Like a LION

Front yard in snow more snow

This is why we decided not to keep chickens this winter

Vole or mole slipping out from beneath the snow to steal seed

March roared into southern Indiana this morning dumping an additional five to six inches of snow upon us. Snow on snow on snow. It is pretty, but it makes getting about  tough. The roads are nasty, footing is unsteady. I've slipped or something and injured my foot or ankle - some tendon or muscle or bone. Some swelling and pain. I limp about and hobble and try not to slip and fall, again. My foot was injured when I fell last Thursday morning heading in to my office. 
There is barely a place for Miss Chelsea Kabob to relieve herself. She hops into the snow, sinks, hops out and we trudge on. We wipe her feet and belly when we enter the house. 
We've gone through so much wood Doug says he will have to chip the next batch out of the snow. And the wood in the mud room was stacked to the ceiling. 
Like weary soldiers we carry on. 

Take a walk with me

Last blooms



Doug built this chair for a Christmas gift to me a couple of years ago.

The bird bath I bought in memory of mother.

Coleus I allowed to run wild

perspective

another view

steps fashioned from local limestone

everyone calls her the baby

the old man

the best chicken, ever - Ms Ella Fitzgerald

Doug built this years ago

heads bowed

property across the road

property across the road

at the end of our drive

When I walked out to my car, after work tonight, you could feel the winds of change blowing.  I walked about the property this evening, taking these photos, with temperatures of warm 83 degrees. We are expecting thunderstorms tonight which will take the temps down to 66 degrees. They are predicting an overnight low of 37 degrees on Saturday. The temps have been as low as 40 thus far, but we haven't hit the 30s, yet. Soon the fall rains will begin and with them, the leaves will come down. I hope we have some time to enjoy the changing colors before that happens.
In the summer, we are mostly outdoors. When we are in the house, we never go into the family room which we refer to as the fireplace room. We only use the fireplace room during the months we have fires going. I need to get to work cleaning the fireplace room as we may be in there soon. Before I do that, Doug will need to clean the chimney. When I sat down to write this post he walked in and said "time to batten down the hatches, right?" Usually we don't light the first fire until mid to late October. If it is cold enough to turn on the heat, we usually have a fire going. Our fireplace has an insert in it with a blower, but often we sit in the fireplace room with the door open basking in the heat.
Certain things ruin you. I've had a sunroof in my car for years now and can't imagine not having a sunroof. The same with a fireplace. I just can't imagine winter without being able to sit in front of the fire. In winter, evening after evening, Doug and I sit in there, surrounded by our two cats and our Corgi. Doug is usually dozing. I read or get on my laptop. As long as I don't have to be out on icy roads, I don't mind winter. I have a friend who teases me, but I always stock up the larder. She started teasing me about this years ago when I lived across the road from a grocery - telling me if I did run out of something, I could just walk to the grocery to fetch it. She loved to say "this isn't Little House on the Prairie!" Even so, I like the idea of stocking up - of being secure in knowing if I'm snowed in I can bake bread or a pie or cookies or make chili and all of the ingredients are at hand. I need to get to work laying in the food supplies for winter.  
We are considering finding new homes for the chickens. We are both tired of caring for them. We've kept chickens for four years now and this past year, we didn't get new chicks in the spring. I made the mistake of naming a few of my first batch - my Barred Rock, Ella Fitzgerald, my speckled Sussex, Marvella and my California white, Jenny-O. These girls probably don't even lay any longer, but it is hard to let them go. But neither of us want to hike out into the snow and break the ice or make certain the water heater is working.
October is my favorite month of the year and we've only just begun, so we aren't quite ready for snow. I love crisp leaves crunching underfoot, football games droning in the background, sweatshirts, warm cups in cold hands.
I hope you enjoyed walking with me about the property.

Welcome Spring?

Image courtesy of: http://www.arabamericanmuseum.org/

First of all, why should we take the word of a rodent?

The first day of Spring in Southern, IN:
As I write this it is 26 degrees and we are expecting a low of 18, tonight.

Shortly before lunch we had snow flurries.

On campus, some of the students recognize Spring by wearing shorts. With their parkas.

We have had a bitterly cold wind blowing. I'm wearing my gloves again still.

We did have some sunshine and my spirits were lifted a bit by that.

Tell me what the first day of Spring was like for you in your state.

Thinking outside the box

What is better in the fall than baking?  It makes the kitchen all warm and cozy and makes the house smell wonderful. Recently, while shopping at Kroger, I happened upon some box cookies.  Very simple recipe.  I picked up some cream cheese frosting in a can.  I baked the cookies on my Pampered Chef stoneware. 

