Pushing and Shoving into March

 Around here, as far as the weather is concerned, March is one of those months that's kind of like getting your head stuck in the blinds. You know it's probably not going to be all that awful to get out of it but it's still likely to be a hassle and will really mess with your hair.

 Flipping the calendar to March does make me feel like winter could finally be on it's way out. Of course there's those little reminders that where lots of other people live the flowers will be blooming and the birds will be singing and they won't be freezing their behinds off shoveling snow.

That's ok, even if the scene outside my window tells a much different story, my tulips will eventually come up and bloom too, just not until late May or early June. Calendars can be so cruel.

 

I have probably mentioned that the town where I live is situated on a sizable lake and a lot of community events are centered around it, if not in it. There's always something going on involving fishing or boating or doing stupid stuff in order to raise money for charity. Thanks to weeks of continual sub-zero temperatures the ice ends up being about two feet thick and the lake turns into a shanty town of ice fishing shacks and a parking lot for their owner's SUVs . . . until last week.

This winter, the ice started to thaw at the end of February instead of it's usual time in April! The fishing shanties were forced to make a hasty retreat (which looked exactly like an outhouse parade) and the requisite number of SUVs ended up submerged in the water. There was always an office pool where I worked to place bets on which day the most vehicles would fall through the ice. A really nice guy won almost every year and then he would buy everyone lunch, but that's another story.

So just when it was beginning to look like we were in for an early spring (and we were trying not to be too happy about it considering it's due to climate change), it got really windy for several days. 

Then the ice started to move.

 

A pile of ice pushed together by wind or waves is called a shove. It get everyone's attention, especially the ones who live on the lake, because it mangles docks and threatens to invade anything close to the shoreline. They're pretty noisy, too. The ones that formed last week sounded like giant capiz shell wind chimes as they moved onshore. Some of the blocks came apart in long shards like broken glass. As the wind kept blowing, the ice continued to pile up and the shoves started to grow . . 

. . . and  grow,

and grow!

Eventually quite a crowd came out to admire the phenomenon and climb to the top . . .

. . . so they could check their messages? Seriously?

Is it that important to know what everyone else is doing instead of climbing to the top of a pile of ice?

Yes, it probably is.

  

Meanwhile, back at home and at a safe distance from the ice shoves, Burt is testing out my theory about March in actuality. He is tangled up in a little March madness of his own making.

Luckily he has no hair. How is March treating you so far?

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Cheer Up and Join the Resistance!

A belated Happy Valentine's Day to everyone! Please accept my sincere apology for being gone so long. I tried fixing a couple technical issues with my sidebar that have been plaguing me since my very first post and ended up creating a big mess. That took quite awhile to fix but then all those mean-spirited executive orders started spewing from the new administration and I had to join the resistance!

 

A few weeks before the inauguration there was a story about a web site put together by former congressional staffers called Indivisible, A Guide to Resisting the Trump Agenda. It's a clear set of guidelines for those of us desperate to voice our objections to the way thing are going. So I've been pestering my republican senator instead of arguing with my moronic relatives on Facebook. A win-win situation. Needless to say, since the mango-in-chief has taken office he has committed so many heinous acts it's been hard to keep up! The chocolate cake has no relevancy but I don't think that anyone would want to look at a photograph depicting how I really feel about the president.    

Nearly everyone we know is pretty upset about the nasty polices coming out of Washington.

Burt and Ivy attempted to distract themselves from the latest events with a little overindulgence.

That didn't work out at all. Does it ever?

After a good bit of remorse and a nap they decided it was time for action!

Burt and Kibitz got to work on an art project . . .

  

while Ivy started knitting hats.

Of course Burt has his own take on the iconic resistance headgear.

I'm sure Emily, Sabbath and NeeChee would approve.

They're feeling a little better now but they realized there is still a lot of hard work ahead.

In the end, they know the most important thing they can do to make their voices heard is to vote.

 (According to the president, dead people do a lot of voting, just not for him.)

