I Like Thursday 7

Christmas is over, are you one of those that take your decorations down right away, or wait for a few days?  I haven't quite decided which way I want to be as of yet. Maybe I should go and buy some of those red totes to pack my Christmas decorations away each year, instead of the jumble of boxes. 

I like finding misplaced items I love.  When I moved in many of my belongings were stored in the basement and attic.  I was a wanderer, and never seemed to alight in one place for long.  I also felt like I had a 4 year shelf life with my relationships.  After 4 years they went south, and I moved on.  Because of those feelings I never really unpacked and added to the household to make it my own.    Imagine my delight when I discovered a box of my kitchen items.

The artist is Greg Brown.  I wish I had more.  The top picture is called "Cookin"

 This print is called club veg.
I had seen these post cards years ago and purchased 5 of them.  They make me smile. 
First date.

 The escape.

Reclining Salad.  

I also found this little paddle that I had painted many years ago.  I love the Lily of the Valley I painted.

Christmas Eve we were treated to quite the snowstorm.  I shared the short video on Christmas Day.

I like it when it snows.  Do you feel like a calm overcomes all of mother nature as the snow falls? There is this intense quiet and it almost feels like you are the only one remaining on the planet.   I will say I find it even more spectacular at night, especially with the moon and stars.  

I like to keep the porch and walkway swept off, if you do the job during the storm it isn't quite so "big".

Here is a good idea of the snow accumulation after about 2 hours.  I laughed because I was outside caring for my chickens and 15 minutes later the steps and walkway looked like this....

I like my garden geegaws in the snow.  Jeff's fabricated gazing ball.  (A Bowling Ball with metallic paint).

I like the sticks of sage, lavender and anise hyssop.  Interestingly enough the Bible references hyssop in several verses as being used in cleansing and purification.  The hyssop in my little herb garden grows abundantly!  Boy do I feel the need for cleansing as of late. 

I don't think you can see it but my decorative yard chickens are under this layer of snow, along with some lavender.

I like the tracks in the snow.  I think I have some hares in my fields that come over to explore near the house.  I threw some carrots out yesterday.

These I have no clue what they are, but they were interesting.

These were my tracks I left after walking through the field.  You can see there is about 8 inches of snow there.  I was trying to get a picture of a bird of some sort in my tree.  I watched it for a long time from inside the house, but couldn't get a good picture of it.  The camera seemed to like to zoom in on the screen. Outside,  I managed to focus it in, when you are zooming at a distance like that it is tough to keep still so I ended up with a picture of .... it's lower portion.....

 As it was taking off.

I am pretty sure what was in my tree was a great horned owl.  No this isn't the owl, I had to find a stock photo.  When I zoomed in on the head I saw the unmistakable face and tufts. 

I was sad I couldn't get a picture, but to see it, and the colors in the sunlight was awesome.

I love the days after a snowstorm even though the temperatures outside felt like they were -2 when I was wandering around taking pictures.

The blue sky, and sun glistening off of the snow, the weird wave formations that the wind makes.


Winter is officially here, the winter solstice is past and the days will become longer as we make life transitions toward a new and bright future.