Weather Update

When I last posted, we had passed our cold snap and were having fairly mild weather, which gave us lots of opportunities to get out and walk.  If you're not familiar with the Pacific Northwest, it is a lovely place to live for a lot of the year.  The winters, however, are gray.  The skies match the pavement.  If you live on a lake, as we do, the sky matches the color of the water, which is the color of the cement patio and the color of the dock.  It also rains quite a lot.  If you have recently had surgery and must stay in this gray atmosphere until further notice, it can get quite depressing.  If you can't get out to the gym because you're not allowed to be around germs or you can't lift any weight and you can't walk outside because it's pouring rain, you get doubly depressed because you can't get any endorphins going by exercising or seeing the sun.

So, we had a nice change last week when it snowed!  We don't get much snow around here and I've been hoping for some for the last month.  It snowed all night Sunday and off and on for the next two days.  It was so pretty!  Monday morning Pat had to go to the hospital for his labs, but he was able to go to the one closer to us and he made it there and back just fine.  Other than that, we made stew in the crock pot and stayed in the house and looked out the windows.

I even went out and made a little snowman.  He wasn't too large since I couldn't lift a big ball of snow but he was cute.

By Wednesday we could walk outside; the snow wasn't too icy, too deep, or too melted.  It was so nice to be out although my walk was delayed until afternoon so I could finish making the pair of mittens I was determined to wear.  They ended up being very warm; I knit them very tightly out of handspun wool yarn.  Unfortunately I ran out of yarn before I made the thumbs so they're a little different color.  But they still worked great.

The lake froze again and had a layer of snow on the top, which was cool to see.  I've never been here in the winter before, so everything was new.  We worked on our jigsaw puzzle near our gas fireplace and were cozy and warm.

We threw extra seed out for the birds and watched them gather on the snowy lawn.  Doesn't take much to keep us amused!

After the snow left, we had a whole day without power.  That was when my collections came in quite handy!  Candle holders, candles (glassybaby and Partylite) and yarn (we wrapped up in sweaters, socks, shawls, and blankets) were well used that day.

Yesterday brought the torrential rain and flooding, but luckily we both made it to our errands and back home successfully.  Pat had to go have the shortness of breath thing checked out AGAIN but so far it still seems to be a medication issue that comes and goes and won't be serious.  I went to get a pedicure!

This morning we had a little break and actually saw some sun so we got going on our walk, stopped to say hello to the nice folks in our yoga class and got home before the next deluge started.  This is on the way through the field at the park.  This pond full of geese is usually just a grassy area.  But see that bright area? That's the sun!

We even had the energy to clear up a bunch of the broken limbs from the bamboo and maple tree.  The snow took a toll on them.  It felt so good to be outside and actually doing a little something!

Then the wind kicked up and the clouds rolled back in.  Back to the knitting and the next puzzle...