I Like Thursday #14

Welcome to my 14th I like Thursday.

My last post was about Snowmaggedon and I haven't posted since then.  I find the snow fascinating, just in smaller accumulations.

Remember my post from my last I Like Thursday?  The swing, the shadows, how the snow had stuck to a vertical surface.

I really liked this though.

The swing, still snowing, looked like Belgian Waffles with powdered sugar on top.

I liked the snow how it accumulated on this spruce.  Makes it look like a Christmas postcard, if only it was a bit brighter out.

I like how the now accumulated on the butterfly bushes. 

I like the little pops of color from my flowers from farm implements that Jeff made me with the stark background.

I like how ice formed around the chain links in the chicken run.

It warmed up quite a bit Wednesday, and while I was out feeding the girls this evening it all collapsed at once with a huge crash.

I like the snow on the old oak.  I think about how heavy snow is and wonder that it doesn't topple those old branches to the ground.

I like the fact that Spring is on its way.  How do I know?  Tuesday was Fat Tuesday or in Michigan it is known as Paczki day.

Per Wikipedia:

Pączki (Polish pronunciation: [ˈpɔnt͡ʂkʲi] ( listen); singular: pączek [ˈpɔnt͡ʂɛk]; Kashubian: pùrcle, Silesian: kreple) are filled doughnuts that are typical for Polish cuisine.

Pączki are deep-fried pieces of dough shaped into flattened spheres and filled with confiture or other sweet filling. Pączki are usually covered with powdered sugar, icing, glaze or bits of dried orange zest. A small amount of grain alcohol (traditionally, Spiritus) is added to the dough before cooking; as it evaporates, it prevents the absorption of oil deep into the dough.^[1] The common opinion is that the ideal pączek is fluffy and at the same time a bit collapsed, with a bright stripe around – it is supposed to guarantee that the dough was fried in fresh oil.^[2][3]

 I like the ones with Raspberry filling.  Jeff used to always bring me Paczki from a huge bakery in Hamtramck called the New Palace Bakery.  One of the guys that used to work for the city would go and stand in a huge line to pick up several dozen for the guys at the DPS.  Jeff would always snag one to bring home to me.

I like craft fairs.  I went to one the other day, but frankly the only two crafts were a man and his wife making wire jewelry from copper, and another man that had lots of stones and rocks which he had found, and made into jewelry.  He called himself a rock hound.  I liked what he had, but I saw this and new I had to have it.

It is a Petoskey Stone!

Good old Wikipedia to the rescue again:

A Petoskey stone is a rock and a fossil, often pebble-shaped, that is composed of a fossilized rugose coral, Hexagonaria percarinata.^[1] Such stones were formed as a result of glaciation, in which sheets of ice plucked stones from the bedrock, grinding off their rough edges and depositing them in the northwestern (and some in the northeastern) portion of Michigan's lower peninsula. In those same areas of Michigan, complete fossilized coral colony heads can be found in the source rocks for the Petoskey stones.
Petoskey stones are found in the Gravel Point Formation of the Traverse Group. They are fragments of a coral reef that was originally deposited during the Devonian period.^[1] When dry, the stone resembles ordinary limestone but when wet or polished using lapidary techniques, the distinctive mottled pattern of the six-sided coral fossils emerges. It is sometimes made into decorative objects. Other forms of fossilized coral are also found in the same location.

Finally I like prints in the snow.  I saw this one the other day, and smiled and though my guardian angel has been here protecting me.

Now head over to LeeAnna's at Not Afraid of Color and check out the other I Like Thursday posts.