Christmas music and leftover kale pomegranate salad
Yesterday, in between listening to Christmas carols and making a pomegranate kale salad, I heard a loud thud.
What in the world could it be?
First thought: The mail carrier is delivering presents from Portland, Oregon, or Edgewater, New Jersey!
Alas…no. Something else was thudding.
Darkness descended upon our Little House in the Woods. Another THUD!
If only a full moon could illuminate this mystery…
Did it come from the basement? I know, a bear is ramming its shoulder against our basement sliding glass door. Soon glass will shatter across the basement floor and a 200 pound black bear will crash inside!
I peered downstairs. No bear. Silly Kathy, bears are hibernating by now, and besides, you’ve never seen or heard of a bear ramming against a basement window in these neck of the woods. You’re spreading wild falsehoods with your runaway imagination, tut tut, denigrating innocent wild creatures, if only in your own mind.
“Barry,” I announced gravely as he opened the door and walked inside, “Something is thudding.”
He nodded patiently, perhaps thinking that yonder retiree needed a little time outside the house. Now she’s hearing thuds. Perhaps she needs another job…
He disappeared into the garage. I walked upstairs after stoking the wood stove and heard it again–THUD!
Perhaps a robber lurked just outside in the woods, ready to spring inside and steal our–well, what do we have to steal anyway? A TV that doesn’t work. Some Santas and Snowmen playing on a tic-tac-toe board. Maybe this laptop computer? Oh no!
Santas and Snowmen looking all awry
No burglar appeared.
Twenty minutes later–another THUD!
What do you suppose it could be?
“It’s still thudding, ” I sighed to Barry. “I don’t know what it is, but we’re going to get to the bottom of this mystery.”
This morning, brushing the teeth, I looked outside the bathroom window. Ohmygoodness!
Remember the new roof over our firewood?
Photo to jog your memory of yonder wood shed
The six or seven inches of snow blanketing the metal roof was almost gone.
The mysteriously sounds would have been the heavy wet snow melting and sliding off the slippery metal and hitting the ground with a THUD!
We’ve seen this happen with our garage and little shed metal roof before. I’ve just never heard such shenanigans from inside the house.
Almost bare roof. If you have eagle eyes, note pile of snow beneath.
The roof lies pretty much bare this morning, after a 36 (4C) degree day yesterday.
Mystery solved.
My goodness, retirement is exciting!
Lake Superior Spirit 
The magic of imaginations – or the fearsomeness of imaginations!
We just have to laugh at so many of the silly or fearful places our minds will take us! And sometimes we cry…thanks for reading today, Carol. Glad you weren’t on that Amtrak.
It can be scary hearing unfamiliar (and sometimes even familiar) sounds. Especially at night. Or when you’re alone. Once upon a time I had a monster in the garage. Husband was far away at work. I was sure Katie and I would be killed. Turned out to be a groundhog trapped in the garage. He was more scared than us and that was pretty darn scared!
It can be, as you say, and especially when alone. Then the imagination can ramp up like crazy. I DO imagine that groundhog would have made lots of noise! I can see why you both would be scared to death.
I love your last line, “My goodness retirement is exciting.” I remember going to bed with a knife and an iron skillet ready to fight bears when the thuds I heard turned out to be moths hitting the front door. 😂
I just laughed out loud reading your comment, Dor. A knife AND a skillet! And they were only moths… Yep, so funny (and something many of us can relate to!)
My guys are crazy about Kale at the moment. One of the ways they really like it is 3 kinds of kale with chopped pickled beet slices and cubes of avocado dressed with a Zesty Italian (Good Seasons) made with multiple mono oils (macademia, olive, flax) and balsamic vinegar. The beet juice mixes with the dressing and makes it more complex and better tasting actually.
We sometimes have heard loud booms here in Missouri – it’s either someone blasting somewhere or the earth shifting a bit. Either one is possible.
So glad to read you found the cause. I wouldn’t have thought such a thing could make so much noise but then this firewood shelter is brand new in your lives – so no previous experience to inform you. I do believe your imagination works overtime though !!
Merry & Bright !!
