Today, Thursday…started clear and sunny.
It started cold but warmed quickly.
Bob joined me in the office to enjoy a sun warmed spot.
…marred only by me pointing a camera in his direction.
Shortly, things changed.
The sky turned gray, the temperature dropped…
Snow started falling.
And falling.
Time for a fire.
I love the woods in fog.
Last night, a wintry mix of rain/sleet/snow left an inch of new slush. As the sun rose and started warming things up…fog.
I also love a beardog in the woods in fog.
A long work day later, Bear and I took a quick trip to town. The sun had been out a few times during the day and as the sun set through heavy clouds to the southwest, it lit clearing skies to the north and northeast.
The ski runs of Big Mountain. The lights on the runs open for night skiing.
Beautiful to see the lights and they always trigger such wonderful memories. I was fortunate to have several night skiing experiences with incredible light: “fairy dust” from the lights on freezing fog, a night when the full moon rose as the sun set in a clear sky…Flathead Valley and Lake below, skiing alone on the lighted runs on perfect snow in the quiet night when even the lifties spoke in near whispers. Magic nights of incredible light and incredible skiing.
The mountains, an old cabin, a farm pond.
Day of incredible light.
Maybe subtle in this photo but the truth is, it got very ugly today…warm, rain and ultimately freezing rain and sleet. Fortunately, at least for my day, the worst happened this afternoon after Bear and I returned from a shopping expedition.
Part of the shopping was for a new snow blower…oh, yea…you might be able to tell that my driveway and turnaround was plowed. It was not blown…The blower made it 3/4 of the way down the driveway – first pass – before the auger quit… AGAIN!!
Anyway…I found my dream machine but it may be a dream for another year. Oh, well. Currently it is 38F and the formerly beautiful snow is now slush and could not be “blown” anywhere with anything. Blech!!
On the home front, Bob and Bear progress. If I wasn’t such a wimp they would probably be fine…maybe some mutual avoidance but I think they are at the point of at least grudging acceptance.
Actually, I think Bear is intimidated by Bob and prefers to pretend that he does not exist.
See… Bob on his table, Bear knows it, the gate is open…no one cares. The main problem is me. I’m working on it.
And I made crackers. I’ve been making crackers at least a couple of times a week for months now. I made a batch over a year ago and dealing with thin dough…seemed more trouble than it was worth. But then I got hooked on La Panzella Rosemary Garlic crackers – they are very spendy and not always available here.
What to do??? I happened on this video …
I ordered the little silicon roller, the Silpat …
And the pastry wheel…
Now I make my own rosemary garlic crackers and they are very good! It takes me about 10 minutes to mix the dough, roll it out in the pan right on the silpat, score them with the pastry wheel and get them in the oven.
These turkeys have nothing to do with the weather or Bob and Bear or crackers. But they were here today and I took some delight at how often they shook in the drizzle…darn, messy birds! …their footprints are funny, though :)!
Saturday miscellany.
Last evening, shortly after I wrote that the wind was howling and it was snowing heavily…it stopped. Bear and I were out for our last outing about 8:45. It was still and clear with starlight to see by. No new snow overnight but it has been snowing all this Wednesday – lightly. I don’t think there is yet an inch of snow on the ground.
