Starting the 8th week

The weather guessers were correct…last night there was a weather disturbance.

I was up uncharacteristically late last evening. Bear and I had our last walk at … *GASP* … 9:45 p.m.!! It was precipitating a kind of hard snow – fast and furious – pellet-like in nature. There was enough fallen to cover our 5:00 tracks.

I woke to a temperature of 34F, not much more snow and the dripping of melting runoff from the roof.

Midday, the sun and blue sky surprised me. I made a mad dash to town – stopping for a walk and garbage run and then a grab of some supplies. Forecast for the weekend looks marginal and I favored a mid-week dry road run. Town was a mess! As in, why weren’t all those people at work??? But needed items were acquired and we headed home.

The sun was shining in the yard and I intended another two hours of work and then…and THEN…some time in the chair with Bear…on Beardog Point.

It was loverly.

Bear has been limping a bit on his non-surgery leg, so we have been taking things extra easy and some time in the yard in the sunshine was just the ticket for both of us. I did not distract by trying to take photos – just enjoyed the sun and quiet and fresh air that had a warmth and softness that felt like Spring.

But, that chair. That is where I sat – for the first time since Bear’s surgery. Bear was laying – a little distance in front of me…watching the game trail, smelling the air, listening. Just like we like.

Today, is the start of week 8 post op. Schedules of the surgeon and Dr. Calm are proving a bit difficult to coordinate so I think we will not have our 8 week post op appointment until week 9 or 10, but it is good to be in the 8th week.

And the moon is nearing full and it is beautiful in a clear Montana sky as we start the 8th week.

Inversion’s end

A weather disturbance is forecast for tonight. If all goes as forecast, it will end the inversion, scrub the valley air and the freezing fog will be gone.

Bear and I went to the wild fowl area to walk in the fog and sunshine before things change.

I like the road through the Ponderosa Pines.

To the right of the road, the trees and frost and fog…mysterious, close, beautiful.

At the end of the road, the lowered level of the lake – dry lake bed – if Bear could run he would have a grand time. Still…plenty to smell and explore and look at.

Returning to the Jeep, I took a last look and a deep breath of the cold, moist air.

And we headed for home.

As the inversion breaks, the sky at my house clouded up. But inside, sleeping boys – they are my sunshine.

Kitchen puttering

I am still getting back in “the swing” from the holidays, although last week was much smoother on all fronts and a full work week got done leaving me the weekend to catch up on chores and even putter in the kitchen a bit.

I saw the recipe for these bars and liking absolutely everything in them and the fact that there is no refined sugar and no flour of any kind…they were first up on my fun list. Medjool dates provide the sweet as well as the stickiness for binding the rest of the ingredients: nuts, cocoa, coconut and a little salt. Fresh from California, Medjool dates are currently in my favorite natural food store and they are so plump and fresh that I skipped the soaking in water step in the recipe.

These are Mom’s Kitchen Handbook Chocolate Coconut Bars.

The bars are chewy and delicious. I used walnuts and almonds per the recipe. BUT, I was tempted to use the hazelnuts that I had just skinned and roasted in place of the walnuts and will try that next time.

What I did use some of the hazelnuts for was a try at hazelnut cream using the same process as for cashew cream. The cashew cream is made with raw cashews and has no taste of cashews. Making the hazelnut cream with roasted hazelnuts…good golly!! – the cream tastes like liquid, creamy hazelnuts.

I didn’t use the hazelnuts in the bars this time, but I did make a hazelnut cream egg nog this morning to go with a bar or two. YUM!

And not only is today, Monday, yet another sunny day … 5 or 6 in a row in mid-January in Montana – yowza!! …

A bit of California sunshine-in-a-box arrived on Saturday: Meyer Lemons from Lemon Ladies Orchard.

Happy Monday!

My happy list

1. Walking in the woods with Bear (my dog).
2. A morning snuggle with Bob (my cat).
3. Coffee in a dark kitchen (house or motorhome) with just a few undercounter lights glowing.
4. Sitting on the front porch or my chair in the sideyard with a cuppa and Bear and Bob near.
5. Sitting in front of the woodstove with a small fire going
6. Most of the time – my work!…from my home office :)
7. Puttering in the kitchen making anything!
8. Watching the snow fall.
9. Snowshoeing in the woods with my dog (is this a repeat of #1?)
10. Anything… anything quiet, at my home, with Bob and Bear

A blog I sometimes read…a few or several weeks ago…talked about the author’s “happy list” and her desire to do 1 or 2 of the things on her list daily.

Hmmm.

I whipped off my list.

AND…I realized that I do most of them every single day!

Caveat(s). I am single to her married with children. I am 57 to her thirty-something. Still. I am so very grateful that I made the choices I made.

I am a happy person, fortunate through opportunity and choice to be living exactly where I choose and doing things I love 95+% of the time.

It is Friday evening.

I worked until 2:00 today.

Then, Bear and I jumped in the Jeep and headed to town to do some supply gathering.

We stopped on the way at the wild fowl regeneration/public hunting conumdrum (EVERY time I look at the signs, I just wonder??? It is the U.S. Department of the Interior…wild fowl regeneration and public hunting ???) Anyway, it is a beautiful spot and I am guessing that wild fowl hunting is NOT in season as I haven’t seen trucks and bird dogs there for several weeks.

Bear and I walked toward the lake, through a grove of century old Ponderosa Pines…hoar frost from the freezing fog making everything a work of art.

Addendum to the happy list: walking with Bear on a path to a lake in freezing fog.

Freezing fog along the road home

Enjoying freezing fog is a guilty pleasure of mine. It can make the roads slick with black ice. But I love a little of it – it has made for some of my favorite photos and whether it is with or without sun, there is something about the air when it is filled with freezing fog.

I left home this morning, with Bear in the Jeep, to run some quick errands in Bigfork and take the boy for a walk somewhere. The sky was blue, clear and sunny at my house.

As we descended through the treed section, I caught glimpses of fog over the valley.

Freezing fog.

The fog was low, the sun was high and above the fog, the sky was icy blue.

Sunshine at the right angle flashed thousands of miniature rainbows in the tiny prisms of fog and snow crystals. I had no success catching them with the camera and they seemed almost surreal in peripheral vision, disappearing as I turned my head to find them.

Headed home, the fog thinned as the road ascended from the valley floor.

At home…

…it was still sunny and bright. Bob, Bear, the herbs (the parsley is in the other window enjoying its own sunny spot!) and I enjoyed.