Snow Much Snow

The snow fell until about 3pm on Saturday.

When it stopped, everything was covered with a fresh blanket of crisp, white snow...

...a total of 19 inches had fallen...

I am so lucky to have a happy man behind a snowblower,

to clean up this massive amount of snow.

The clean up was difficult.

It was icy cold, the wind and snow were blowing about.

I stayed inside and made a Pot Roast, there were carrots too.

This was the perfect meal on a snowy day.

After dinner, the sun made an appearance and the day ended like this.

This view from my front door was breathtaking. 

- a snow day is a little gift from the universe -

Wise Words On Sunday

 

Saturday's Critters #424

We have blizzard conditions here right now, 

at least 18 inches of snow has fallen, and it is still coming down.

The plan for today was to take pictures in the early morning of the birds enjoying the snow,

 and then share them here.

 With the snow falling and blowing in front of my lens, it is almost impossible to get a clear picture.

So here are a few that are not horribly bad.

This Carolina Wren is playing it smart, sitting on the suet under our overhang.

Sharing today's images with Eileen at 

Viewing Nature With Eileen 

for Saturday Critters

It's Easter At Cracker Barrel...

 I was dying for "good" fried chicken...and I missed eating out, so we did it.

We took the 30 minute drive to the closest Cracker Barrel for a late lunch, early dinner.

If I am to be honest, we always eat one meal in the afternoon and it is almost always right around 3 pm.

We arrived at 2:30, I was starving, 

the hostess was happy to tell us there was a 1/2 hour wait and that they only had one server.

I think she thought we would leave but not this chicken loving girl,

I smiled, said "oh that's fine, and gave my name".

The hubs was the one who had to hear it and hear it he did, poor guy,

 it wasn't his fault but somehow it always is.

I was so "hungray" (it's a word), I wasn't myself...I noticed he did not hang with me while we waited.

We waited 40 minutes for a table and 15 minutes to get waited on.

Our food came out in only a few minutes, like 3...seems the kitchen staff was fine.

While we waited, I took pictures, it is definitely Easter at Cracker Barrel.

We finished our meal with 

Beignets

they were served with warm caramel sauce, they were divine.

The fire was so delightful, I did really appreciate it!

- patience is not the ability to wait, but rather to keep a good attitude while waiting -

More Pleasantries...

I have put my Fairy Postcards away, 

I think they will be wonderful to include, one at a time, in a birthday card for just the right people. 

People with personalities like mine, who appreciate fairies.

As I tied the ribbon around my Fairy Postcards,

I noticed that on the back of each, there was a special poem, relative to the picture.

I had been so focused on the print, I had not noticed that before.

The poems are sweet.

Do you remember my trips to Rhinebeck New York?

My knitting group rents a B & B, 

 we stay for a long weekend and attend a Knitting Festival by day and knit together by night.

We have all purchased a few skeins of this yarn, we will knit whatever we want to with it,

and we will all wear our special item on Saturday as we walk around the festival.

I'm not sure what I am making, 

I'm sure it will be some form of a shawl or cowl.

I have already started my "shopping list" for Rhinebeck and I cannot wait to go.

It is 12 degrees outdoors as I type, I don't know the wind chill...

I did not grow up with wind chills being a thing.

Our weather people reported the temperature and that was that.

All this other new terminology...

"polar vortex, cyclone bomb, microburst, nor'easter, ball lightning, event" is all new to me,

and back in the day, we did not "name" every rain storm.

If it was raining, they reported that it was raining.

This is the view from my office window, the river was frozen but somehow it thawed.

We are expecting snow this weekend, Friday into Saturday, I am not holding my breath,

although it seems to be a certainty. 

I have these just in case, they come in handy when meteorologists get it wrong.

Work is slow this time of the month, so I am able to devote more time to my hobbies.

I have been knitting, coloring and "enjoying" my time in the kitchen more.

I completed one more section in my cowl.
Two rows had to be ripped out or I would have completed a lot more.

I made this Home Chef Meal last night, it was delicious!

- being happy is a very personal thing and it has nothing to do with anyone else -

The Funny Female Northern Shoveler

 The unmistakable female Northern Shoveler was much friendlier than the male.

Males and Females are dissimilar in their look except both have a long, flattened bill.

My book says they are widespread and considered to be fairly common, 

this is a duck I see only during the winter.

This young lady came right up out of the water and on to the shoreline.

Here you can see the back side of her flattened beak.

When she was done posing for pictures, she went back in to the water and frolicked about.

She was so happy, energetic and fun to watch.

- be the one little duck out of the row -

The Cottage Fairy

I received the items I ordered from 

The Cottage Fairy

Paola, is an artist who lives in an adorable cottage in a very remote area of Washington State.

Both her art and cottage are whimsical, colorful and fun...

I could gaze at these pictures for hours and still continue to notice new surprises!

These 2 prints and a bookmark came together.

The next prints were a package of 6,

I am sharing my 3 favorites.

 I believe Paola is 24 or 25, she has talent beyond her years.

Receiving these prints in the mail were just what I needed,

fun snail mail sure did brighten my day.

The Cottage Fairy has a Youtube channel here.

Her Etsy shop is here.

I finished coloring another of my postcards, 

I am trying to decide if I should color the white within the medallion/flower.

I thought that might be too much.

Any thoughts from you guys?

I also finished this one,

much easier and a lot less detail.

The postcards I am coloring from

come out of this book.

I probably purchased it on Amazon.

We recently watched a really good movie...

The Magic of Belle Island

Morgan Feeman, a retired and disabled writer, 

moves to a remote village in an effort to regain his strength and passion for words.

The rest is for you to see but I guarantee you will love it.

Winter drives reveal cloudy skies and brown reeds, dancing in the breezes.

- in the depth of winter, I finally learned that there was within me, an invincible summer -