Today I let Edith out for a minute or two, under my supervision of course, to investigate the snow. Quite honestly I assumed she would not like the feel of the cold under her paw and change her mind.
She actually didn't seem to mind the snow too much, not even when she misjudged the depth and disappeared up to her arm-pits (paw-pits?).
Edith is intrepid.
The storms this winter have wreaked havoc on the trees around here, and we have quite a lot on campus.
Over the past few days the landscaping crew have been assessing the trees and putting yellow caution tape on any tree that looked particularly badly damaged with dodgy branches still hanging on.
Which gives the appearance of an active crime scene after a tree-hating psychopath has done their worst.
Well, it does if you've been watching far too many cop shows recently.
Replacing the Ugly Kitten umbrella was not easy, and this time I've gone with a graphic white on red pattern. Even better this is a Paperchase umbrella, which I found in Winston Salem on Friday.
The design of circles and dots goes well with my polka dot bag, but I have to admit I'm still not 100% certain about this brolly. It's just that it's, well, tasteful and almost grown-up. I am very happy that it's so brightly coloured though, you will not miss me in a rainy day. Especially when I track down a pair of yellow wellies and a yellow rain coat.
Oh yeah, you'll be able to see me from England!
And here is the artistic process in gif form:
At Christmas we bought a small crate of clementines, for one thing because clementines are delicious and for another because I thought the crate would be good to store our fruit and vegetables in.
Which isn't very exciting, but at least the photos are more colourful than picture of the continuing snow.
There are more snow storms predicted for the next couple of days, and we've still got a couple of feet from the weekend.
Fortunately Doc C planned ahead, and his window boxes are inside. These flowers are gorgeous little bursts of colour against the monochrome winter landscape.
Today I've been re-knitting a project that I originally worked on the wrong sized needles, which meant it went all wonky beyond the possibility of rescue. So I frogged it, which is always more satisfying than you'd think; one would imagine undoing work that took you hours would be frustrating, but actually the way the stitches just unravel is sort of like popping bubble wrap. Destructive, yet oddly soothing.
Then yesterday I started the whole thing again, but this time on the right size needles. These needles are made of bamboo and are part of the gorgeous set Mum sent me for Christmas. Knitting with these is just lovely.
The bottom inch and a half is going to be rolled up into a curl across the bottom, but I wanted it to match the ribbing of the top, so I inverted the ribbing for the first 15 rows.
Knitting tends to be a sedentary activity, which is perfect for a snowy weekend when you don't intend to leave the house. This suits Edith down to the ground, she's been curled up on me or next to me for the majority of the weekend. In this particular picture she is using my foot as a pillow, I think she slept like this for about an hour. It's a tough life for a floofy cat around here.
We have over a foot of snow now, but we still have power; so everything is fine. As long as I can make tea and have a hot shower I'm quite happy really, oh and internet access is nice too!
Best of all I impulse bought a loaf of kulacs chocolate bread yesterday. Would you LOOK at that... Yes, that is bread swirled with dark chocolate drops. It's like a very intense chocolate croissant, but with a lovely spongey bread instead of the flaky pastry of the croissant. Delicious.
Any day that starts off with a couple of slices of chocolate bread is pretty good, but a Saturday with chocolate bread for breakfast? As Stacey London* would say, "Shut Up!"
* For British readers she is one of the presenters of the US version of "What Not To Wear". I've been avoiding watching it, but I have to say that honestly I far prefer Stacey and her co-host Clinton Kelly to Trini and Susannah. They are just a lot nicer.
You remember that our neighbour's car had a tree fall on it during the Christmas ice-storm?
Well, they've been back home for about a week now, and the tree is still on top of their car.
Doc happened to see the guy the other day, and he was all "Eh, that car didn't go anyway". So, that's ok then.
It could very well be my favourite installation art piece of last year.
I woke up really early on Christmas morning and it was cold, so I didn't feel like getting up and I just curled up and went back to sleep. When I woke up properly, I reached for my iPod and was annoyed to find there was no internet connection and it was really freaking cold.
