I'm almost ashamed........

....to blog about this and then actually show you some of the photos I took while doing this.

H had an errand to do with his friends this morning that I figured would take about 4-5 hours. Just enough time for me to get a few things done around the house. After a few leisurely minutes surfing the web, I thought it time to get going on my project. But, where to begin? As I looked around the living room, my eyes wandered up to the ceiling fan and YIKES! I couldn't believe the webs hanging from it! "Fine," I says to meself, "that's my project for today", and off I go to fetch the ladder and cleaning supplies. As I'm bringing the ladder in from the deck, I notice that the drapes are really, really, dusty. OK, I'll take them down and throw them in the dryer to knock the dust off. Of course, as I'm up on the ladder, taking down the drapes, I notice that the shade on the half moon window above the sliding glass doors is absolutely FILTHY! Right, let's take down the shade - don't know how I'm going to clean it, but down it must come. Ooops! The window is full of dead flies, dust, etc, and grimy to boot. Down the ladder I go to get the window cleaner and paper towels. Out of the corner of my eye, I notice that the plants in front of the sliders really, really, need to be trimmed and the dead leaves, which had fallen onto the floor need to be picked up - oh, and the floor is pretty dusty there.

You can see where this whole thing was headed, right? You guessed it. The little project has now turned into a full scale spring cleaning!

I started at 7:45 a.m. and am just now sitting down to blog about this. It's 12:30 and the living room has never been cleaner. Not only did I clean, dust and sweep everything, but I changed a few of H's paintings on the wall. Boy, is he going to be surprised when he walks through the door!Ah, but all's well that ends well and the living room and kitchen are both spotless. I'm dead, but life is good! "-)

Not Enough Time

We purchased a new pc two days ago and I've been up to my eyeballs trying to get everything transferred over from the old pc and learning all the new bells and whistles of the new Vista operating system.

I am not known for my patience and the experience has been frustrating, to say the least. However, that being said, I must say, I love the new pc! Now, if I can just get blogger to work today, I will be a happy woman.

In order to relieve myself of the tension that comes along with trying to learn something new and technical, I find serenity in my knitting. I just finished my granddaughter's sweater and have begun one for my grandson.
I've come a long way from potholders!

H's Masterpieces

I have to thank Kerri for reminding me that I would show some of the art H has been working on. We last left him standing at the kitchen island painting on some canvas cards he purchased while waiting for one of my knitting classes to end. While wandering around the store, he found a package of 6, 6x8 blank greeting cards with envelopes for $6.95 and thought they would make nice gifts for the kids, parents, friends, etc. He's been working diligently and last week purchased another set.

Here is a sampling of what he's doing:


These are all sea scapes in acrylic, but he has done many fine oils as well. This is one he painted from a picture he saw in a Louisville symphony program:

A Brief Respite

Yesterday brought a bit of relief from the howling winter winds and bitter cold. We took advantage of the "balmy" temperature of almost 30 degrees and headed out to the Schoodic section of Acadia National Park to get a bit of fresh air and exercise.

A slightly misty atmosphere and light snow gave an ethereal look to the landscape. Walking carefully to avoid slick spots in the road, we managed to renew our winter weary souls with the stark beauty of our rocky Maine coast - it is exhilarating and breathtaking in any season!
We were the only ones out there and felt we had the whole park to ourselves. We are so blessed to be surrounded by this bit of serenity. The howling winds return tomorrow, but today is food for the soul!

The Icy Siege Continues

Today is day three of the bitter, arctic outbreak. The wind continues to howl, the door yard is a veritable skating rink and even the poor birds hang on to the feeders for dear life. We venture out in brief bursts only to do the necessary sanding of the driveway or run to the post office to check mail, which of course, only consists of a deluge of "offers" from CitiBank!

This is looking down at the house from about 1/4 of the way up the driveway. The picture below shows the top of the drive. This time of year, we refer to the driveway as "The Luge"

The cove is frozen solid and the ice cap is beginning to extend into the bay - thoughts of kayaking are far from our minds right now as we huddle around the wood stove, keeping warm.

Those Crazy Scandinavians!

We have a jetted tub. When we do a lot of physical work like yesterday and today, shoveling and plowing, we really like to give our aching, elderly muscles a treat and soak in a hot whirlpool for a few minutes. Of course, when we get out, we need to cool off. I slip outside and let the cold air do it's job. Unfortunately, unlike the Finns, we don't have any Birch branches with which to beat ourselves. I also don't roll in snowbanks! "-)Temperature was around 5 degrees here!

