A Few Inches Of Snow

7:14

7:42

I don't much like waking to darkness and miss the early sun rise before DST.  It' 7:00 and the lake and the shoreline is just becoming visible, a fluorescent blue canvas.  I can see now that the lake is snow covered, unlike yesterday when it was a vast plain of shiny ice.  It's 16º, much colder than yesterday and snow is forecast on and off for the next 24 hours.

Yesterday we spent  the day, listening to the warnings from the weather channel, waiting for the snow storm.  So far, four or five inches have fallen since Sunday and the roads are clear,   yet schools are closed. In fact, when I came out of yoga yesterday, the sun was out, briefly, and though snow was forecast, it really did not start snowing around here until last night around 9:00.  There is enough snow to cross country ski or snow shoe but not snowmobile.

After yesterday's crowded yoga class at 9:30, I did a major shopping at a crowded Wegman's, as everyone was stocking up on staples, taking no chance in case there really was a blizzard of note.  I easily filled my cart, with the usual, a few goodies like Utz chips and Nutty Buddies, an Evie favorite. When I got home, the parking area was still clear, no snow to speak of, and Evie helped me bring in the groceries.  Once that was done, with my help by the way, the good husband, Evie made me a tuna melt to go along with a bowl of ramen.  I watched about forty five minutes of a new Wallander before I had enough, was tired from having gotten up too early, so I went into the living room to read, a sure soporific this time of day, and took a long nap, over an hour.  I woke up loggy, as a nap that long does not usually leave me feeling energized.

A Plump Junco

So I took my time, read some, watched TV with Evie who also had an easy day, photographing a fat, nasty squirrel and the busy birds in our bushes. I  finally worked myself up in to enough mojo to go for a hike through the snowy woods.  I did not think there was enough snow to ski, so I just put on my hiking boots and used my poles.

The Tangled Woods

It felt good, as always, to be out in the snow covered woods, and I did some bushwhacking which is always fun.  As I returned, I met our neighbor, Jeff, who was just starting out to cross country ski where I had hiked.  The snow was deep enough so I should have skied as well.

Squirrel Attacks Bird Feeder

Evie was making a new chicken recipe, chicken breasts marinated in an egg white/cornstarch mixture with a mustard/creme fraiche sauce, a recipe we saw on a recent New York Times post.  We were able to have a brief wine time before Evie had to finish off the dinner, of rice, roasted brussel sprouts, and a salad.  It was a fine dinner, the sauce worth making again, the brussel sprouts like eating candy.  We caught up on a couple of series, BILLIONS and BIG LITTLE LIES, neither of which is grabbing us. We watch them but do not look forward to them like we had hoped.  We ended the night watching the new American Crime, a series we have really liked the past two years.  Each season has a completely new theme, with the same actors.  This season was difficult to watch, as it's about child sex trafficking and the lives of illegal immigrants, neither of which are very uplifting topics.  It was good to get back to my Bernie Gunther novel, set in Nazi Germany!