Another Winter Weekend Begins

Loving the Winter Weather

The Spectacular Now Of Winter

Photograph of Long Point by Evie Joy or Ansel Adams?

Saturday Morning at 7:40

It's just 7:10 and I have been up for almost an hour.  Dawn is approaching and the lake, the gray sky are visible, no hint of a sunrise yet, just a vast wasteland of snow and ice.  It looks like it could be a nice day though it's 9º at the moment, getting into the twenties with some sun later in the day.

Lovely Dark and Deep

Snow Shoeing Victoria

Yoga was cancelled yesterday so we hung out, drinking coffee, enjoying being inside on a very cold morning.  At 9:00, I did  bake another loaf of artisan bread, a healthy loaf, with oats, quinoa, and flax seed. I am getting the process down finally so we both really enjoy its texture, especially the crust. It's best toasted, and we love it with sandwiches. Around 11:00, after having had a relaxing morning, chasing squirrels off the feeder, and baking bread, we put on our snow shoes, to walk the woods of Woodlawn/Victoria in a mini blizzard, just the way we like it.  It was a walk in a winter wonderland as we spent a could part of our snow shoeing taking picture so the woods, tree limbs frosted with heavy layers of snow.  It was like walking in winter museum, every where you looked was a painting more spectacular than the last.  And we saw and heard birds for the first time in awhile, especially woodpeckers, four or five of them, knocking on the trees, creating a pecking rhythm.  We paused to try to get photos but they always flew away before we could catch them.  So we had to satisfy ourselves with just the beauty of each moment in the woods.  It was tough going, at least a foot of snow, so as the lead, it was exhausting make the tracks, much easier, however, retracing our route. We were out for about an hour, not getting cold, though the temperatures were in the teens.  What a grand way to spend a morning.  You can see why we love the winter here at the lake

Frosted Pine Boughs

Santa Claus?

Blue Skies, Frosted Bent Trunks

After snow shoeing, we had homemade vegetable soup and a bagel and watched, what else, Jon Stewart and The Nightly Show.  This is the second week of The Nightly Show and its becoming a regular feature in our schedule, just like Stephen Colbert.  We highly recommend it, with its emphasis on 'keeping it 100', which means telling the truth, no hedging your bets.  It's lot of fun.

Red Squirrel Hell

Red Squirrel Confused

We did little the rest of the afternoon until 4:00. The sun came out, the skies were blue, so we found our mojo and went out again, this time cross country skiing.  It was cold, however, with a fierce breeze on the lake, so we stayed in Woodlawn, skiing on the roads, the yards, for about thirty minutes.  My fingers were frozen by the time I got in, so I ran them under cold water, which relieved somewhat the pain.  I think my mittens were still wet from the morning, thus the frozen fingers.  Evie had not trouble and is loving her new skis and boots and gloves....winter woman!

Cross Country Skiing Woodlawn

We were still pumped from our day of snow shoeing and skiing, so we got out the cheese, made a couple of manhattans, and had a long pre prandial cocktail hour, listening first to POTUS, then to Alt Nation, our favorite music station.  We love watching the lake turn black, then watch the lights of snowmobiles coming out of nowhere, towards our house, then hang a right, and race up the lake.

For dinner, we had leftovers, some soup, bread, and veggies,  and we were happy enough as we watched the last episode of one of our favorite series, Parenthood.  Unfortunately, it was sappy, not what we wanted, a paean to family, and they lose Zeke, the patriarch at the end.  And I dislike intensely scenes where the family happily play a game of either baseball or touch football, excited and joyous.  I have never had fun at a family football or baseball game, sorry. Usually, Dad ends up running over one of the kids or someone screams or cries, running off the field in a pique.  It's only fun and exciting in the movies or on TV. Our favorite ending remains the end of The Killing and our all time, the last two minutes of the movie Cinema Paradiso.  It always brings both Evie and me to tears.

I am including a poem I really enjoyed from yesterday's Writers's Almanac; you may have to be somewhere around my age for it to make most sense.  Enjoy!

From Our House to Your House

by Jack Ridl

It is 1959. It is the cusp of the coming revolution.
We still like Ike. We are still afraid of Sputnik.
We read Life magazine and Sports Illustrated
where the athletes grow up shooting hoops
in the driveway, playing catch in the backyard.
We sit on our sectional sofa. My mother loves
Danish modern. Our pants have cuffs. Our hair
is short. We are smiling and we mean it. I am
a guard. My father is my coach. I am sitting
next to him on the bench. I am ready to go in.
My sister will cheer. My mother will make
the pre-game meal from The Joy of Cooking.
Buster is a good dog. We are all at an angle.
We are a family at an angle. Our clothes are
pressed. We look into the eye of the camera.
“Look ‘em in the eye,” my father teaches us.
All we see ahead are wins, good grades,
Christmas. We believe in being happy. We
believe in mowing the lawn, a two-car garage,
a freezer, and what the teacher says. There is
nothing on the wall. We are facing away
from the wall. The jungle is far from home.
Hoses are for cleaning the car, watering
the gardens. My sister walks to school. My
father and I lean into the camera. My mother
and sister sit up straight. Ike has kept us
safe. In the spring, we will have a new car,
a Plymouth Fury with whitewalls and a vinyl top.

“From Our House to Your House” by