In these scary times, maybe we should all take a cue from these veggies.

Hugs are good. 

His Madness and I were walking by the lake last week and noticed quite a few ducks looking really cute on the ice. Upon closer inspection we realized there was an even number of females and males and they were sort of paired up. Awww, speed dating for ducks, think any of them got cold feet?

 Again, so sorry for the long absence. I had hoped to get this posted on Valentine's Day but between my issues with Blogger, Time Warner Cable (why is it so impossible to deliver reliable internet service?) and the stupid government, couldn't make it happen. Burt and Ivy will be back soon. 

Thanks for stopping by and please consider joining the  Resistance!

The Better Late Than Never Edition of Merry Monday!

Happy Holidays!

We have been having such a good time celebrating that time just slipped away.

Then suddenly it was Friday! Where did the time go?

Santa was good to all of us, even the one who pooped behind the Christmas tree.

(We had blamed it on Andy's dog, Jeremy but it now appears that Stewart is the real culprit.)

The Christmas cactus even bloomed - at Christmas!

There were just four flowers but that's four more than last year.

We were lucky to have lots of help with the decorating from Spenser.

  

Then there were the visitors, Burt was happy to see everybody.

 This one did a lot of woofing.

He did quiet down eventually, after he got all dressed up. How cruel was that? 

There's no celebrating without a lot of eating! Like many families, we have some recipes we always make at Christmas time. Most of them are cookies and desserts passed down from my Norwegian ancestors. There are traditionally supposed to be seven different varieties served at the holidays but I've only managed two. My Mom started making the Polish Tea Cakes after HM and I were married, I guess it was her way of including him in our family. I added the Turtle Brownies because I love chocolate and thought it needed some representation among the basic holiday dessert group. 

Then there's the one we make just because we really, really like it.

I guess it's official, cheesecake has been adopted as one of our traditional holiday desserts.

Finally, there is lefse. It's one of those things we make because it's been a staple of Christmas Eve dinner for as long as I can remember. My grandmothers, aunts and mom would get together and make boatloads of it in early October. Half of what they made was for a traditional Scandinavian Dinner at our church that raised funds for world relief. The rest we ate! Here's Andy posing with the lefse he made. I tried to match the photo I took of him in kindergarten wearing his dinosaur costume and holding a plate of cookies. He's taller now, even though it wasn't that long ago, to me. Ha!

The process begins the night before. Three pounds of potatoes get boiled and then have to be skinned while they're still hot. Ouch! Most of Scandinavian Christmas baking involves burning your fingers. That's my great grandmother's fork on the right, it's perfect for testing the doneness of spuds and poking at things in general.

While they're still hot, they are run through a ricer then mixed with butter, cream and salt.

It's basically mashed potatoes at this point. Then it goes into the fridge overnight. 

In the morning flour gets added to the potato mix and it's divided into seven equal portions. There's that number seven again. Then it's rolled out - with a special rolling pin that's just made for lefse - and baked on a 450 degree griddle - that's only used for lefse! It is tempting to just go out and buy some, it's available at local grocery stores but it wouldn't taste the same. On trains in Norway they sell it individually wrapped, like candy bars. Awhile ago I realised that if we were going to keep eating it, I'd have to learn to make it. Luckily, Andy and HM love to cook so between the three of us we muddle through. It's really not that hard and we are getting a little better at making it every year.

After all that exhausting work Andy needed a break so we all headed out to the Bare Bones Brewery (at Burt's suggestion) to sample a couple flights of their beer and recuperate from the holiday baking. 

Season's greetings from Burt and Ivy, they will be seeing you soon.

Best wishes to all of you who are celebrating during the holiday season!

I'm joining Marfi at Incipient Wings for Merry Monday and I want to thank her so very much for bringing her wonderful enthusiasm and uniqueness to the blogging community.

She makes all of the holidays a lot merrier! 

