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! 

and thus, Caius

Chilly temperatures mean a lot more birds coming to our feeders.  There's always a round, clear circle underneath the feeders, as foraging birds clear leaves or snow, looking for castoff seed.

Everyone knows red cardinals, but I am partial to house finches.  Their song is prettier and they just seem more pert and cheerful.

I often see birds, like this chickadee, rubbing their beaks against branches after eating.  It's their equivalent to a dainty napkin wipe!

Nuthatches are here, there, and everywhere, keeping an eye on everything that's happening on the ground below.

Woodpeckers find lots to eat in the dead branches of the tree!

Birds aren't the only creatures that we're seeing more of in these colder temperatures.  One stray has come often enough to warrant a name, so here is Caius, sticking his tongue out at us from a safe distance.

We've increased the amount of food we're putting out to help keep these guys a little bit warmer and better equipped to survive a cold winter!

Speaking of food...Thanksgiving was this past week.  So much food!  We hosted, so I put together a pretty large dessert table.  All pictures taken hurriedly with my cell phone...so the quality is not very good.  I made cherry muffins with almond glaze, an apple slab pie, pumpkin cake, chocolate no-bake cookies, maple brown sugar cookies, and confetti sugar cookies. 

My first attempt (but not last!) at making dough lettering for pies!

With the kids at a separate table, we had just enough room for the grownups at the big table.

Nothing fancy, just a couple of Fresh Thyme bouquets...

...and some leftover pumpkins from October.  I picked some rose hips from the bare multiflora rose bushes outside and interspersed them with the pine cones to add a little color.  

I think I made too much food...besides feeding 17 guests, who even took platefuls of food with them, Todd STILL has a week's worth of leftovers!  I love holidays, but I'm glad that Thanksgiving has passed.  Holiday seasons are tough for people who have food issues, like I do.  This has been a rough year with the upheaval of another move, and I think I've gained about 30 pounds!  I can't really get into a rhythm of losing weight again until the holidays are over.  Just too many pitfalls.  So I will enjoy a few more tasty pitfalls and then look forward to getting back on track in the new year.

Have a great week!