I should probably start by saying that I am finding it difficult to post anything these days, whether a blog posting, or something on social media. I am not alone in this; I have read comments by friends, and even by local business owners who are struggling to post items about their daily lives and livelihood, when it feels like the world is on fire, and anxiety pervades. It feels almost frivolous to post photos and updates somehow. And yet, our day to day lives do carry on, and it's those moments of "normal" that get us through the worrying times. And so, here I sit, going through some notes and photos, trying to put together a spring blog update. If nothing else, it prevents me from scrolling through the news, but it also sparks the creative side of my brain, which I know is a good thing. For a short while, writing this will keep me away from world issues, politics, thoughts about racism and inequality, and a hundred other worries, and through writing, will remind myself that it's o.k. to step away sometimes. Hopefully this posting will take some of you along with me for a few minutes as well.
At the end of my last posting, we were having a cold and rather snowy November. We didn't know at the time, but winter had arrived early, and any anticipated reprieve never arrived. As we do every fall, we finished up our pre-winter chores, patted ourselves on the back, and settled in for what we believed would be a quiet winter, with endless hours available to spend in our studios or workshop. Of course, we once again forgot to think about the time we would be spending shoveling, clearing solar panels, snow blowing the roadway, keeping the tractor shelter clear of snow, moving firewood, and keeping the woodstove going. It didn't take long for us to remember it all though! As well, I take extra time each week to plan for groceries, heading out on the "good" weather days to replenish our pantry and fridge. We keep tabs on our gas and diesel containers and make sure to have some constantly on hand. Despite having new batteries, we do still need to continue to monitor the system, and run the generator from time to time to keep our system running after a series of dark or stormy days. And the diesel is needed for the tractor which we use for clearing snow.
Those same memories that somehow lead us to forget about what winter entails, also seem to enable us to stop envisioning the landscapes through the seasons. In the midst of winter, I cannot fathom a time when the roadway is lush with colours, plants and growth. By the same token, in the middle of summer, I cannot remember ice, snow and north winds that take our breath away. Probably this is a good thing, and no doubt is some sort of Canadian coping system. It's the same when we describe how long winter is. "Three months" we say, knowing full well it is well more than five ! (I refuse to admit to six)😧
By the end of November I will admit it was looking pretty wintery outside!
Although we have a very simple Christmas season, in early December we began to think about Christmas celebrations, and I started working on some Christmas cards.
We had a series of storm warnings; forecasting snow, ice pellets and freezing rain. I had forgotten how hard it was to get out for our walks when the roads are icy. We both wear cleats on our boots when we have to, but it makes for uncomfortable walking. Still, it's better than slipping on ice!
When the weather looked temporarily more promising, we decided to make a trip to Ottawa to pick up some hard-to-find-locally food items, (Mid Eastern, Italian and Latino), a few specialty building project supplies, beer making kits, and automotive parts. We ended up in the section of town that I grew up in, and I didn't expect the emotions and certainly not the tears when a flood of memories were suddenly stirred up as we drove down some oh-so-familiar streets. The current state of the world made me long somewhat for those simpler times, when I would ride my bicycle along with my childhood friend and together we would head out to spend our days hanging out at a lovely horse farm.
However, I did cheer up as we were able to fill the car with a huge selection of delicious olives, pita breads, falafels, canned and dried chiles, tamales, empanadas, corn tortillas and other hard to find items. We had a chance to visit a rather astounding wood supply store, picked up our beer kit order, found most of the building supplies and parts we needed, and the drive there and back was on clear dry roads. When we arrived back home late in the day, I was feeling pretty grateful for our now much more full pantry and freezer, and the lovely day's outing we'd had together.
The following day promised wind chills of minus 36 degrees C, and forecasts for more snow arriving. We moved more firewood over from our "temporary" shelter to the porch of the workshop before the next storm. On our daily walks that week, we began to settle into our annual pre-Christmas routine of keeping an eye out for a suitable Christmas tree.
We always think we will jump into our winter list of projects as soon as December arrives, but we still had some other tasks to look after. There was beer to be made after picking up beer kits in Ottawa, food to prepare to replenish our freezer, and our neighbours requested a few lifts from us for various appointments. It's always amazing to us how quickly Christmas arrives. We decided not to worry about what we felt we weren't accomplishing until after the New Year.
About a week before Christmas I made our traditional New Mexico Biscochitos. The recipe makes 7 or 8 dozen cookies, but we always give some out as Christmas gifts, and we freeze a lot of them for later in the season. Perfumed with anisette seeds, and a splash of brandy, they are super tasty, and one of our favourite Christmas treats.
