dough ornaments.  I used this recipe and it was so easy.  And look how pretty the ornaments are (you can see one of the big snowflake ornaments at the front of the Christmas tree)!

We were able to get the tree just before the weather turned...the very same day that the storm came in.

Pepita was unimpressed...

See her on the couch in front?

...but all the pets like to congregate in front of it.

Especially the cats.  We've got our bird feeders filled and they're permanently camped out at the window!

Todd is our feeder filler.

Besides filling the feeders, we are keeping big piles of cat food around the property.  It's cold and there are a lot of strays out there.  We put a cat shelter (plastic tub with straw inside) in the entrance of our white barn and I was delighted to see (via trail cam) that not only are cats staying in it, our cat food has attracted possums to shelter!

The snow is so pretty...it's been very wet, so it clings to the bare tree branches.  

terrible cell phone-in-a-moving-car pic

We generally have bright, sunny days after snow and it's just perfect.

Lots of sleepy cats...

...and pups.

In quiet moments, I've been reading and working on puzzles.

the latest

I've completed 16 puzzles and read 88 books (35,452 pages) this year.  It's down quite a bit from last year's 110 books and 46,166 pages, but I lost a lot of free time with Pepita's midsummer adoption.  I'm just now starting to get free time back.  I haven't really worked on many textile projects this year, either...little knitting, embroidering, sewing, or quilting.  I'm hoping to make some big progress in many areas next year.  As this year winds down, though, I'm going to stick to my usual quiet comforts.

Have a great week!