Oscar: 4.5 months old, 8 pounds … sweet, stinker kitten … channeling Auggie who also liked to have his bath in the sink. I think it is hilarious! This sink is warm from doing dishes, but it is damp. At any rate, Oscar seems to like it as much as Auggie did.

Oscar continues to be a lot of fun. He and Emmett play chase and wrestle. After a play session I pick up pillows, re-align rugs and furniture … they do not play “gently”. I am thrilled that they love to play together. Oscar also continues to entertain himself with pretend hunting games.

And so far … I almost hate to write this … Oscar is a good sleeper … quiet all night. He likes to sleep between Emmett and me. Emmett sleeps against my upper back and Oscar snuggles in between our bottoms. We’ll see what happens as Oscar gets older and also with Springtime mouse invasions.

Outside …

We have had beautiful …

And ugly.

Ice. That was earlier this week. Since, it has snowed and then warmed and as of this writing, the walk paths are wonderful soft snow and good footing.

But when it looked like above … on Monday, I fell on the ice on our first out walk. Kind of crazy as I walked a line that had been bare ground. But it had warmed, snow around the bare ground melted and froze into a very clear frozen puddle. I wasn’t paying close attention and the ice was so clear, that I didn’t notice it was ice until I was down.

Minor ouch to elbow and some first night “whiplash” discomfort, but a fast recovery. I am always grateful if I miss some sort of rib injury!

BUT … although I was walking with 1 ski pole … 1 because I was carrying a flash (torch) in my other hand … I thought about a headlamp so that I could carry 2 poles in the dark.

I had a headlamp that was never stable on my head so did not use it much. Then I stored it badly in cold weather and the batteries leaked. The new lamp is USB rechargeable, stays put on my head and has a number of brightness levels including a “red” night vision setting.

I owe looking at this headset to:

Cecilia Blomdahl who shares her life on Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago which is closer to the North Pole than to mainland Norway. They have a Polar Night: 90 days of darkness. Hence, the use of headlamps! Cecilia has an Amazon store and link to the headlamp I bought. BUT, Svalbard and its history and the current lifestyle – I find it fascinating. And Cecilia is a very talented storyteller and videographer. I highly recommend her channel if you like to learn about little known, interesting spots on this Earth. (I included the above video because it shows and tells the phenomena that created the red-pink light during Polar Night)

I found Cecilia via …

From their “About” on their channel:

“We are Dan (From Canada) & Kika (From Haiti), Creating videos of our journey, adventures, and lessons learned, as we explore the world, One country at a time, One project at a time, One Step at a time. It all started 7 years ago when a friend gave us wise advice. He said, “…don’t buy a couch!” Long story short, we never did. Instead we rescued an old beat-up sailboat (1972 Pearson 36), destined for the scrap yard, fixed it up and converted it to an ALL ELECTRIC SAILBOAT by building our own motor, and started our new minimalist life on board.”

Dan and Kika were in Svalbard Summer of 2021. Like most adventure channels, their videos are 3-5 months behind real time. But as I watched their travels, the youTube algorithm led me to Cecilia’s channel.

Sailing Uma is a feast for the eyes and ears: Dan and Kika are also superb video storytellers.

Back to my house!

Since Monday we have had snow, wind, freezing rain and now warm days with clear, below freezing nights. So far, the snow is holding up on our walking paths … soft snow and no ice, i.e. good footing.

Inside …

Bread baking always! Above is a favorite seeded spelt sourdough loaf.

We are warm and cozy: working, playing, walking, baking and cooking.

The state of the house is happy :)