Gratefully, when I cooled off, I had a nice, warm turkey minestrone soup which had been simmering on the wood stove all day.


Life is really, really good!

Happy Valentine's Day

This morning dawned with the forecast of snow - lot's of snow. We're excited! Up until now, we've hardly had any significant snow and we are itching to get the old snowshoes out. Looks as though we are getting our wish as we just came in from shoveling and plowing the first 5 or so inches of what promises to be 6 - 12 inches before it's all over. However, as I look out the office windows, it seems to be changing to a wintery mix of ice pellets and snow. Rats!

On the positive side, I have a beautiful bloom on one of my Amaryllis! Several years ago, my son, who lives in Florida sent me a few bulbs. I had one bloom last year, but this year, it looks as though I'll have a dozen or more! Being a goofy gardener, I name many of my plants. Below is a picture of Anna Banana and Amy Amaryllis! It's beginning to look downright tropical in my living room!

Busy Beavers

This morning the temperature at 9 am was 9 degrees. However, since it was sunny and not breezy, we figured a walk was in order, so we threw some water into the back pack and headed over to Acadia National Park.

Did I mention it was 9 degrees? It was really cold at the beginning of the hike, but as the terrain took us mostly uphill, we warmed up quite rapidly. We decided to take the Witch Hole Pond carriage road loop - about 4.5 miles. The road was packed with snow and it was like trying to run in sand on the beach. The 4.5 miles felt more like 8 miles by the time we had made the loop around the pond and both of us were sweating up a storm.

It was a great hike. We spotted several beaver dens and marveled at how big a tree a beaver can bring down.
Looks like the little fella has created a canal outside his den

This was NOT a sapling! It easily measured about 8 inches in diameter

By this time (about 2 hours later), the outside temps had risen to about 18 degrees and it didn't take long to cool off so we headed into Bar Harbor to treat ourselves to lunch in our favorite spot, Geddy's.

OH, I almost forgot a great pic! A few days ago, we were walking in our favorite spot and came across this great bit of ice sculpture done by Mother Nature, herself.

Every winter, the town lets this water line spray so it doesn't freeze. This year's ice mound is spectacular. H is in the picture to show scale.

'Tis a Cold and Breezy Day

A good day to stay home, near the wood stove, curl up with a good book and read or knit, or both! Temps are in the single digits and may not budge for quite some time.

The view to Mt. Desert Island is icy and crisp in the dry, arctic air today. We only get a good view of Cadillac Mountain in the winter, when the leaves are gone from the maple trees. This morning was a good view.
I put a turkey in the oven this morning for our early afternoon dinner. They were on sale at Thanksgiving, so I purchased two and put one in the freezer. Being the frugal person that I am, I bought the $.59 per pound one instead of the $.99 per pound. I was wondering what the difference was and when I thawed this baby out, I noticed she had one wing tip missing. I guess since it was not "perfect", it got relegated to the less expensive pile. Well, honestly, who is going to miss a wing tip? We don't even eat them, as they get thrown into the stock pot. On the positive side, she had two necks in the cavity and Leroy and the Boys (the crows) are feasting today, as well!
H has decided to take over the kitchen island as his painting studio today. I wonder what masterpiece he's working on? Stay tuned!

"H" Has a Sock!

Having discovered the joy of knitting socks, I thought long and hard about what to make out of Tante Paula's inherited wool yarn. She knew H way back when we were just dating and thought the world of him. She used to tell me that H was my "einz und alles" (my one and everything), and she was right. It only seemed a fitting tribute to her to knit a pair of socks for H with her yarn. After much "tinking" (that's knitting spelled backwords, denoting how much I had to rip out), I finally finished the first sock this afternoon.

H models the first of the pair below.

Danke Schoen (Thank you), Tante Paula, you have been much in my thoughts of late!

I'm On a Roll

Knitting class was fun again, as usual. One of the ladies was celebrating a birthday so she brought in brownies and I brought healthy (relatively anyway) Apricot Coconut Oat cookies. We "oohed and aahed" over everyone's projects, giggled and ate our way through the 2 hour class and before we knew it, it was time to go home.

I finished the socks with the help of our instructor, who demonstrated the last, critical Kitchener Stitch, closing up the toe. I put them on when I got home and boy, are they ever comfy!I now needed a new project, so I picked up the yarn and pattern for a cute little hat for my granddaughter. I was finished with this one before dinner! Good thing I've got another pair of socks in the works.