Category: The Seasons

It’s a gray winter day here in New Hampshire, despite the warmer temperatures. Everything just looks like that cloudy milky gray.

The Pond Hockey Tournament is this weekend and our little town is overflowing with tourists, as it will be next week when we host The Ice Fishing Derby.

Life does not stop for us here in New Hampshire in the winter. In fact life is quite busy on our frozen lakes and ponds.

This picture was taken early in the morning, by mid day the ice is packed with onlookers and concession stands. I usually go and walk around, but this year I’m staying in. Too many people!

Still it’s fun to see the town come alive and have so many people enjoying themselves like this.

OK. Here we are, back in New Hampshire, after enjoying the warmth of the Caribbean, and we are freezing our bottoms off! You see, we left the tropical heat of 75-85 degrees (F) and now we are home and it is close to zero every day!

At least I was not on the cruise ship that was hit with the Noro-Virus! Have you seen this? Six hundred people, violently ill and confined to a ship! Now the last place I would want to be, when I am ill like that, is on a ship!

As I write it is once again snowing. The Farmers Almanac said that the northeast was going to be “warmer and drier” this year. And guess what? It has been colder and snowier!

Have a great week everyone!

Ooooo-whoooooo! Today it was cold! I am talking very cold! It never got above 8 degrees (F) and currently it is -3 degrees (F)! Yeah it is a little cold!

On the news on Friday they warned people to put in blankets, thermoses of coffee or hot chocolate, and gloves, hats, and mittens, if they had to go out in their cars.

I did have to go out in the Jeep and here is what I found.

The snow was across all of the roads. The plows could only do so much and the salting will not work if you have temperatures below 10 degrees.  Thus I was driving on pretty slippery roads. I was nervous, but I made it the 10 miles to the hospital for tests, and back again.

I do think that people are crazy with the way they drive. The three accidents that I saw prove that I am right!

Our house sitter comes on Monday for dinner. He is happy to be moving in with the pack of hounds, and his girl friend will be joining him.

I cannot begin to tell you how happy it makes me that they will be here with the dogs and the house. I can really go away and relax.

Ah yes, it’s getting close now! I can almost feel the sun!

On Sunday mid afternoon great big giant snow flakes began to fall. Hubby went out with Fritz and when he arrived back home he exclaimed that the snow was falling an inch an hour!

I watched until darkness and then I would go and turn on the outside light to check on the down fall. All I can say is that the snow was falling fast and that it was thick and heavy!

I made dinner and cleaned it up and we settled in to watch a movie on the TV when…BAM we heard this loud noise and the lights went out!

I grabbed the flashlight and called our electric company and stayed on the line because I knew where the breaker had blown!

With a good 10 inches on the ground, the electric company truck arrived and fixed the breaker problem on the pole to the left of our house, and light was restored!

Now one thing I must interject is that Hubby saved the day because about twelve years ago he insisted on buying a generator, despite my objections. I mean, why bother with it as we never lose power. But, he insisted!

We have used that thing more often than even I want to admit! Yay, Hubby!!!

Overnight it continued to snow and Hubby used the snow blower until after 11 o’clock last night. Despite the continuing snow!

We woke to a foot of snow and quite luckily, we were able to get out of our 600 foot uphill driveway!

We drove to Manchester to pick up his new hearing aids. Now this was very exciting as the trees were full of heavy white snow, and the roads were horribly icy! Everyone was driving slowly, and seemed to fly by us.  Personally I thought they were insane!

I was proven right as we drove south and one truck after another was spun out and in a ditch! Hubby and I calmly drove along.

The drive home was much less exciting. The trees had shed most of their snow and the roads were dry. Hubby loves his new hearing aids and so do I. The TV is now at a normal level and my ears no longer hurt!

I’m so excited! I purchased Savannah’s Christmas present today! At least one of them. The big one! I talked to Mandy to make sure she didn’t have it and she said no, but she would LOVE it! So ordered it I did!