Another Look at The Nutcracker at the Paine

It's been pretty chilly here and we've had quite a few unexpected visitors, like Mother Nature who showed up in full force weilding the Polar Vortex! Naturally, this led to some other visitors like our friendly and very competent plumber, a conscientious electrician and the furnace repairman. So, for a much needed break from reality, I decided to make the best of the situation and get to work on a post where I could finally use all those photos I took at last year's local Christmas extravaganza. 

For the past ten years The Paine Art Center and Gardens in our town has decorated their 1920's mansion using the Nutcracker for inspiration. Each room highlights a specific scene and the story unfolds throughout. Specially commissioned illustrations of certain aspects of the story depict the actual room itself and it's furnishing. Here in the Library, the left hand page shows Clara asleep on the settee in front of the fireplace with the shadow of the seven-headed Rat King looming over her. On the right is the Nutcracker doing battle with him while swinging from the chandelier overhead. 

These cute mice figurines are everywhere.

They echo the themes and give a sly wink at the opulence, too!

There are three trees in the library, all decorated similarly but this is the most spectacular. The clock is set at midnight because that's when Clara woke up and saw the attack of the Rat King begin.

Across the grand hallway from the Library is the Dining Room.

You can probably guess which part of the tale inspired these masterpieces.  

The array of treats on the table and sideboard changes from year to year.

It's hard to imagine how they could possibly top this sugar coated opulence!

Some photos from 2014 can be seen here. Those cakes looked fantastic, too.

Next door is the Breakfast Room. The all white scheme makes it definitely wintry. Burrrr....!

Off the Great Hall the sitting room is laid out for tea. It's done up in pinks and lavender florals.

Due to it's relatively diminutive size (by comparison to the grand areas, yet it's still bigger than my living room!) only three trees adorn this space. Two of them are the upside-down design and feature motorized glass teardrops and flowers that resemble Angel's Trumpet. They sparkle as they rotate! 

On the second floor, just outside of the Gothic Gallery, the nutcracker maker has set up a workshop. It's all pretty standard military stuff, I think a little diversity is in order, 

Good to see the mice population is thriving and happy to help out with painting and lighting. I hope you have enjoyed this little trip through The Nutcracker tale, I can't wait to see how it looks this year! 

A few steps from the workshop is the magical finale. Taking a walk through the enchanted forest of golden trees in the Gothic Gallery is the perfect way to end our visit on the longest night of the year. 

Happy Winter Solstice!

The Gloomiest Snowfall of All!

Winter surprised us by showing up on Sunday. It's not like it wasn't inevitable, in fact it's actually a little late. Luckily, the white stuff didn't arrive in any great quantity, just enough to cover up any signs of dormancy. The heavy cloud cover cast an interesting, if slightly eerie light on the snowy street. 

It definitely put an end to the growing season.

Good thing I picked the final crop of the tomatoes last week.

Who says climate change is a hoax?

In honor of the first snow fall, His Madness decided to put up the Christmas lights.

With a nice coating of ice, a few inches of snow and a steeply pitched roof, what could go wrong?

We could use a wreath on the front door and a little sunshine would be welcome too.

The Oak trees always look wonderful with a touch of fresh snow.

I can't say the same for the pansies.

There was a scattering of roses on the arbor until just a few days ago. Having roses blooming in December was a first for my garden but then so was being able to pick tomatoes in November!

The fairies look a little out of place, not to mention inappropriately dressed for the weather!

Brrrrrr....

Several projects kept me busy over the summer and I completely neglected my garden. So Mother Nature decided to step in and take charge. She got a little carried away and I may have to take a machete to the path before I can shovel off the snow. Next summer I'll try to pay closer attention.

Back inside Burt and Kibitz have started decorating for the holidays by putting up the tree and adding the lights. Even if we're not quite in the spirit of the season yet, the tree makes the house smell great!

Meanwhile, Spenser just can't understand why he's not allowed to climb it!

Thanks for stopping by! What gets you into the holiday spirit?