Febru-Scary

February always FEELS like the longest month of the year, likely because by this time I am longing to see green things growing and sunshine again!  I must say that 2026 has sped by so far, so I am willing to have it slow down for February!

January 19th was Popcorn Day, so I tried out this Popcorn-on-the-cob in the microwave.  It turned out pretty well!  I also ended up making caramel corn TWICE, because the first batch disappeared in about 36 hours.  My baby brother gave me this recipe:

D's Caramel Corn

8 c popped corn        1/4 t salt

3/4 c brown sugar     1/4 t baking soda

3 T corn syrup           1/4 t vanilla

Cover cookie sheet with foil and spray with cooking spray.  Spread popcorn on sheet.

In a small saucepan, combine brown sugar, corn syrup and salt and stir until mixture boils, continue to stir and simmer for 5 min, then add soda and vanilla.  Pour caramel over popcorn and toss to cover most of kernels.

Bake at 300* for 15 min, remove and stir.  Turn oven off, but return caramel corn to over for an additional 5-10 min.

JP gave me these fun socks for my birthday, and the day ended with a sunset that looked like fire in the sky.

The weather then turned bitter cold.  I decided to do some baking to help heat up the house, so I made a fancy apple pie (and baked a blackbird in the center!)

Following a few days of cold, we received about 9 inches of snow over the weekend.  Luckily, none of us needed to go to work on Monday, so we were able to spend that day digging out.

It has stayed below freezing, so even though it's been almost 2 weeks since the big snow, most of it is still on the ground.  The sun has been shining brightly for several days, however, and started to melt the snow on the barn roof.  Now we have some pretty amazing icicles!

You can see that the deer have been visiting the barn!

This one is over 4 feet long!

The forecast is calling for another 3-6 inches of snow starting tomorrow. 

Even though the days are dark and cold, L and I enjoyed a salad of fresh, homegrown lettuce this week.  JP got me an AeroGarden for Christmas, and I grew these beauties.  Currently there is some parsley and thyme growing.

I also finished building my Lego Milky Way, including some complimentary lights.  It was an unusual project, using many interestingly shaped and colored blocks.

What have you been doing to pass the long dark nights of January and Scary February?

Aqua

We finally got city water up on the Ridge last week.  It has been a LOOOOONG and expensive process.  JP has been hauling around 750 gallons of water about twice weekly for the last 3 years since our 3rd well failed.  We have amazing water pressure considering that it is coming up the hill about 250 feet in elevation!  The downside (which I hope and expect is temporary) is that it smells and tastes terrible - likely from the water coming through miles and miles of new plastic pipes.  We have installed a new filtration system under the kitchen sink for drinking water and we deal with the rest.  What a relief!!

Once spring has sprung for real, we can work on landscaping the side yard that JP has been driving through with over 6 tons of truck, trailer and water, as well as where the new water lines were buried all the way down the hill.

So, what else has been going on all winter, you may ask?  Good question!  I feel like things got so busy for a while that I didn't know which direction I was going half the time!

J came home from college for about a month.  It was wonderful having her here!  She and her roommate came home with a puppy that none of their parents were expecting!  It sounds like she has been a nice addition to their little "family" in OH.  She and I did some Christmas shopping and decorating together, including carving "Hannukah Lanterns" out of pumpkins from the garden on Christmas Eve (since we never got around to carving Jack-o-lanterns over Fall Break!)  I did a snowflake; J did Gonzo as Charles Dickens from "A Muppet Christmas Carol."

L has stayed very busy with homework - so much so that she doesn't have time to do much else.  She and I did go on some college visits before Christmas, and she has also been working on College Application Essays and some scholarship essays as well.  Right now I believe that 2 colleges not too far away from home are in her #1 and #2 spots:  Chatham in Pittsburgh and Slippery Rock.  She did have time to help decorate the Christmas tree and make Christmas cookies.

Stella was the only one that I could convince to pose in front of the Christmas tree this year.  Very suddenly over the past 2 weeks, she seems to have lost pretty much all of her hearing, so that's been interesting.  We lost all of the other fuzzy pets over the past year - both kitties, and the bunny.  So I finished making personalized grave markers for everyone out in the Pet Cemetary.

We were able to celebrate Christmas with JP's sister, BIL and niece.  We made tamales again for Christmas dinner, which were delicious!  We will be neighbors with these folks in the future in VA, and it's always fun to hang out with them.

