High Winds, Rain, And Cold

8:12

A Busy Woodpecker

A Pileated Woodpecker Pecks

I woke this morning around 7:20, to a yard filled with downed branches and twigs, none very large but the lawn was covered, a result of the past 12 hours of high winds, strong enough to shake the house at times.  Fortunately, we never lost our electricity and no large branches came down, at least in our yard or nearby.  At the moment,  it's 8:40 and Evie's diligently trying to get a photo of our woodpecker that is boring a hole in the tree next door.

Most of yesterday, a Monday, I thought was Tuesday.  Go figure.  The day was kind of a loss, as I had little to do, and nothing in mind.  Thus, it seemed like a long day, probably because our past two weeks were filled with travel, a wedding, grandchildren and Christmas.  So the post holiday blues have set in even though we have yet to bring in the New Year.  The day, however, was not an entire loss, especially for Evie.  She put together our dinner in the morning, a pot roast, with veggies and one of my favorites, pearl onions.  And around noon, she drove off to Lakewood, to start her regime of working out at the YMCA, putting me to shame as I stayed behind, watched some TV and had a marvelous salad she made for me before leaving, salmon, greens, tangerines and a Caesar Salad dressing.

Woodlawn Creek

Evie left earlier than usual because of the weather which predicted snow pellets and icing roads by 1:00 or so.  And by the time she arrived home, around 1:30, the car was being pelleted by ice as for once, the weatherman was correct.  I forgot that in mid morning, I made myself go for a forty minute walk through the Woodlawn/Victoria woods, just before it started to drizzle.  It was good to be back in some woods, though a large tree had fallen across the path, which will make cross country skiing difficult this winter.  I also met Corky Maitland,  a neighbor, walking his dog, and some others, out for a walk, next to the Victoria creek, walking their Newfoundland, who had just jumped in the icy water. He was black and huge, aptly named Bear.

Dead Fall Along Woodlawn

A Babbling Winter Creek

I spent the afternoon reading a top ten book called Outline, a novel by British writer Rachel Musk. It's an interesting but slow read, much different for the easy mysteries or spy thrillers that I have been used to reading lately.  Evie put the pot roast in the oven around 4:00, and we both adjourned to the living room, to enjoy the end of day, the building wind, the bending tree limbs.

Dinner was a bit of a downer, as the pot roast was not tender, nor the veggies.  Obviously, it was the cooks fault!  So we put it back in the oven and will have a great pot roast meal for tonight.  I did enjoy the mashed potatoes and brussels sprouts, and some of the meat. We caught up on Homeland, watching the last two episodes.  And, like The Affair, the show left us with more questions than answers, suggesting their will be another season.  Because of the heavy winds, Evie slept downstairs; I stayed upstairs, falling asleep to the wind pounding on the house, wondering if we would have electricity in the morning, if any large branches would be down.