Wintertime

Just to prove that the beautiful sunrise of the other morning wasn’t just a fluke, here is another.

And then the winter sun appears.

Over the past few days, besides unpacking I’ve been goofing off clearing brush, working on my latest quilt,

cooking up some spaghetti sauce (it was an excellent batch), cleaning out the bluebird house (which was completely full of old nest material!)

enjoying seeing family and friends and just generally settling in. The bitter cold is giving way to relatively mild temperatures that have allowed me to work outside in the sunshine with just a heavy sweater.  The sunshine should hold a couple more days and then some rain and wintry mix is likely to reappear. 

We still have snow in parts of the yard, especially on the south side where it is shielded from old Sol by the Cedar trees.

The snow is still several inches deep, in places.  Normally, you'd expect it to be gone inside a week but it has been two and a half.

Our yard is like a microcosm of the state.  Depending on where you are, there are trees or it is wide open spaces.

I don’t know that I have ever seen a dog, even a Samoyed, love snow the way Pearl does.

These shadows, even at midmorning this time of year, keep the temperature down on the south side.

Look how she holds that magnificent tail!

Evelyn has been like a puppy, herself.

Truly a butt ugly tree behind her.  But the bluebirds like it.

Pearl's ruff is nothing to sneeze at, either, although she has lost SO much of her coat in the past week.

Look at Evelyn go!

Lord have mercy, Evelyn is SO furry.  She looks like something out of a fairytale.

She has always liked sticks.

Those happy faces make it impossible for the winter blahs to take root.

I found a place to set the birdcam that I think works better.

In the past few days, I’ve see a ton of birdlife show up throughout the place and their bird sounds always cheer me up.  I was gazing out the window a couple of days ago and one of the roadrunners that owns the neighborhood wandered through. I need to set out some meat scraps.

Interestingly, to me, when Evelyn spotted it, she didn’t charge the fence or bark. Instead, she set to howling. And she has such a pretty howl.

The woodpeckers have found some of the suet I’ve set out (most of it is not where the birdcam can see it).

Husband is out of town but should be home, tonight – just a fast trip to Colorado to look at helicopter parts or some such nonsense. He was delighted at how easy it was to go through the Oklahoma City airport. It took him about as long to get from home to the Denver airport as it did to get from the Denver airport to the motel.

The big Oklahoma City winter quilt show is later this week and I plan to go on the day it opens and again on Saturday. That is something I’ve looked forward to for years. I know I sound like a broken record but I smile every time I remember that I am actually back home.

Happy Quilting,

Penny, Evelyn and Pearl