When we found the "perfect" tree beneath the hydro lines we cut it down and brought it home. Apparently our height perception wasn't quite right, and as well it was a double trunk tree that couldn't possibly fit in the tree stand, so we sadly had to trim it quite a bit ! Still, it was quite beautiful, and we were happy with the results.
A series of storm warnings and travel advisories had us running out in between storms for one more grocery pick up before Christmas. On the way out though, our way was completely blocked by two downed trees on both of our roads, so we had to reverse back home to pick up a saw, and some work gloves. We managed to cut them up enough to be able to pull them aside out of our way, and would pick them up later to add to next year's firewood pile!
Before we knew it, Christmas Day had arrived. We enjoyed homemade enchiladas, made with shredded pork that I had prepared and frozen earlier in the month. It was wonderful to have the dried chiles we had picked up earlier in December to cook with. With Mexican style rice and avocado, it was a perfect meal for us. A few calls, video calls, and emails to friends and family through out the day, a nice meal, and a glass of wine made for a wonderful and very relaxing Christmas Day.
The river was still mostly open and flowing by Christmas, but colder temperatures were in our forecast. In fact December saw below normal temperatures for most of the month. (As did November!) We had a feeling that this year the river would likely freeze over. For the past several years it has remained quite open all through the winter season.
The river changes daily, and I try to get there as often as I can to see the changes. It took a few minutes one afternoon for me to realize that the pretty ice I was photographing also had a beaver on it!
It seemed to be having some difficulty navigating the river around the chunks of ice that were flowing quite quickly and that kept blocking it's way upstream. I was relieved when it eventually seemed to get back into more open water and swam out of sight.
As the New Year approached, we had another storm warning for high winds, ice pellets, freezing rain and snow. We were definitely remembering our winter routines by this time! We were back to checking weather forecasts, and planning accordingly with each approaching storm. We always have a pantry full of dried and canned food supplies, and I was back to making my own bread almost weekly, but we still need to run out for fresh milk, fruit and vegetables and various sundries when needed. Rob checked as always on gas and diesel supplies, and together we moved more firewood onto the porch of the workshop. Fortunately we missed the brunt of that particular storm, but the ice build up on our roads made walking even more difficult.
For New Year's Eve, Rob made his traditional Spicy Orange Chicken for dinner. As anyone who has shared that meal with us here well knows, the De Arbol chiles that are added can often cause a slight pepper spray effect, and much coughing while the chiles are cooking! An open window and a stove top fan sometimes helps a bit to take care of that "problem". But really, we think it's a sign of a good meal to come!
And so we enjoyed another New Year's Eve meal. I will note that our cell phone seems to enhance food colours, and makes this presentation far more red than I remember it was!
On New Year's Day I tried my hand at making Manicotti again, as it had been a while since I'd made some. It turned out pretty good, although I lamented the lack of availability of good fresh greens for a side salad (it's one of my laments in the winter!). I had to settle for carrots. Manicotti is such a fun dish to make, and it freezes well too. I think I forgot to take a photo of it once it was on our plates.
As another festive season ended, we hoped to settle in to some new projects as the New Year began.
I started by working on a replacement table runner for the living room table, thinking I would like to add some special hand dyed fabrics I'd been saving for far too many years. The original runner had been hand made and hand dyed and purchased at a fund raising auction years ago. I had washed it in the fall, using cold water, but some of the dyes still ran and turned the entire runner into a dark purple mess. I may try to remedy that in the spring when I can more easily wash and rinse it, and hang it to dry outdoors I think.
I had fun stitching the fabric to the new runner, painting, stamping letters on here and there, and generally just mucking about with sewing machines and fabric and paints again. I had some bobbin difficulties with one of my old Singer machines (one that I had picked up for free from a neighbour many years ago) and was super pleased to find some You Tube videos explaining how to determine the right bobbin, and how to then properly thread it and make the needed adjustments. I am always so amazed when someone takes the time to post their expertise online for others, especially for a machine that is 45-50 years old!
Rob in the meantime was working on getting our old rowing machine back in order. With the amount of ice on our paths and roads, we just weren't feeling like we were getting our normal walks in at all. Mincing along with ice cleats on our boots was difficult, and we both noticed our ankles and hips were feeling a bit sore after using the cleats. We think they might have been changing our normal gait somewhat. We were hoping to get the rowing machine working properly, in order to make up for some of our lack of normal exercise. At the same time, two of our laptops were giving us some grief with their batteries, so he was hoping to improve their performance as well!
After a brief "thaw" the first week of January, the cold weather returned, with yes, more snow. The river began to become not much more than a narrow ribbon of open water.
For at least two weeks or more, my daily journal entries in January seem to dwell on myself shoveling snow between the house and the workshop, and clearing a path to the cabin, clearing snow off the car, and removing snow from the tractor shelter, while Rob cleared the solar panels, and went out with the tractor to plow. Repeat, Repeat, Repeat.
