April madness

Chickadee on six foot snow bank

The long winter continues.

Another eight inches of snow yesterday morning, give or take three inches.  (It could have been eleven inches.  We’ve ceased measuring in late April.)

I am really OK with it.  No need to offer condolences.  We escaped to Florida earlier in the month, thereby easing Endless Winter Restlessness Syndrome.

I’m not sure the other locals are faring as well.  One senses a certain madness in the flitting eyes of grocery shoppers.  Alcohol sales are up.  People tend not to make sense anymore.  Just sayin’.  The livin’ is not easy up here in Cabin Fever land.

“Twizzle twazzle twozzle twome”

Our woodpile

How many of you know the incantation “Twizzle twazzle twozzle twome”?

Think carefully before you answer this rather innocent question.

If you know the answer, it may date you.

The freezer is still intact, thank you kindly, Jimmy Buffett.

Sum-sum-summertime!

Yesterday I vetoed the on-line world.

Almost.  Did not visit Facebook or WordPress or even my personal email.  (Did visit email and Internet at work.  One must, you know, if one seeks to retain one’s job.)

Deer sleeping in the house and stuck car in the driveway

Dream deer

Weekend dream:  I was feeding a deer outside by our wood pile.  Guess what?  A big hunk of raw steak.  (Unconscious impulses arising after a week of detox eating only fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts and lentils?  Even though I don’t even like steak?)

Then arrived the best part of the dream.  The deer pattered in through the front door and tentatively came inside our Little House in the Big Woods.  About four of them curled in little balls and slept.  It felt peaceful and right.

This morning I aimed to work at the school early.  Awoke at 5:30 a.m. and stoked the fire.  Yoga-stretched and sat quietly on the couch in the basement feeling the hush of early morning, catching glimpses of snowflakes through the window.  Remembered the deer dream and smiled softly.

“How much snow did we get?” Barry asked when he tumbled out of bed.

“Dunno,” I replied.  ”Four or five inches?”

Bringing the indoors outdoors in the snow

Shiva–a Hindu deity–sits on a snowy fence

Optical illusion?

Great Caesar’s Ghost! (And other Weather Channel Predictions)

We’re expecting a snowstorm this afternoon, kids.

I peer at the radar loop and see a swirling blue mass approaching.

I shared the approaching snow storm with our daughter in New York City.

“Yes,” she said.  ”It’s Caesar.”

Caesar?  What the heck you talkin’ about, kid?

It’s all the Weather Channel’s fault–or credit.

They’ve recently decided to name the winter storms, just like those feisty tropical storms.

Brutus? Athena?

Endless clink of logs: filling the wood room another moonlit night

Full cold steady stare of white moon’s face illuminates our wood room filling adventures.

Sparkling snowflakes gleam against dark evergreens like fireflies.  Soft and alive and diamond, then gone.

We crank open the heavy wood room door.  An endless winter chore.  Three and a half tall rows of split wood must be hauled in from the tidy silver tarp-covered wood pile and stacked in our wood room.

We fill the unfinished wood room after dark.  It takes three nights because we’re–dare I label it?–almost elders.  It takes middle-aged folks longer than spry young’uns.  We fill maybe an inside row each evening with the heavy maple logs. (In our pioneer youth with willing children, if we were lucky to get willing children to help, we did this in a night.  I swear it was so.)

Wolf. Sideways blowing snow. Chicken enchiladas with spicy mole sauce.

Monday.  Brown-furred wolf runs south to north in front of my car.  His legs pump, his haunches strain.  Masterful, he sprints, his legs sure, not slipping and skidding like those long skinny-legged deer who sometimes fall and splay all four legs as they attempt to gain traction on ice.  Solid, purposeful, the wolf crosses snow-covered asphalt, his eyes staring straight ahead, almost oblivious to the barreling car.  He darts into the woods, immediately  in a grove of evergreens, concealed in plain sight.

Snowy spruce

Waking up to five inches of snow…

Our Little House in the Big Woods

This post is for our children who are far, far away.  May you enjoy the walk around your childhood home.

This post is for you southerners who dream of snowflakes but rarely see them.

This post is for you northerners anticipating the bright beauty of new snowfalls.

Please enjoy the scenes outside our little Upper Peninsula house in the Big Woods.

If you get cold, how about a cup of hot chocolate to get your winter started off on the right foot? (I mean boot.)

“How long will she stay THIS time?”

I'm not gone yet, people... You can't wish me away.

How’s the weather in your neck of the woods?