Shoveling Buddy

Life is good.

I admit that I am more than ready for spring but this past week has afforded me a few opportunities to spend some time with my grandson outdoors doing some of his favorite activities.

We have trudged up and down our hill several times after trips down on the sled.  I have to admit that I am out of shape and am constantly bargaining with a 3 1/2 year old about the number of times we will go down the hill again.

Yesterday we spent time shoveling.  He is delighted to help and has his own shovel.  Today we are getting hit with another snow storm mixed with rain.  It is still beautiful to look outside and see the snow falling but I’d like to see a little more green and blue than wihite.

After warming up from being outdoors we spent time doing puzzles on my kitchen floor and playing football with a green balloon in my living room.   We have a regular football but he has a foot on him that will break windows if he is allowed to kick with shoes on.

This is the view out my living room window this afternoon.

Time to head out on another tow call.  Seems nobody wants to stay home on a snowy day.  Stay warm and dry 🙂

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Ballet Shoes

As a child I remember wanting to take dance lessons. My best friend had dance lessons every Saturday morning. Some Saturdays I would go with and watch while she and the other girls danced. I attended their recitals and watched as the danced in their pretty costumes to the music.

My parents bought a piano and I learned how to play it, not well but I can pick up a not too complicated piece of music and it will sound recognizable to the untrained ear. I find playing the piano relaxing at times when I need a break from bookkeeping or other mundane tasks. I think that my parents made the wiser choice given the fact that I have an overall dislike of physical exercise. Playing the piano is more of a life skill for me. One that I can put down and pick up over time.

This morning I took my camera down to the lake to capture a pink sunrise. The sky had a pink glow to it and I thought it might lend itself well to some interesting pictures.

Saturday evening the winds blew so strong out of the north that the windows were making noises and we could hear the tree branches all night long. When we woke up Sunday morning the ice that had starting forming around the edges of the lake were gone because of the strong winds.

This morning I found branches along the shore of the lake with icicles hanging from them but my favorite find was the above picture that looks like ballet shoes. I love how the icicles formed evenly to look like a pair of shoes hanging from ribbons.

Sometimes when you are searching for one thing, like a beautiful sunrise, you find something better.

It pays to look a little closer.

 

Clinging

It’s been a while since I’ve posted.I’ve enjoyed reading all my favorite blogs each day even though I haven’t had much time for commenting or new posts.

I’ve been busy with getting ready for winter in Minnesota. We’ve been raking leaves, putting away lawn furniture. taking out the boat and boat lift from the lake and winterizing all of our toys against the cold Minnesota winter.

Yesterday when I was mulching leaves with the lawnmower so I wouldn’t have to rake and pick up any more leaves I noticed this apple. It was the lone apple left on my tree. It was too high to pick from the ground, too high for the deer to munch from the ground and it had stubbornly clung to the branch on the tree after all the leaves had flown away in the cold winds.

I am very much like this apple in the fall. I try to hang on to anything and everything that reminds me of the summer and the fall that I love so much not wanting to give into winter. There is always the hope that there will be just one more nice day for a motorcycle ride or a ride in the car with the top down. The chances are not that great for most of my favorite activities. There is snow forecast for tomorrow evening in our area.

Today I filled my bird feeders with sunflower seeds not wanting my feathered friends to have to search beneath snow for their meals. They give so much entertainment during the long winters that I enjoy enticing them with the choicest seeds. Only their favorites.

The hardest part of this season for me is the darkness. I get up and go to work when it is dark and it is dark when I return to my home. My favorite part of my day is when I can take a long enough lunch time to drive the four miles home and see my surroundings while it is still light. I don’t think that I would mind the cold as much if only it weren’t so dark so much of the time.

Each winter I try to find some new interest to learn about or a new hobby to take up some of the long winter evenings instead of just watching television. I am open to any suggestions for favorite books others have read or new hobbies you are exploring. Last winter I spent learning about my new camera and the Photoshop program. The winter really did seem to go faster and I actually learned something worthwhile by the end of it.

I would love to know what some of you do to pass the winter days and evenings.

 

The Birds

Photo credit Treknature.com

This morning I was reminded of a darker time of my life as I looked out my window to the trees.  It was a particularly long cold winter and I started to suffer with some migraine headaches.  Not many but a few just enough to know I really didn’t like them at all.  At the time I was running an in-home daycare while my youngest was not yet in school.  I wanted to be a stay at home Mom but we needed some extra income.  I started a daycare , ran it for three years until my daughter was in school full-time and I got my first teaching job.

I loved the little kids and there was always some antic to laugh about while doing daycare.  I feel particularly old when I see those kids now as juniors,  seniors in high school and one already graduated.   That winter it was very cold and we had a stretch where the wind chills were too severe to let the kids outside to play.  They were going stir crazy and so was I. 

One evening I walked past some bird feeders and seed at our local hardware store and wondered “Would the birds come and eat if I put out some food?”  I had never had a bird feeder before.  I picked out a feeder and picked up some seed and went home and tried to decide where to place it.  I decided outside my livingroom window would be the best because the kids would be able to look out and see the birds from there if they came to the feeder.

I put out the feeder that evening and the next day watched.  No birds.  I was so disappointed and so were the kids.  Day two I watched again and once again no birds.  I thought maybe I had it in the wrong place, after all I never had a feeder before.  The third morning I watched as my first bird came to the feeder.  It was a purple finch.  I didn’t know that at the time because I didn’t know birds.  My next stop that evening was to the library for a bird book so I could I identify the different birds that came to the feeder. 

That winter the daycare kids and I learned about birds together.  Bird watching was a distraction from the cold weather but developed into a life-long passion  for me.  Each season brings different birds to the feeder.  One of my favorite birds to watch is the Nuthatch.  I love it because it approaches life from a different perspective.  It walks down the trees head first.  It is the most beautiful combination of blue, white and black.  We had many visitors to our feeder that winter:  woodpeckers, cardinals, finches, nuthatches, grosbeak, blue jays, black-capped chickadees and some I am sure I have forgotten. 

Sometimes learning something new is the best remedy to the blues.