After clearing snow, we fell into a good routine of us working on our own projects, stopping for lunch, an occasional walk, and usually firing up the woodstove early in the afternoon. The daylight hours got a tiny bit longer, and we could wait until later for our final walk of the day. Temperatures were pretty cold, although not as cold as one morning when we woke up and it was minus 36.4 degrees C outside! At 19.7 inside we were toasty warm. The woodstove did go on a bit earlier that day though.
Our solar powered batteries were performing well, and we began to notice that the increase in daylight hours, and a slightly higher sun in the sky, was giving us a nice power boost. At least it did when it wasn't snowing!
I watched some cooking videos and tried out a few new recipes. I also decided it was time to get back to work on a denim shirt that I've been working on from time to time over the years. Meanwhile Rob worked in his workshop on "secret" stuff. We both of course still followed the news, and several political podcasts, but tried hard to balance that with some creative time.
February always bring us some time to celebrate the anniversary of our very first date, Valentines day, and the anniversary of moving in together. It is also traditionally a cold and stormy month. We both well remember our early days together in a cold and drafty Econoline van, and an often equally chilly Dome !
Despite the snow and cold temperatures, Rob still managed to BBQ a meal outdoors. With thanks to my brother and his partner for sending us some awesome headlamps this year. Hands free light when it's most needed ! The headlamp lights have already proven themselves incredibly useful in many other ways as well.
The cold February temperatures finally finished off any view of open water in the river. Although I know it still flows beneath the ice and snow, it becomes extremely quiet at the river's edge, when the sound of the river disappears. The tracks in the snow indicate that the deer, fox and coyotes use this time to easily cross back and forth across what is usually open water. However, I still stick closely to the river's edge on firm ground.
February is also when Rob revealed his "secret" project, and I was completely surprised to learn that he had been working on finishing our bedroom closets with a wonderful wood and Japanese style paper insert for them both. The upper closet doors had been unfinished all this time, and I had become accustomed to just reaching in for whatever I needed. I found an older picture of how mine looked originally, taken before we moved in.
And here is how they look now!
That was a wonderful surprise, and I can't believe he managed to keep it a secret for so long. Or how much the finished doors changed the room.
Next on Rob's list was to work on the door frame of the sliding pocket door in the above photo. But, it appears that the wood he had hoped to use for it, was not at all suitable, and we may have to go in search of some wood in the spring. After months of waiting for a trailer harness for the car, and three attempts to get the correct one, the right one came in mid-February, so when spring truly arrives, we will be able to hook up our trailer and go get the wood that we require.
It's always hard to begin to make progress on a particular construction project, only to have to switch to something else until he can go get the supplies he requires. Luckily, there are still lots of other projects though, so he has vanished once again into the workshop where he is improving the dust collection system and workshop set up, and building some new workshop table tops and drawers.
Once I finished with my denim shirt and also a denim jacket I found in my fabric drawer, my next project would be to paint that sliding pocket door. By the time I finish the door, we will probably have the wood for the frame for it!
I'd been working on this shirt off and on for quite a long time and had changed direction on it more than once or twice. I was pleased with it overall when it was finished.
The jacket below may not be finished, but for now I will wear it and then decide later ! I buy all my denim second hand, and so it's always a good idea to wear it for a while to make sure I really like the fit. Despite using fabric paints, and fabric medium for regular acrylic paint, the paint does tend to stiffen the fabric. I've heat set the paints just in case, and am hoping a good wash will soften the jacket again somewhat.
Towards the end of February, I placed an order for some plants for our garden from a local supplier, with pickup scheduled for late in May. Like most gardeners I'm sure, I find there is nothing nicer than planning a garden when it's cold and snowing out to give one a much needed boost in one's mental outlook.
When the deer started hanging around the house and browsing on our Sumac and other plants and trees, I began to question whether I should have ordered those tomato plants though! Of course, so far it isn't the deer that munch on my summer garden, it's chipmunks, and last year I had no real problems with them so perhaps this year we will once again be able to harvest our bounty.
It was lovely to watch the deer from our windows, although we have to hang back so they don't see us moving, and they seem to be able to hear the slightest noise we make and dash off if they don't feel safe.
We also found them lying down in the snow around the house, and could see the impressions they had left in the snow.
Every year as we move into March, I have mixed emotions. Part of me is eager for spring, tired of donning snow pants, toques, scarves, winter coats and mitts every time we go for a walk, and longing for warmer weather, and the opportunity to stride out on my walk with hiking shoes instead of heavy boots. Part of me though isn't quite ready for winter to end.
