Blizzards and Bunnies

...and after the flood came the blizzard. 

We are no strangers to cold or snow here in Nod, but this last storm, the weekend before last, was a doozy even by our standards.

I knew we were in trouble when, on Thursday night/early Friday morning, the forecast was for 3-5" of snow and we woke up to go 13."

We had a brief reprieve during the day on Friday and Saturday, but the new system (i.e., the blizzard) moved in late Saturday night.

By Sunday morning I was unable to get out the door.

{That's all the further I could push the door open before it hit the massive drift.)

In addition to the previous 13" of snow we had just gotten, we got 31" more in less than 24 hours.

{This is not a black and white photo...}

New records were set in our area and schools and roads were closed for several days (unheard of here generally).

My son managed to get over and plow for me (he lives a ways away) after the township roads were finally plowed but he could not shovel through the drifts to the house, so I was stranded for 3 days (one more disadvantage of a detached garage).

Most of that s*#t stuff has since melted and, thankfully, even though the temps were above freezing (actually well above freezing one day), the nights were still below freezing so there wasn't horrendous flooding.

Well...I've not been back to the lake since so, perhaps, I should not speak too soon.

We've since turned cold again...with snow squalls during the days and dropping into the (very) low teens at night. As the forecast stands now, we won't be above freezing for Easter day.

Weather notwithstanding, I have started pulling some of my chicks and bunnies and such.

The light that comes through my kitchen window makes it difficult to get decent photos (no, it's not the state of cleanliness of the window), but I tried to photograph the little vignette I started on the top of the butter churn above the sink.   

As I played with the focus, my attention was drawn to something in the background

Yup...the real ones are back.

Oh, wait...they didn't ever leave. (What's left of) my shrubs and the cords on my Christmas lights will attest to that.

Anyhow. 

Not much is being accomplished in the handcraft realm for many reasons.

I don't think, however, that I ever shared the "final" finish of this piece: "imagine*dream*believe" by Artful Offerings. 

It was stitched years ago and I posted about struggling with its floss colors. It came as a kit and, once I started stitching, the colors seemed very country-ish/baby-ish...especially when the "Woodrose" floss I had was way to the pink side vs. the peach side.

But I sucked it up and finished it and, many years later, finally got it fully finished.

Ok...that's it for now folks.

I have another week of nonsense ahead, but I will try to pop back in in the next few days and share a few more bunnies and such (hopefully not of the real variety). 

{Thank you to all who commented on my prior post and for the good wishes, hopes, and prayers. I am sorry that I didn't manage to respond individually to everyone. Life, once again, got ahead of my good intentions. Please know, however, that each and every comment was appreciated and brought me a measure of comfort.}

Quiet Again

Those of you who have followed me for any length of time know that I often go quiet...go missing.

I go without explaining myself and no one knows how long I will be gone...

...least of all me.

The quiet times are never planned or premeditated but sometimes there's an "aura" (in the sense of a warning/sensation preceding a medicinal episode such as a migraine or seizure) or a foreboding. 

Such was the case when I went to the lake two-ish weeks ago to meet with someone about the fireplace. What was to have been a short two-day (at the most) trip, turned into a week of horrors.

(For context, you should know that I had just (as within in the last 6-9 mos.) finished with the remodeling of the lower level of the house: new flooring (wood and carpet), completely new stairs and railing, new doors, new walls, new trim, new baseboards, new ceilings, new bath fixtures, new EVERYTHING.

I had not even yet gotten to post about it, but I was so happy with how it turned out:)

When I arrived, however, there was a small lake surrounding the house (not to be confused with the large lake surrounding the property). We had gotten a great deal of snow and then the temperatures warmed quickly (for a few days) resulting in a quick thaw and all that "melt" went straight down the sloped driveway to the house.

When I went inside, my worst fears were confirmed.

This was what I saw:

I immediately threw down the tarp and towels, but that was a waste of time. The water deepened and spread before I could even catch my breath.

I called my insurance agent who, in turn, called a cleanup/restoration company and the nightmare began in earnest.

The company came and took up residence.

They said they would bring pickaxes to chop some of the ice that was melting to remove it and bring sub pumps. They did bring pickaxes the following day but chipped at the ice for 10 minutes at the most and then gave up and dumped ice melt on the ice...which, wouldn't you know? melted the ice and made MORE water that ALSO seeped into the house. 

They also brought sub pumps each day; but, each day, they brought ones that were too large or didn't work.

 They ripped up, removed, (and broke) flooring, tore off baseboard, trim, removed doors, vanity, toilet, put up plastic sheeting and brought over a dozen industrial machines in (water extractors, dehumidifiers, air purifiers, etc.) that ran (and made a deafening noise) 24/7.

The cats freaked and yowled at high pitch adding to the cacophony.

On Day 6, I told them to leave and take their machines with them.

(Another point of context: On Day 2, my insurance agent informed me that absolutely none of this would be covered by insurance. It was “ground water incursion” and that is an excluded event.)

I will have to start all over: New flooring, new baseboard, new trim, new dry wall in areas, new paint, new plumbing work.

There's more to the story about the new wool area rugs, pads, etc. that were shoved - along with other dry, undamaged items - into the small shower and left to moulder with the door closed, but I don't want to relive things by repeating them in written words.

In any event, it was, thankfully, at least quiet again.

I am back in Nod and have spent the last week rescheduling appointments that were canceled as a result of the unexpected lengthy stay at the lake and attempting to line up contractors and such...again.