Doc C and I realised that there had been a power-cut, fortunately we'd bought an apricot brioche so we could at least have breakfast. Because we couldn't cook anything, or have a shower, or turn the heat on, or do bloody anything. It turns out everything in our house is run on electricity. Everything. So we piled blankets and cats on the bed, and opened our presents from my Mum which included books which we could read whilst waiting for the power to come back on.
When we looked out of the window we realised that the predicted ice storm had hit, which makes things looks beautiful (see the above picture of hideous sculpture covered in ice) and knocked out our power. Of course it being Christmas Day, the power did not come back on, because I'm betting there weren't enough people working that day.
This is totally understandable, but it didn't help us to warm up much, and we had to get ready to go to the cinema. So we called Randy and Laura, and asked if we could use their shower, which they very kindly let us do. This may or may not have been because we were going to the cinema with them, so they were really saving their own noses. (The movie was "Sherlock Holmes" by the way and it was really fun - I'll post about that later!)
It was extremely lucky that we had made plans to leave the house, because the power was still not back on when we got back from the film. We had to go to bed by torch (American Translation: Flashlight), and it was really really cold.
Yes, so Christmas Day 2009. It was absolutely bloody freezing.
Still, a tree fell on one of our neighbour's car, so at least the ice storm made us laugh. Because they are ever so slightly annoying and because we are evil.
This morning Doc C managed to push open the back door just wide enough for him to be able to get to the snow shovel, and dug a path from the front door to the car. Then he dug around the car, before finally getting the snow off the car itself.
He gave the car a snow mohawk, which I had to get a photo of because you can see exactly how much snow the car was covered with.
And, oh yes, once again we were delighted with our decision to get a car with heated seats. Toasty!
So, did you hear that it snowed?
It really did! A lot! In fact we got snowed into our house; well, ok some spoilsport did actually snowplough our road, so technically I think we could get out with a bit of effort. However, I studiously avoided noticing that; and did my best to distract Doc from noticing either, so we stayed inside all day today. Yay!
We slept late, Skyped my lovely Mum, ate very well, watched Hulu ("Dollhouse" is so rocking, I still cannot believe that Fox cancelled it. Damn you Fox! *shakes fist at sky*) and allowed the cats to spend the entire day alternating between our laps. I also did a lot of knitting, whilst Doc C did a lot of reading.
I did take photos, of course, and I particularly loved the shots I got of the birdfeeder in use. We're weren't 100% sure what this bird was, but our best guess is a woodpecker; what say you?
This morning I was woken up by the pitiful mews of a hungry Nancy, so I got up to feed her and Edith. The sun was shining through the morning mist, and the leafless black trees so it all looked gorgeous and ethereal. I love Autumn!
So then I had breakfast and played with the cats for about an hour, before curling up in a patch of sunlight on the sofa and sleeping for 3 hours. Then Doc took me out for lunch, and a quick trip to the yarn shop. After that we came home, and I went back to sleep again on the sofa.
Yeah, Mono is apparently called the Kissing Disease, because that's one way the virus is spread, but that name gives the mistaken impression Mono is fun. Actually it should be called the Cat Nap Disease, because I definitely slept as much, if not more than, Edith and Nancy today.
Doc C is away for the rest of this week, he's at a conference in Denver which I was going to go to, but travelling with Mono did not sound like fun. So I'm at home with the cats, they are thrilled.
Doc left for the airport at 8:30 this morning, and he called to say he'd arrived about an hour ago. So I can relax now, and enjoy the rest of my "Real Housewives of Atlanta" marathon, shh, don't tell Doc C, but I enjoy a bit of supremely trashy reality TV.
And the photo is from the weekend, when we had our first really frosty morning.
Look a picture! And I even edited it and put in those fun cloud graphics!
So when I was last in the office it was in the 70s, and the sky was blue.
Today it has been misty.
This weekend there is snow predicted.
Exactly how long have I been asleep?
Today the weather was bright, but cold. It was lovely!
Soon the leaves will be turning red, and falling off the trees.
Autumn is pretty much my favourite time of year.
Another happy sigh.
On Monday I was cold, so yesterday I wore jeans with socks and converse and today? I broke out my red DM boots!