My big Christmas present from JP this year was another Lego set - this time Diagon Alley.  I started by deconstructing the Titanic (my gift from last Christmas.)  And then spent evenings building 8 buildings in Diagon Alley from the Harry Potter movies.  I also used some Birthday money to buy another Lego kit, which was a Japanese Garden and Tea Room.

Titanic...RIP

Diagon Alley

We got several inches of snow mid-January that actually stuck around for several days.  It was enough to disrupt school a bit, but L never got time to play in it with me, and J was already back at school.  I basically just enjoyed the beauty of it, and of course, shoveling it!

We have celebrated several birthdays (Mom, J, L, and myself) and 3 holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year) since I last reported, and I already sent out care packages for Valentines Day to the college girls last week.

I have continued to do my refrigerator bulletin boards weekly:

Fridge Facts - Cold Edition

Fridge Facts - Success Edition

Fridge Facts - Darkness Edition

I also managed to finagle a food exchange between myself and a friend who is an amazing pastry chef:  I baked him a quiche, and he baked me a dozen amazing cinnamon rolls!

L is now adding musical theater rehearsal to her schedule.  She has landed the role of Snoopy in "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown" at school.  Their first show is late March and they still have not received scripts, so rehearsals have been a bit sketchy.

Right now, I need to go make some guacamole and jalapeno poppers for Super Bowl supping.  Hip hip hooray!

February is Coming!

I am not a fan of February.  It is the coldest, darkest and longest of winter months in my opinion.  As we creep ever closer, we have managed to settle in to our winter schedules.  Luckily, we have had several nice snow storms, which left plenty of lovely snow to play in.  We built this ferocious snow woman, Samantha...

...along with a crowd of tiny snow people whom she seems to be terrorizing.

The cold snap lasted for quite a while - long enough for me to slide down the driveway in the car on multiple occasions!  As the sun slowly returned, Samantha took an icicle to the heart, and seemed to die a slow and painful death.

The snow has been beautiful.  I thought it was gorgeous, covering my Moravian star in the evenings!

I received my second COVID vaccination, and have felt safe enough to spend some time helping my mother over at her house.  Unfortunately, I felt pretty crummy for a day and a half after my jab, but I'm fine now.  JP got his 2nd shot 2 weeks later.  I spent 4 hours helping at a vaccination clinic at the Hospital yesterday - we gave over 200 shots, one of which went into the arm of J.

While it is cold outdoors, we work on indoor things.  I celebrated a birthday, and have a new sewing machine ordered, so one day I can finish some of my projects!

I have finished some new puzzles:

I have been cooking and baking.  I made this pasta last weekend.  I tried Crème Brule again this weekend!

I have been perusing the seed catalogs, dreaming about planting in the spring.  In the meantime, I have this little "pumpkini" plant in the library to nurture.  It grew from sprouted seeds that we removed from a pumpkin from our garden.  Apparently it crossed with a zucchini, and is growing long, striped fruit!

Another snowfall overnight inspired J and I to build a "Baby Snowda" from the stump of Samantha.  Awww!

Back to school (still at home) and work for the girls and JP tomorrow.  I have plenty of chores to do as well.  I hope you all are staying warm, healthy and safe!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow...

We got at least 8 inches of lovely snow yesterday.  The girls finished their school work in record time, and I moved all my patients to the morning, so that we had time to play in it.  We were out for a couple of hours until we were wet, cold and tired.

It continued to snow during the night, and I went out after dark to take a few pictures.

This morning, everything looked transformed.  The birds were hungry, and after filling the feeders, I sat in the snow and watched them for a while.

The driveway, however, is a bit scary.  Luckily we don't really need to go anywhere, so let it snow!

The Scream

This is what my pear trees look like today.

I wore the socks that express how I feel about it the best.

April Showers

I finally got one bed of peas planted this weekend!  I also planted out a couple of new plants in the flower bed, and finished deadheading in there.

It was lovely this weekend - sunny with blue skies and temps in the 70's. 

I managed to take a few pictures of my blooming trees before the sun turned to rain, and dropped more than 2 inches overnight.  The girls came home from school early today due to flooding in the district.

Right now the rain has turned back to snow, and they are forecasting 1-2 inches by morning.

ARRRRRGGGGGHHHH!