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.

Daddy Taught Me Well!

Whenever confronted with a problem to solve, my Father would always look around to see what he could use. His soloutions to problems sometimes makes Rube Goldberg look like a rank amateur! I learned a lot from Daddy about looking outside the box - to wit....

My favorite aunt (the one who taught me to knit) sadly passed away a few years ago and I received several hanks of sheep's wool yarn from her belongings. I've never known what to knit from them as they are of a sport yarn weight, but now that I have just about mastered the fine art of sock knitting, I decided to knit a pair of socks with it.

Unfortunately, the hanks didn't come neatly packaged as a "ball" of yarn and needed to be balled before I could begin. Harking back to my childhood, sitting at the knees of my grandmother, holding the hank of yarn between my palms while she adroitly rolled it into a more manageable ball, I attempted to do the same with the help of H's hands. I don't know who ran out of patience first, him or me, but suffice it to say, I was skunked and put the hank of yarn in to the spare bedroom while I hummed on the problem.

I took it out again today and proceeded to try to unravel the yarn by myself and ended up in frustration. Until....... I looked at the kitchen stools and visualized them upside down. Voila!!! I had "hands" to hold the yarn while I adeptly rolled it into a nice, round ball.

Thank you, Daddy. You taught me well!
The new kitchen multitasker!

The End is Near!

This week's knitting class was a blast! Six of us ladies had such a good time giggling and enjoying the ambiance of surrounding hanks of colorful wool and great company, all the while just knitting away. One is making a sweater, another a kid's hat, two are knitting scarves and I'm almost finished with my very first attempt at socks.
This is not a very good pic - can't get close enough with my camera, but H saw three pileated woodpeckers sitting in the maple tree next to our house. What thrill to see these beautiful birds. Up close, they are huge with bright red heads and black and white bodies.

Giddy's Murder!

HA! Now that I have your attention, let me explain today's blog title. A flock of crows is commonly known as a "murder". We have a murder of about 5 crows that check in with us every morning to see what morsels we may have left for them on the driveway. Yesterday, we prepped all the chicken leg quarters we purchased on sale at the grocery (cut into pieces and skin removed) and had lots of nasty, slimy chicken skin left over after the prep. Instead of leaving it all to rot in the trash can til trash pick up day, I put some of it out on the drive for the "boys". They immediately swooped down and began a frenzy of feeding - they were in seventh heaven! Since I only have a 3x optical zoom on my camera, I can't get a good, close up photo, but I managed to get this picture of three of them parading up and down the drive in search of more goodies."Leroy (the ring leader) and the boys"

On an update on the knitting - I finished the mittens and am now on my second pair - some for H. Knitting class was fun last week, although I got off track and had to rip out all I had accomplished on my sock that day, soooo, I'm still just at the heel and will have to wait til I get further instruction for the remainder of it. Since I'm a visual type person, once I see it done, I'll be able to do it again. I'm just not much good with written instructions.

So, How Cold Is It?

Pretty darned cold, I'd say. Temperature this morning was -6 degrees. Getting out of a nice warm, flannel lined bed this morning was not an option until H had the wood stove cranking out significant heat!

Upon finally getting up the nerve to remove myself from my nice fuzzy cocoon, (getting out of flannel sheets with a flannel nightgown on is like removing ones self from velcro!), I looked out the window to see the beautiful sea smoke hanging over the bay.

Yep, nothing to do but get a spicy lentil stew simmering on the wood stove! The house is now toasty and the aromas are delicious.
I'm off to my knitting class - what a great way to keep warm - sitting amongst thousands of hanks of wooly yarn, chatting and knitting away.

One Down - One to Go

It's been a cold, snowy Sunday and since I'm at a standstill with my sock knitting until my next class on Wednesday, I decided to try my hand at mittens. I downloaded a very simple mitten pattern from the web and proceeded to give it a try. At first the instructions looked daunting and I didn't think I'd be able to pull it off, but I just took it one step at a time and voila! I have a mitten! I am just tickled pink.

Now, on to the other one. I think I'm getting obsessed with knitting and am already thinking of all the sweaters, socks and mittens I can knit for the grandkids. Spring can't come soon enough!

Speaking of spring, the garden and seed catalogs have begun showing up in the mailbox and each one finds me salivating over the newest plants. Since my rock garden doesn't get much moisture, I'm looking at a lot of sedums and the variety "Angelina has caught my eye. One of my favorite garden catalogs is from White Flower Farm and they describe it as a golden ground cover from Croatia, doing best in dryish soil in zones 3-9. I think I may put this one on my list of "must haves" this year.