It was so nice to have my lovely comfy stompy boots back on.
I hereby declare it to be Autumn and the segue into my cool weather wardrobe has begun.
This makes me happy.
I bought this umbrella from the Woolworths in Brighton years ago, it was raining really hard and I grabbed the cheapest umbrella I could find. Odd to think now that when I bought this Woolies was still selling enormous quantities of "Pick 'n Mix" and showed no signs of stopping.
This is my longest serving umbrella to date, I forget how long exactly but it must be at least five years, and I put that longevity down to the Ugly-Tiara-Wearing-Kitten picture that decorates one of the panels (The cover it came in, which I have lost now, featured the same picture, but with diamante sparkles on the tiara. Gorgeous.) No body ever wants to borrow this umbrella because of the kitten picture. I know this because, when I offer it to friends who need it, the expression on their faces speaks volumes as they weigh up the indignity of getting soaked against the embarrassment of carrying the Ugly-Tiara-Wearing-Kitten umbrella. Nine times out of ten they will choose getting wet, and, if they actually do opt to borrow the umbrella once, they never will again be caught without their own rain barriers. By the same token if I were to leave it somewhere by mistake I can almost guarantee it would still be there when I went back to get it, because it never gets taken by mistake.
This post doesn't really have a point to it, other than the advice that if you can find an umbrella that features a hideous decoration that you can manage to carry off, it will be yours for years.
I checked my iPod for this week's weather forecast when I woke up, and what I saw was this:
That is thunderstorms every day for the next week. Ok then, note to self: Do not leave the house without an umbrella for the foreseeable future. Although, the temperature will be much more in my comfort zone, and I am happy about that!
It was still fairly sunny after we'd had breakfast in town (I had the most delicious wholewheat waffles with yogurt and fresh fruit, tasty yet not outrageously unhealthy.), so we decided a walk would be a good idea before the predicted thunderstorms rolled in. We headed off to one of our favourite local lakes, whereupon we discovered half the town seemed to have had the same idea.
It was particularly lovely out there today, because about a third of the lake is currently covered in water lillies. I had a great time taking photos, which is always a good way to spend a Sunday morning. The only thing more fun then taking loads of pictures is then playing with them in Picnik to get an interesting effect. I've darken the leaves and water a lot in this one, so that the flower looks much brighter. I didn't really have Doc leaning out over the water with a lighting rig, just so I could get a pretty picture of a flower. That is mainly because I don't actually have a lighting rig, but that isn't my point here.
You might well get more water lilly pictures this week, I did go a little bit snap happy.
As I mentioned in my previous post, I do not do well in hot weather, and I never have done; but at least this year my tolerance does seem to be better than last year. I think this is because I have developed a couple of coping strategies.
These include skirts, a paper parasol, lunchtime naps and, most importantly, my lovely new desk fan.
Here it is in action, silently pushing a lovely cool stream of air straight at me. I positioned it in front of the latest bouquet that Michael brought in from his garden, so not only is the air cool, it is also delicately scented.
Gorgeous.
Yesterday it started out sunny and warm, until mid-afternoon when a big thunderstorm rolled in. It wasn't just a thunderstorm though, it was hailing! I twittered about it, although when I re-read that tweet it makes almost no sense, but I forgot to mention it to Doc.
Today, when I was at work, Doc C phoned me to tell me that there was a hail storm at the house. The hail stones were about the size of a pea, bouncing off the roof and covering the balcony. Wow.
By the time the heart of the storm reached my office all the hail had gone, but the heavy rain more than made up for that. It was just unbelievable! Umbrellas where of no use whatsoever, and when Doc came to pick me up he made sure to bring a towel with him. Driving home we saw the stream that runs through campus making serious pretensions to being a river, and not all the flowers along the banks will be there in the morning.
Hmmm? The photo? Oh that's from the beach at P-Town. I set up a little shady spot under my paper parasol, read my vintage Nancy Drew and it was all very pleasant. It wasn't as dramatic as a thunderstorm, with freaking pea sized hail, but it was nice enough I suppose.
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