Then I allowed the cookies to cool and iced them.

Dug finished off a dozen in the first night - he swears he did not but mysteriously, half of the cookies were missing.  They were delicious.  I may make up a couple of batches to have for Thanksgiving.  YUM, Yum, yum.  If you can handle using a box mix, I recommend these. 

Summer's Eve makes me feel fine

2010

Tomorrow:  a day off work in the middle of the week. 
Tuesday evenings Doug plays pick-up soccer at a local park.  He will work most of tomorrow, I had no plans this evening nor holiday plans for tomorrow so I decided to head out to the park to watch him play. 
After the game ended, a few sat around a small grill cooking kabobs and drank a few beers.  Then we ate some watermelon.
I sat and watched the sun set and then watched the moon rise.  We sat together until nearly 10:30 p.m.
On the way home my Honda followed behind Doug's rattly pick-up truck winding old country roads on a summer's eve.  My windows down and the sun roof wide open- this is how I like to drive with the wind whipping around me.
We've had some terribly hot temperatures as of late, up over a hundred degrees.
By the time we headed for home it had dropped to eighty-seven and by contrast, this felt cool and comfortable. 
The katydids sing their song in unison and suddenly I am missing my Grandma who passed in 2006.  Then I realize that what I am missing is the drive between my house and Grandma's house on a summer evening.  It was always among my favorite of drives.
Then I'm hurled back in time to when my children were with their dad on some of the July fourths through the years.  I would often go to a movie by myself and then out to Grandma's.  Once, one of the movies I saw was Hope Floats.  I cried so hard I got a headache.  After the movie I drove out to Grandma's and told her how bad my head hurt and asked if she had anything to eat.  Grandma always had the best iced tea ever and usually something delicious to eat.  And if she didn't have something delicious to eat, she would make you something delicious to eat.  Together we headed to the kitchen.
I'm thankful on this summer's eve for a beautiful sunset, an awesome moonrise, cooler temperatures, songs of insects which bring to mind loved ones gone on before us. 
As always, I miss you Grandma.

No fluke



Dutchman's Breeches

Bloomington is blooming.  I took a walk about the property and took these photos last Saturday. Dutchman's Breeches and Trout Lily grow wild in the nearby woods.  Trilliums are budding, but no blooms, yet. 

Trout Lily

 Violets bloom abundantly in the front lawn.

Violet

These are ground cover in the woods.  Can someone tell me what they are?  I do not know.  I refer to them as "L.W.F."  (Little white flowers.)

L.W.F.

I believe this is Maiden Hair fern.  Correct me if I'm wrong.  Last summer I tried to move some of the ferns that grow wild in the woods to shady parts of the yard.  Each time I got poison ivy on my forearms.  I get it something terrible.

Maiden hair fern

This tree is in the front lawn. Apple or crab apple?  It was a buzz with bees.  I shot carefully as I am allergic.

Apple, crab apple?

We have a lot of hostas in the front yard.  The tree that used to shade them has died so we will see how they hold up this summer.  I just read something about encircling hostas with pennies and slugs won't bother them.  I am going to try it. 

hosta

I planted this and it has grown and comes back every year.

Jacob's Ladder

I planted this, too and can't remember the name of it.  Another perennial. 

who can tell me what this is?  I don't remember!

Taken out back of the property at the edge of the woods.


Redbud out back of the farm

Lamb's Ear that I brought with me from New Castle.  Comes back every year and spreads.  (Notice Miss Nosy Chelsea's nose at the right edge of the photo.)  I have read that deer won't eat plants with fuzzy leaves. 

Lamb's Ear

Forsythia.  Grows in the back yard.  The fragrance wafts through the windows and smells delicious. This grows up and tangles through the trees growing nearby and drips back down.

Forsythia

 In the woods across the road from the farm.

Redbud in the woods near the farm

Bleeding hearts.  I planted a few years ago and always comes back.  I would love to have a ton of these.  I love bleeding hearts.  So perfectly hang.  So delicate.  Loves morning sun.

bleeding heart

At the edge of the woods on our road.  Both pink and lavender redbud.  Lavender is common.  Only a bit of pink redbud blooms.

redbud trees on our road- pink and lavender

As you pull into our drive, a salmon dogwood and lavender redbud dwarfed by the majestic pine towering over. 

salmon dogwood and redbud

More redbuds in the woods bordering the farm.

redbud trees in woods near the farm

redbud trees in woods near the farm

As you can see, we are literally surrounded by beauty.  At first, I thought the unusually high temperatures signaled a "false" spring.  It doesn't seem to be a fluke.  It seems Spring has truly sprung.  They are saying we are running a good five weeks ahead this year.