I finally got up my little Christmas tree. It was my Mom’s tree. I added a few more lights, my decorations, and tinsel and garlands. It looks lovely and happy!

We got 14 inches of snow last night, with more expected on Tuesday. When the dackels saw all that snow they didn’t want to go out! But in the end they went out and then came rushing back in.

It took Hubby all day to clear our drive, but he got it done. He’d tired and I think I am too, even though I didn’t do the snow blowing.

Okay, so where has this year gone? Suddenly it’s December first and I know from years of experience, that this month is going to fly by. It always does.

I need to finish my Christmas shopping in the next two weeks, as I hate being a last minute shopper.

My Dad was a last minute shopper. Literally! He would go out to a convenience store on Christmas morning and buy these odd little gifts for us. Puzzle books, silly toys or magazines, and boxes of life savers. Mom did the heavy pulling of gift giving from them, but Dad always gave each of us his gifts, and looking back now, I smile at the memory!

My daughter, Mandy is born this month too. She kind of got ripped off by being born December 20th. But for me, it was one of the happiest days of my life!

It’s also Arnie & Anneliese’s 7th birthday. Can you believe that! My babies are so special to me. And now they are all grown up!

Today also starts my cruise countdown. Thirty-nine days until my cruise departs! Yahoo!!!

Thursday found me traipsing around town taking pictures and enjoying the last remnants of the fall foliage. It’s already started to fall, and by the end of the weekend, I think we will be leaf-less once again. Another Autumn gone by.

As I drove I could see that “Red Hill” was still ablaze with color, but there was no place to stop, to pull over and get a good shot. You will simply have to trust me that “Red Hill” was breathtaking!

The day started kind of dark and grey,

but rather quickly the sun came out and that is what set me off to find the picture!

It was such a lovely day! And I enjoyed the fresh air and slightly warmer temperatures!

I’ve not done too much with my photography this year, but today I did just what I wanted!

Friday finds me going off to see Mandy and Savannah. It’s been a while since I’ve been down and I can hardly wait!

At ten past eleven this morning, the whistles blew and the first foliage train of year went by our house! From now until the first of November, Friday, Saturday and Sunday and some Mondays, the foliage train comes past our house, and then returns three hours later.

Today there were six cars full of happy tourists, who had traveled far and wide, to see New England at it’s finest and brightest.

Today was a perfect day for it! We had bright sunshine and clear skies, and our leaves are turning those marvelous colors of reds, oranges, yellow, and flaming coral.

Well the dackels love to get in the window and bark their little doggy brains out! I make sure to never have them outside when the trains come. The dackels are silly creatures who would want to chase the train! Fritz on the other-hand is happy to run back and forth in the yard, happily frolicking as the train goes past.

So Autumn is here and hopefully the weather will remain nice, so the leaves will last. They are just so beautiful and seeing them makes me smile!

The last pot of tomatoes was chopped up this morning and set to simmer. We sat down to decide if we would make spaghetti sauce or chili?

In the end we made a thick, vegetable infused chili. Hubby helped me to chop vegetables and now my freezer is full of Spaghetti Sauce, Chili and wonderful Salmon from my cousin, Dave!

I am cooking a turkey today (Sunday) and then setting the bones to simmer so I can make a low sodium turkey soup. Usually I end up with a ton of that too, so the last little spaces of the freezer in the basement will be full!

My next goal is to eat out of the freezer in the kitchen, and get rid of anything that’s been frozen for a while.

My local grocery store is having a big sale on pasta this week. 89 cents a pound. So we will stock up on spaghetti, egg noodles and other pastas.

Hubby was picking apples today for the local farm stand. Our first Empires came in and they sure are tasty!

I need to get out into the garden and pull weeds, and get the soil cleaned and ready to put it to bed for the winter.

I’m quite disappointed in the garden this year, but truth be told, I did not work on it too much, and after we got his with the powdery mildew, I gave up.

Next year will be better.