Mmmm, your recipe sounds SO good, Deb! Will have to try this. I usually do not follow recipes these days, which always creates a problem when people request recipes (as someone just did for this kale on FB). Barry says we never have the same meal twice. I usually can’t remember what we ate two days later!
As for this imagination working overtime–oh my goodness, it’s so often the source of so much amusement. You just have to wait and see what it pronounces next. Suffering only comes when you believe it. (Which happens sometimes.) I didn’t really truly believe it last night. Just watched in awe the amazing story it told!
When I lived in Virginia, the second story of our house had a slate roof…dark colored, slick rock. The lower story, which was wider than the upper floor, had metal roofs. We had those thuds too, only the snow sliding off the slate landed on the lower metal roofs and shook whatever room they landed on. Those thuds took a while to get used to!
Oh my goodness, Esther, I imagine that was quite a crash when the snow hit! I think my experience yesterday was a little more tame. 🙂
You may hear me next time, making a thud while purloining some of that snow to deposit in the Deep South!
I’m sure you’ve heard that thud by now, Stacy. Surely you have at least a foot of snow in the Deep South by now? LOL!
Indeed! (In my dreams)
Can it be dangerous, Kathy, when the snow so suddenly slides off a metal roof? I have been considering it, as my roof will need to be replaced before long, but I have visions of my little dog being buried under a heavy mound of snow!
Barry and I talked about your question, Cindy. Yes, it can be dangerous when the metal roof lets go. We try not to be near the roofs when it’s a melty kind of day. You would have to keep your little dog by your side on those kinds of days. We actually put a regular roof on our house, rather than a metal one, for reasons like this. (And other reasons, too.) Happy holy-days!
Thanks! Good information.
I laughed because I do the opposite. I hear a thud and tell myself it MUST be the snow falling off the roof, because I can deal with that!
How funny, Lisa. I think next time it happens I will surely know what the thud will be!
I bet it was scary. I wonder if your husband really knew what was happening and just as joke let you continue to use imagination about what was causing the noise. The shed looks very nice and I bet you wish that you had built it years ago. My goodness it is almost summer at your house.
Yes, we so wish we built the shed years ago. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough money back then. As for the thuds, I really wasn’t scared. More curious and intrigued. The first one startled–then it became a chore for Detective Kathy to go to work and discover the mystery! Barry didn’t know, either, because he didn’t think it was warm enough for the snow to be melting off the roof.
Held my breath during the entire post, then laughed out loud at the last line.
The thing is … a bear COULD HAVE been thumping at your door. My friend who lives part time in Tahoe had just that thing happen. Not a huge black bear. A smallish brown bear. But still. They had to put extra locks on the door. As in huge bolts.
Second, it COULD have been lovely packages from your lovely children, wanting mom and dad to know how much they’re loved and missed on this holiday season. I bet the next thump you hear will be the UPS person thumping up the outside steps to deliver them. If UPS or Amazon delivers to the little house in the woods. They do….right?
And lastly, it COULD have been the thumps of all of our collective bloggers’ hearts, so happy that you are back here in our virtual blogging universe. xoxoxoxoxxo
Pam, I appreciate your absolute faith in this imagination! How scary that the bear scenario actually happened to your friend in Tahoe. AND the thump of the mail driver DID occur yesterday and the day before, so there! (We do get home delivery, thank all the lucky stars in the universe.) Love your sweet last sentence, and now my heart is thumping merrily away too…. xoxoxoxo back!
I thought maybe something was in your chimney …. can you put something on the edge of your roof to break up the snow as it falls ?
BTW 36 F is around 4 C … 14 C would be loverly …
I think you’re gonna love retirement … I sure do. You have a curious nature and will make the most of it.
Sybil, no, there’s really nothing people put on the roof to break up the falling snow. Aww, thanks for the correction–I just corrected it. It was the second mistake I made on the celcius equation. My son called me up right after the post was published so I could correct it. Maybe I screwed up while correcting! (And, yes, retirement has been good thus far. It’s been almost five months already since the second job ended.)
Hahaha! Snow mysteries are mysterious LOL!
Glad to make you laugh, Sonali!