When a mild day arrived in early March, and the snow around the house had melted a bit, we set up our deck chairs, and had our traditional sip of beer outside to usher in the change of season. (We really are not good at selfies, and in fact "somehow" did a video or two first!)
Ah, silly us. And silly us to think it was even remotely spring, as it was not. After a few days of milder temperatures where we took the opportunity to haul our garbage and recycle items up to our waste recovery center for the first time since November (I'm always pleased at how little waste we generate!) and run some errands, the cold weather returned and with it came an ice storm.
While it was quite beautiful to see the trees covered in ice, it was quite a lot of work to get it off the car, even after warming the car up for quite a while!
On the plus side though, the thick layer of ice and snow had formed an incredibly odd but extremely solid crust that we could walk on top of. We could walk anywhere we wanted without falling through the crust, even when we ventured into the woods. Everyone we talked to kept talking about how odd that crust was! However the person who plows our common road was not as impressed, as he said it was super hard on his machinery. He did his best to clear a temporary narrow path, and hoped that warmer temperatures would melt it soon. We opted to not even try to deal with it after seeing how hard it was for him to do so.
Unfortunately, it didn't melt and we had another snow storm, so we had to go out to clear what we could. We managed to clear the snow, but the crust remained. A second storm arrived, to be followed by a warm spell, rain, then another freeze and more snow. We were kept busy trying to do our best to second guess the best time to plow, and when to just leave things alone. Where normal temperatures for mid to late March would be minus 3 degrees C, we were still hovering around minus 10 !
And that pretty much sums up March. A month of below normal temperatures again. What a steadily cold winter it was, and spring wasn't showing any signs of improvement. The only indication that winter was retreating was that the river opened up and the calendar announced the first day of spring.
That, and the robins returned, as well as the red winged blackbirds. I can't help but think that it has to be a hard time for them to survive when we still had so much snow on the ground.
As we moved into April (and more of the same weather!) we did begin to see a release of winter's grip. At last, on a milder day, while still wearing warm winter coats, we switched from winter boots into shoes as our road in was bare at last, and went for what felt like a "real" walk. I think this has been our iciest winter yet. On our walk though, as the snow melted and began to reveal the earth below, we were reminded of some of the tasks ahead of us once the weather has improved more. Soon, we will have to begin to gather up some of the downed trees, and get our firewood all cut and stacked and drying ready for next winter. We have plans to move the tractor shelter, build a permanent firewood shelter (do we say that every year?) and do some clean up of construction materials. And there is another raised bed garden to build, and a garden to plant. And, and, and ....
The river is opening up, and soon more migrating birds will arrive. I have been keeping an eye out for the wood ducks as this is one of their favourite places to gather.
I have a note to remove the phoebe's nest from last year so that she can build a new one by our front door, and the hummingbird feeder is clean and sits in our mudroom ready to be filled and hung out once again. Soon windows will be opened, spring cleaning will begin, and laundry will once again be hung outdoors to dry.
But for now, I am quite content to continue to linger longer indoors. I still have items on my "winter wish list" to do, and Rob I know does as well. Some of them will stay on that list until next winter. I have begun to paint one of the pocket doors, and Rob has rigged up an improvement to his dust collections system, using filters he purchased many years ago. The pic below was a quick snapshot. It's still a work in progress in the shop, so I didn't linger for long.
I love the routines of winter, even though mid-summer I seem to forget them all and envision a different time. Lighting the wood stove, warming up the house, cozying up at night in front of a warm fire. Admiring the cold clear nights and always checking for Northern Lights. Cooking warming soups, and trying new recipes, when using the kitchen stove only helps warm the house more. Tracking the weather and planning accordingly. Even clearing snow has it's own rewards; getting us out into the fresh air, giving us some exercise, and the satisfaction when our paths and roadways are once again clear. Checking trail cams, and admiring and following tracks in the snow. Monitoring the changes in the river. Drying clothes inside, boosting our indoor humidity somewhat in the process. Having time to catch up on emails, and video calls with friends. Cleaning up some PC files, especially my photos, and posting monthly challenge photos to the community of photographers I follow. While I don't enjoy driving in bad snow conditions, most days we can pick and choose when we venture out. And I always love to be outdoors no matter what the weather (except for when the paths are icy of course!).
And of course, watching wildlife, whether it's the deer outside our window, a turkey parade on the trail camera, or a little snowshoe hare checking out our entrance.
Soon enough, it will dawn on us that we haven't had the woodstove on for awhile, or haven't pulled out winter clothing, or watched for an incoming snow storm, and we'll find ourselves back into a land of buds and blossoms (and bugs!) and realize that spring has truly arrived. And our memories of winter shall fade away for another few months.