Socks -n- Such

I've been knitting ever since I was a kid. My aunt was the one who gave me the needles and taught me very basic stitches. I've always enjoyed knitting simple, flat items, but have always wanted to have the time to learn more.

Today, I attended my first knitting class! What a hoot! Just a bunch of ladies getting together and learning something new while enjoying each other's company. Since I was really interested in learning how to knit "in the round", the instructor started me off on socks and working with four double-pointed needles. After fumbling around for a while, feeling like I was getting my fingers into knots, I finally got the hang of it and away I went.
Today is another one of those odd weather days. Still no snow to speak of but a bit colder and windy. H, who spent 21 years in the Air Force as a meteorologist thinks it's only a matter of time before we get slammed here in the Northeast. Perhaps we can take some of the burden off those poor folks in Colorado! I'm sure they must feel like they're taking the brunt of the bad weather this year. Bet they're not talking about "Global Warming". H has been watching the climatology quite closely and, in his professional opinion, we are just going through another cyclical period. It sets his hair on fire when people with no technical knowledge of climatology pontificate on the weather. (I've got to get him to stop reading the editorials in the newspaper!)

On another note, the winter garden's colors are beautiful in their shades of wheat and rust. The Miscantus Sinensis var. Morning Light is the centerpiece of the garden.

Our House

On my "Blessings" post several days ago, I posted a photo of one of my favorite views in Maine - Sorrento Harbor. I love the red house on the shore, but it's not ours. Here's a view of our house taken from the cove during a kayak paddle. It's not a very good picture, but you can see how wooded the site is. We sit quite high up on the bluff and enjoy a great view of Mount Desert Island and Acadia National Park across the Bay.

Office Hours

I spend a lot of time in my office. Mostly because the @$(**% dial up internet service is so slow that it takes me a long time to get anything accomplished. I dream of DSL and Broad Band, but alas, until our illustrious legislature recognizes the fact that they need to be thrown kicking and screaming into the 21st century in order to keep up with the rest of the nation, we will be destined to keep falling behind and I will keep getting irritated every time I log on.

However, rant over, while I wait for the maddeningly slow dialup to update my various websites and blog, I look dreamily out my office window, enjoying the ever changing view of the seasons. Today dawned beautiful with a rosy hue in the blue sky and the crystalline white twinkling of new fallen snow. What a sight to behold first thing in the morning! As I sit here, updating my blog with the radio behind me quietly playing soothing classical music, it's difficult to be too irritated about anything. I think I'll spend much of today sitting in my office enjoying the mood du jour.
We stopped by Home Depot yesterday for some light clips and ended up purchasing some things for next year's Christmas decorating along with a few totes in which to store them and a few other things that needed to be taken out of the cardboard boxes in which they have been stored for the past 4 years.

In keeping with my minimalist lifestyle, my Christmas decorations did not quite fill up one tote, so I have several left over for other things! I think it will take several decades for my garage to look like Zoey's storage area. "-)












I stepped outside to get a look at the beautiful snow we had yesterday and I while I love the snow, I couldn't help but look longingly at the two Adirondack chairs in the yard and remember the wonderful summer afternoons lounging after a hard day's work in the garden. Sigh.

I'm Thankful for All My Blessings

The list of things for which I am truly blessed is so long that I cannot possibly mention them all in one sitting.

So, to begin -

• I am blessed with a wonderful, loving and supportive family.
• I am blessed to still have both my parents who are in excellent health and very active. I can only hope to have inherited their genes.
• I am blessed with two grown sons who are healthy, happy, hardworking (and handsome, I might add)
  
• I am blessed with two beautiful daughters-in-law
• I am blessed with two beautiful, lively grandchildren
• I am blessed with a husband who has been my soul mate for over 40 years
• I am blessed with good health
• I am blessed to be living in the most beautiful place on earth (Maine, in my opinion)

May you all be abundantly blessed, as well

Christmas Eve

After much frustration and trying to get Blogger to let me post photos, I finally gave up the ghost and tried Firefox browser and voila! I can once again post photos. So, my blogger gardening friends, here is my Christmas wish to all!

Santa, Santa, wish implanter, how does your garden grow? With Jingle Bells and Merry Elves and lots of Hoe, Hoe, Hoe!

