Walking in a winter wonderland

Today, the sky was heavy with snow... and the landscape outside called with clarion voice to come and enjoy its delights... so on with the boots and the mitts, the hats and the coats and open the door and step outside. Tramp heavily, slide and slip, step deliberately, step quietly, step around slush piles, through snow drifts and into the winter wonderland.

See the sculpture in the sky, the contrast in the heavens, light and dark forming puzzles on the blank canvas, twisting, reaching, arching, playing with the muted sun and framing it in branches naked in the wintertime

Follow the trail to places you know, places you know in different moods and seasons, never knowing what beauties might be around the next step, the next corner, the next twist in the path, stepping where others have been and will be again, enjoying the time together and apart, special and full of the stuff of memories, sugared with lightly falling snow

Little flakes of snow, coming to the ground, falling on the people, the land, the trees, the leaves, branches and berries which are still clinging to their anchoring points, then slowly turning into water droplets, tears from above, creating beauty in their placement, their translucency and delicacy, illuminating the hidden hues of colour left dormant from the summertime

Snow clings to all possible surfaces creating dynamic and wonderful sculptures and shapes, twisting the individual flakes to meld them into circles, caps, gowns for the naked winter foliage, changing the landscape from the familiar to the newly formed unique jewels of the north

Men try to harness the landscape, fence in the fields, but beauty always pokes through, in small and in big ways, lichens cover the remains of a fence post and lend their unique shapes and small but significant contributions to the whole balance of the world which has been skillfully wrought and intricately formed by the hands of an Almighty Creator..

Reaching, pulling, grasping, twisting, arching towards the heavens, a dance of bark and sap, twigs and trunks, roots and boughs scarring the winter sky with black shapes and patterns as they await spring's new wardrobe

The snow gently falling, enveloping the world of nature in a sleep of beauty and a soft coat of white jewels... softening the hard and spikey into pieces of art and sculpture
Playtime, on hold in the cold, waiting for spring, ready to spring, reaching to the sky, voices raised high, supported by the trees, swaying in the breeze, opportunities to be taken by the hand, joy in our great land.
Black and white, shadow and light, playing together in this winter wonderland, ready to be discovered and enjoyed! So get your boots on and join us in the woods!

Snow... on the green....

Just thought i'd share a few pics of the latest weather happenings around here - lots of snow in the last week - i'm so happy to have a neighbour with a snowblower and a love for clearing snow... so if you would like to make a snowman anywhere - c'mon over and i'll supply carrots and hot chocolate!!!

Bird watching 101!

So, a few weeks ago, i was in my basement mucking around whilst Dad was fixing this that and the other thing and i found a coupla pieces of wood that seemed to have another life... i had bought an upright bird feeder but the local fowls seemed to find it rather not to their taste and dining style and they have ignored it thus far... in fact, i have thought that there were no birds at all in my neighbourhood - never heard them, never saw them... kinda creepy. So i had a plan up my sleeve and on my workbench...
With careful engineering, some pencil markings, a few mis-steps with the drill and a lot of concentration on my part to make sure that the drill was going the right way ( i sometimes oddly get mixed up between forwards and backwards - i'm a good driver, really!), this is the end result - measured to perfection so that it fits over the railing of my new backyard deck - now to put seed on it and see if this is more to the bird's likings...

Here we go, all ready for feathered friends... (to be honest, i didn't even care if a squirrel showed up - i was that desparate for some sort of animal traffic to visit me and make sure i didn't live in a black hole here in the meadows). And to my great excitement, a few days later, a chickadee showed up, a few sparrows, some starlings, even a squirrel or two - and it seems that there is life (if i don't scare them away with my excitement and yells of "a bird, a bird!")
The reject bird feeder - i have no idea why this doesn't work to their liking but it seems something must be wrong with the design or something like that, any suggestions???

do i have fingernails anymore?

I am sitting on my couch (surprise surprise) and wondering if soon i will have any more fingernails. I know that watching sports is supposed to be fun and all that nonsense, but i seem to get palpitations watching skiers flying down slopes, skaters careening around curves and hockey players seemingly way too hyped about their games to be aware of the fact that they should be scoring points in the game instead of letting our dear neighbours to the south score ....
Okay, breathe, cough, cough, enough ranting, I truly must admit to being a bit of a fair weather hockey fan - sad as that is, but like my sister said in her blog, i truly do get inspired when the red and white flags start flying like crazy, the anthem plays endlessly and the commercials around every bend make me tear up. It is good to be patriotic to be sure! We truly live in a free and beautiful country. That said, as was mentioned in our service this evening, everywhere I see the slogan "i believe" - in what? The olympics seem to be all about believing in ourselves, our power, our strength, where is God in all this? I loved seeing speedskater Cindy Klaasen's profile - where she openly speaks of her faith and trust in God! It must be hard in a world that is all about personal success, to be true to your beliefs and God. It is God who gives us our talents, abilities and strengths, who allows us to live and move and play and who should receive all the glory and honour. May the praise to God be higher, faster and stronger!

Sick?

Sick, said little Danielle Mussche
I have the measles and the mumps
A rash, a gash and seven bumps
My teeth are green, my head is sore
I haven't seen this temp before
I have the aches and the chills
I think i'll go and take some pills...
Okay, it's not as bad as all that, but somehow this arvo i've managed to come down with a fever and feelings kinda crappy... i've already had the flu in the fall so i don't need that again - been there, done that, had the fever. Anyhow, so with lotsa fluids and bedrest, hopefully i'll be in the land of the living by morning!

An update... finally...

No long and deep and meaningful post tonight - but a few pictures of the latest happenings round the Meadows. The pictures are kinda in order - the first one here being of my visit to the tile store - and trying to put together a bit of a scheme for colours and such... The little marble tiles are my potential backsplash - in the future, not now! It's good to see progress marching along.

Here's the new porcelain tile in the kitchen/hallway! It looks so good - will look even better when it's cleaned off properly - for now, it's gone back into hiding under plastic and plywood!

My walls, suffering from "plasterpox" just waiting eagerly for a coat of paint to perk it up!

Trying to choose the right white - never knew it could be so confusing!

Apparently, the paint decided to end up in more places than just the wall. Mom was diligently using the roller stick and it decided to break and drop the roller on her head. Fortunately, she was not hurt - we did laugh because i had a hair appointment that day and i was paying money to get "paint" put in my hair and here Mom did it for free!

Putting the final touches on the primer coat - the kitchen looked so bright and white - it took a bit to get used to the fact that we would be covering this up with a darker colour!

That evening, after the first coat of paint, it looked really dark - and i was once again worried that i had chosen the wrong colour...
But the next morning, with the sunshine pouring in the windows, things looked quite a bit different and i'm pretty convinced that things will work out well!
My basement is so full of stuff right now... in a few weeks, this should be all cleaned up! And i'll look forward to having people over again!