I had hoped not to have to worry about the "root cause" of the melting/flooding issue until the ground was thoroughly unthawed but...winter has returned with a vengeance.

Thursday night into yesterday, we were hit with a nasty storm. The prediction was for 3-5". 

 We received 13".

We had a brief reprieve today, but we are now under a blizzard warning. 

"Mega Snow." 

That's one way of describing it.

I think it will be "quiet again."

The Long Season

 

{The first full moon of 2026: A rare "Wolf" supermoon. It was very overcast here in Nod but it still lit up the night. Believe it or not, this was around 10 p.m.}

{Awful photo but, unbelievably, Jupiter was visible!!}

{"Winter 1839" design by Jenny Hoffman of Country Rustic Primitives}

Blizzards, Bindings, and Birthdays

 

Another week three days, another blizzard in Nod.

The 8" of snow we received last week (Wednesday) had just begun to properly melt...and then yesterday happened.

Another 8+" of s**w.

For some reason, snow is prettier in December.

That's all I have to say about that.

On to binding....

A few weeks ago, Saundra (of Woodland Junction fame) and I had virtual, long-distance, "dates" for an hour each day dedicated to binding our rugs.  

Saundra, of course, finished hers and I, well...didn't.

I attempted to work on mine again during yesterday's storm, but I've come to the conclusion that I have a definite handicap.

Oh well...I'm sure there'll be another blizzard and another chance to bind.

The bright spot in the whiteness (and the most-welcome distraction to binding) is little Miss Mia. 

She celebrated her second birthday this month with all things kitty.

She has grown so much in one short year but one thing that hasn't changed is her now-trademark "skunk eye."

{Mia at one on the right and at two on the left}

Some things are irrefutably genetic.

Hope your blizzards are few and far between....

Three Snows on the Robin's Tail

{Apologies for the amorphous nature of the photos...the blurs are made by falling snow.} 

 The old saying is that it will snow on the robin's tail three times before spring is sprung.  My mum, however, upped the number to 7 being that we live in Nod.

I can't tell you when the robins returned this spring (I wasn't paying attention) but, despite our mild winter, their little tails have been dumped on twice already that I know of.

Early this past Friday morning, we got about 5" of snow and this weekend we received another 11" or a bit more. 

I am grateful, though, that it wasn't the 21" Cathy from Acorn Hollow received.

Little blessings - I'll take 'em.

Regardless, it is a strange sensation to wake to the muffled stillness created by a heavy snowfall and have it pierced by the cacophony of a bobbin of robins descending on the berried trees.

I believe the robins from every corner of Nod visited our crabapple trees and bittersweet vines.

I am glad they have the berries and seeds to tide them over until Spring is brave enough to show her face again and melts this stuff.  

But I do wish I had a barn for them to sit in, poor things.

It's That Strange Time of Year....

It's that strange time of year...

 

...when tantalizing wisps of warmer air whisper to the frozen ground that it's time to go and eerie fog settles like tears....

...when sudden snow squalls can't silence the song of the spring birds as they feast on berries of bittersweet....

It's that strange time of year when, each and EVERY morning, some of us still think we have been gypped out of an hour of sleep thanks to "daylight saving time"....

 ...and we be none too happy about it....

And it's that strange time of year when the calendar, without fanfare or ceremony, flips on another year of my life....

I always feel "untethered" in this "twixt" time.  Like Mother Nature who does not quite know if it should be winter or spring, I do not quite know what it is I want to do.

Hooking? Maybe.

Stitching?? Maybe.

More likely just cursing daylight saving time AGAIN because I am not tired at the time the clock says I really need to go to bed. (So, yes, I really feel cheated out of two hours of sleep every day....the clock says it's an hour later than it should be when I get up and it says it's an hour later than it should be when I go to bed. My head is a scary place most days.)

In other words, I have gotten little to nothing of anything done.

I put aside my large(r) Noel Sampler I had been off and on stitching on (more off than on) and worked on a teeny little piece called "Winter Woods" by Chessie & Me.  The stitching is almost done except for another large snowflake and then nun stitching on the sides.

My hook I have picked up not at all.

It is windy and cold, with spurts of flurries coming from the lifelessly gray sky.  I'm off to see if I can revive Hepzibah (my sourdough starter) so I can make sourdough cinnamon cranberry bread.

I hope there is a corner of each of your worlds where you can find some peace and hope in  these troubling times.

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Recently read:

If you haven't figured it out yet, one of my favorite genres of books is historical fiction: Two of my particularly favorite time periods are, of course, 17th century Salem and World War II.  The downfall is that many of the plots tend to follow a very predictable path and one story becomes unremarkably similar to others.

In some regard, this can be said of this book, but it was relatively fresh to the market and I couldn't resist.

 It is the story Jewish mother and daughter who flee from the war raging in Poland and go into hiding in a neighboring barn.  Above that, it is the story of the bond between a mother and a daughter and of the precious gifts of imagination and music.

While I, at one point, took violin lessons (another surprising piece of trivia I bet you didn't know), the music detail in this book was a bit much for my taste.  (Kinda like The Book of Two Ways mentioned a few posts back may have been to much "Egyptology" for some....)  Despite that, I enjoyed it. (But hey, if you haven't figured it out by now, I really enjoy most all books.)  It is not one that will earn a rank among my favorites, but that's a very selective list.    

  

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