Mother Nature Must Be Sleeping

I have a feeling Mother Nature is asleep at the switch.  It's April 4th, a time for tulips and daffodils and warm warm sunshine.  There should be puddles to splash in and vees of geese barking their way north.  The lake should be melting toward it's liquification.  Bing should be stomping through the snow dappled woods gathering buckets of sap and amassing them for a chosen day to boil away the water and watch the sweet amber liquid appear.  But, alack and alas, the snow is falling.  The tree limbs are laden with snow and the town plow is wending its way through our winter weary roads.  The prediction is for 8 to 12 inches and it's the heavy stuff.  Any other year, this scenario would give us the right to whine and complain and crank, crank,crank.  But this year the TV has shown us Mother Nature, not only asleep at the switch,  but angry and vicious - there were ice storms and earthquakes, tornadoes and mudslides and wildfires.  Our extra long winter doesn't compare to the devastation of those events.  So no complaining - just a wish for spring to make its lovely and long awaited appearance.           The pictures show our stained glass cardinal against the snow encased Yew tree and some geraniums started inside and hoping to go outside!

Don;t be a Bladerune

We were on our way to church this morning and we were listening to the NPR show, "Says You".
It was their segment on guessing the definition of a word.  It's a quiz show with lots of humor and lots of intelligence that often slides right past me.  The two competing teams were given a word.  One team is given the real definition of the word and three members of the team present a definition of the word to the other team.  Two of the definitions are made up and one is the correct definition.  All usually sound somewhat believable.  The other team has to confer and decide which definition is the right one.  The two teams have really clever humorous members and they are awfully quick on the draw........I loved today's word - bladerune - I'm not sure of the spelling because I didn't pay attention right away - but I really wanted to remember it because every once in a while I run into a bladerune and it would be so nice to sum up the person with only one word - nice and concise and no need to go further.  A bladerune is a person who talks continuously and unendingly.  The person does not stop to hear your responses or to take a breath or even if you are needing to go.  He or she just talks and talks and talks.  After I heard the word, I really wanted to remember it but I know a word can slip away if you don't use it or see it anywhere.  But I tried to store it in this 72 year old brain anyway..........And lo and behold,  after church when we stopped at the grocery to pick up the Sunday paper and some on sale turkey breasts, there was a bladerune.  Bing was doing the paying part and I was standing next to the baggger.  The bagger immediately talked and talked and talked about her financial stuation, her mother's financial situation, her likes and dislikes and as I tried to empathize and agree and politely respond, there was no stopping the motor moving her mouth.  I truly admire all the very conversant people I know, people who can chat and visit and tell stories but a bladerune is not really like that.  A bladerune is unique.  I think I've only known three in my lifetime but they certainly do remain in the memory - I,m so happy to have a word to identify them.  And I must remember, God loves us all, even the bladerunes.

A Tip for the Unusually Cold Southerners

We're setting record cold temperatures this winter all over the United States.

I don't know if any folks from the south read this blog but I thought they might need some tips from us northerners on how to keep warm when the air around you isn't.  It must be so hard for people who shiver when it's forty degrees to navigate in snow and ice and to take the chill out of the bones after being outside in 20 degree weather.  I know that they will instinctively pile on the clothing and stay near anything that is giving off heat but here's one little tip that really helps keep the heat in the body.  Sure, it would be nice to keep the temperature set at eighty or more but most of us folks couldn't afford the fuel or electricity costs.  So, here's my tip:  tuck your pants into your socks.  Yep, simple as that.  It makes you look like George Washington but it really works.  Instead of cool air around your ankles, you're nice and snug from hip to toe.

It's Still Snowing!!!

I'm finally signing in again and the cold white stuff is still falling outside.  My meandering path is mostly impassable now so I've faced our treadmill looking out the window so that I can still get some walking exercise while pondering nature.  I use the time on the treadmill to say a lot of prayers but as I pray my meandering mind moves rapidly to other thoughts.  I see the lake from the window.  The lake is frozen solid to a depth of about 26 inches and the blanket of snow is at least that too.  But seeing the lake isn't that easy from our windows because the neighbor's lakefront is full of brush and small saplings.  But, the good thing is, he said we could take out whatever we wanted to.  I love to do this type of work and today I trudged down the hill with our purple sled and logging tools and continued on my quest to make a nice clear view.  Whenever I finish  and come back up the hill to see how it looks, I find some more and know there will be more workdays ahead.  The pictures show the tools, and some of the work.  Everything looks black and white these days - that's why spring and its vibrant greens are so welcome when the season arrives.

Come Walk with Me in the Woods

Winter is despised by lots of folks but I love it.  As a matter of fact, I love each and every season.  This morning we woke to a panorama of winter white.  I snapped some pictures as I walked this morning and come along and enjoy the sights!

Another Way to Preserve

We are loaded with apples and have been giving them away to anyone interested.  We have 8 different trees - 1 Macintosh, 3 Cortland, 2 Honey Crisp 1 Wolf River and 1 Yellow Newton Pippin. .  This was an excellent year for apples and that was nice because last year was the opposite for Wisconsin apples.  I've frozen slices for apple pies and cakes, made sugar free applesauce, canned apple juice and made a few pies and now I'm turning to a time honored method of preservation - dehydration.  We have an electric dehydrator but long ago, people used the sun or wood ovens to dry their fruit or veggies.  It's a clever way to keep the goodness of the food and conserve space.  The dehydrated product has concentrated flavor and nutrition and can be eaten as is or rehydrated with water.  I love the tasty little dried apples and they make a nice portable snack to carry in a small plastic bag............. Parsley from the herb garden is easy to do too and keeps us supplied for the year. ...........In case our planet gets a little too crowded in the future, perhaps our scientists will figure out a way to dehydrate people in a humane and workable way.  The human body is made up of 57 to 65 per cent water.  We'd probably need less food and living space if we were paper doll sized folks and wouldn't it be fun to float from place to place on the wind?!

Looking at the Big Picture

I was reading the National Geographic the other day and was stunned by one of its facts.  I guess they can't be perfectly accurate, but they estimate that since human beings appeared upon the earth there have been 107 billion of us.  That just boggles my mind.  Oh sure, I knew a lot of people preceded we who now tread carefully and not so carefully upon this nature based orb we call home.  But 107 billion is a lot of moms and pops and kids and food to feed us all.  We really are nothing new.  We have benefited so much from all of the advances made by earlier generations and hopefully we will leave this place a little bit better for having been here but if you know someone who thinks the sun rises and sets because of them, just remind them of the bigger picture - the bigger picture with 107 billion people smiling and laughing and crying through the ages.  And thank you, God, for not giving up on us!