Wishing you all things green and beautiful in the coming year,

The Giddy Garden Gnome

Winter Sunset

I've been a bit busy with Christmas preparations and trying to get my annual Christmas Newsletter out, so I haven't had much time to blog. However, last night's sunset was just spectacular! 

What to Bring?

The round of annual holiday parties is beginning and I usually try to take a little something to add to the goodies table. Today, I'm bringing a Cranberry Almond Baked Brie.

Roll out a sheet of puff pastry into a rectangle and cut off the amount needed to make a square. On a baking sheet, place the brie into the middle of the square, top with whole cranberry sauce

and chopped or slivered almonds and pull up the corners of the pastry. Squeeze the middle of the "crown" and arrange the tops of the corners decoratively. Cut out as many leaf shapes as you can out of the remaining pastry dough and score with the back of a knife to look like the veins in leaves. Chill in fridge for about an hour. With pastry brush, glaze with an egg wash of one egg and one tsp water beaten together. Bake in 400 degree oven til golden brown. Serve with crackers of choice. It looked a whole lot better in person! And, it was quite tasty!

More Christmas Decorating

Being minimalist by nature, I don't do a lot of decorating for the holidays, however, I do have my favorite things that I bring out for the occasion; the big green ceramic Christmas tree my mother made in her ceramic crafting days, the small white, glittery one she made, the pair of angels, and lots of white lights on the deck and on the ficus tree (we leave the tree ones up all year and call them our "happy lights")!

Winter Has Finally Arrived In Maine!

Last weekend, I was still hanging out my laundry to dry in the fresh ocean breeze. I'll bet I didn't use the dryer more than three times since April! It's not that I need to save electricity, but I like the fact that I'm using sunshine and fresh air to dry the laundry; that and I just love the way the clothes smell, especially the sheets. There's something very special about getting into a freshly made bed with sheets that have hung out in the air all day long. Makes for a really good night's sleep and reminds me of my youth.However, yesterday brought our first snowfall and what a beautiful one it was. I was at work, and unable to get any good photos of the event. We had about 2 inches of a freezing snow; the tree limbs all looked as though they were hung with crystal ornaments. My office looks out over a small lake (or "pond" as they call them up here), and yesterday I had to gather all my coworkers together to look outside at the setting sun shining over the pond. It was truly a picture perfect sight to behold with the golden sun shining on the snow crystals. I only wish I had my camera with me at work. I think I'll do that from now on! I did get a quick picture of the yard decked out in it's first snowcoat.

I also put up a few Christmas decorations this weekend. We don't do much decorating, but we like to have lights. Here's my front porch decorations with the snowman greeting everyone!

Lost Toolbar

Blogger has not allowed me to post for the past several days, so I have a lot of catching up to do! Seems that my "cache" was full, or whatever, and I lost my toolbar. I have it back now, so here goes!

My son, the Florida gardener, sent me a Red Dwarf Banana pup last May and I dutifully potted her up and waited til things warmed up a bit before putting her outside on the deck, where she promptly pouted and refused to grow. With the warmer weather, however, she slowly began to grow and by the time I was ready to bring the plants in for the winter, she had grown considerably and produced three, count 'em, three pups! She is now over 2 1/2 feet tall and I have once again transplanted her into a yet larger pot. This one takes both H and I to pick up and move.My usual daily breakfast is a small container of yogurt, 1/3 cup of Fiber One cereal and two tablespoons of roasted sunflower seeds, however, on rare occasion, H will say, "How about a few eggs and sausage for breakfast"? Sounded good this morning and since I knew we were going to have lots of exercise between cleaning the house and going for our traditional 3 mile walk, I agreed. We owned a bed and breakfast for 8 years and, well, just plain 'ole eggs and sausage are kind of dull, so I stepped out into the 26 degree cold this morning to snip some of the last of the parsley in the garden and added it, chopped of course, to the 8 eggs, 3/4 cup of milk, 1 tsp Dijon Mustard and the left over bits of cheddar, American Cheese and the last of the Pepper Jack chees. Salt and pepper to taste, mix the whole thing up, put it into a buttered tart pan and sprinkled the top with paprika. Into the oven at 350 for about 25 minutes and by the time the sausages were nicely crisp, the Cheese Puff was ready to eat. YUM!!!!

Ah, yes, I remember the good old days when we arose at 4:30 in order to get the guest's breakfast ready! Now we awake at 4:30, have coffee in bed and read the newspaper til it's time to roust ourselves out and get going. Life is Good! "-)