Snow at the Beach

Steve and I took a walk in the sunshine and snow today. This is at one of our neighbor's house.....an igloo with OV (for Ocean View) spray painted on it. Oh, and a fishing pole, though I'm not sure why. This is a couple of blocks down and over from us. I think the Dead End sign is overstating the obvious, but what do I know? But isn't the blue sky lovely?






And here's the beach scene. The dunes are covered with snow and the contrasting white and browns looked just like the colors in a cup of cappuccino.

Looking to the right of the walkway.





Left of the walkway.

The snow drifted up our side door, although Steve has already shoveled it away by now.

Aren't these berries gorgeous? They must not be tasty to birds if they're still here.

I just loved the contrast between the blue, green, and white in this picture.

People have been driving up and down the street beside our house all day and while some of the snow has been ground away from the friction, most of the road is still iced over, since the temperature never got out of the twenties.

Just heard that the in-service scheduled for tomorrow is officially cancelled, not that I'm surprised, so that means I have another day at home. I think I'll do some sewing tomorrow. I need to put a rod pocket in a pair of curtains that have been hanging by clips since the summer, I need to hem M1's pajama pants (the ones I made her for Christmas), and I might make the curtains for S's room since I've had the fabric since we moved here almost two years ago. Also, I'm thinking about doing something with a thrift store sweater I felted yesterday. Maybe a laptop cover? The sleeves could be used for cell phone holders; I can get at least four out of them I think. Details tomorrow.

Tonight, it's Emma, on PBS. I missed the first installment, which was last week, and I'll probably miss next week's due to a Super Bowl party, but it's not like I don't know how it turns out now is it?

Sunday with Sparkling Snow

Snow!

Sparkly Snow. Sparkly Snow on Sunday!

I can't stop taking photos of the snow. It usually disappears so fast around here. This time it may stick around though, since the temperature isn't supposed to get above freezing until Tuesday. It's so sunny right now even though it's only 22 degrees that I'm guessing we'll get some surface melting which will make for some dangerous road ice.I love the way it looks piled up against the wood fence in the front yard.

Doesn't the potted rosemary look like a miniature Christmas tree?

In addition to taking photos of the snow, I've been knitting on the Saroyan shawl. But I've also been reading, making soup, baking bread, and napping, so the progress is a little slower than I expected. I've finished the increase section and two repeats of the ten repeats of the middle section.

Still, I think I'll get most, if not all, of it done by the time I have to go back to school. Which will give me time to give it a little bath (I'm finally hooked on blocking) before giving it to my mom.

Steve and I watched the first three discs (six episodes) of Life On Mars, the British version, this weekend. It's interesting enough but a little uneven in quality I think. Still, I'm going to keep going with it since Steve likes it better than the Lynley series.

Now Steve's gone outside to shovel the walk and I'm going to get dressed so I can walk down to the beach and, you guessed it, take more photos!!

Snowfall Update

Here's the bread dough getting ready to rise. And here are the finished loaves. Nothing smells better than baking bread.

This is a sight we don't get to see too much. Ice on the windows.

Some of our neighbors had a sled, and are making good use of it. We don't have hills, so I'm not sure where they're headed.

I included this photo because of the flag across the street. It's so windy that the flag is perpendicular to the ground.

I'm off now to ice my thumb which I burned when I was flipping the loaves of bread onto the cooling rack. It's throbbing like nobody's business. Might even cut into my knitting time, dammit!

Snow is still falling.

Which gives me lots of time for web browsing. Isn't this is a great idea for shipping those college care packages?. I need to get the Valentine's Day ones together soon and I'm definitely going to try this. If I get busy, I may include a couple of these too. These look cute too, although I think I'd choose a different fabric? And why am I so fascinated with hearts these days??

Here's the shawl I'm obsessively working on; isn't it pretty?

And although I shouldn't have photographed this color on the identically colored couch, here is the scarf I work on at work. I think the pattern would be better with a more drapeable yarn than the Manos I'm using, but I think I'll keep it. Soaking it afterwards will soften it up and this is a warm yarn.

I have been taking breaks from the knitting and sitting and snow monitoring. Right now I have a batch of bread rising and a pot of beans soaking. I love doing both on snowy days. I used to bake bread all the time when I was a stay at home mom with small daughters but I haven't made any in years. My Kitchen Aid mixer with the dough hook makes it so easy I should do it every weekend but I always put it off. And I'm thinking of making these cookies, courtesy of a link from this blog.

Monitoring the Snowfall

This is the snow in our front yard after three more hours. Not a whole lot more, but steadily falling, which pleases me. And most of the green and brown bits are covered now.

And this is the backyard view again. Looks more piled up here.

The flakes seem larger than they did this morning. I think the weather people downgraded us to six inches, which is still great to me. And since it's supposed to snow most of the day, I'll be parked on the sunroom couch with the curtains open, for continous monitoring. And where is Steve? He's still in bed, enjoying his day off. Layabout.

Snow!

It's snowing! This is the view from the sunroom at 6 a.m., after three hours of snow.



And this is the front yard.



Apparently we're supposed to get heavy snow all day today with an accumulation of six to ten inches. If you live in a snowy clime, this may not seem like much, but to us it's HUGE!!

I don't have to be anywhere until Tuesday (no way will we have our in-service day at school on Monday) so as long as the power doesn't go out (we have above ground lines so it's a real possibility), I will be happy, happy, happy.

Can you imagine not being a reader or a knitter? Luckily, I'm both!! I have a stack of library books (plus my bookshelves) and a pile of yarn, as well as a couple of projects in the works. And three days to enjoy them. Hope you have a good weekend too!

Snow?

They're calling for snow around here starting tonight through Saturday night. Most areas are expecting six inches, but it looks like our little area closest to the water will only get three. Three inches counts as a blizzard around here. The only thing better than getting snow is getting out of the in-service day on Monday. I'm hoping for that.

More cute hearts here. And has anyone noticed a garland/bunting trend out there? I think Purl Bee started it as their New Year's craft idea and it's evolved into hearts in other places. Well here's some mini-bunting, sort of along the same theme. Very cute.

And as for the knitting; I'm enjoying the green scarf knitting at work but loving working on the Saroyan shawl. It makes me feel smarter even though it's a very simple pattern. But it looks like fourteen lines of code and I can do it! I've been able to do three repeats of the six repeat increase section and with the weekend coming up, I may be able to knock out the large middle section. If so, this may end up being a birthday gift for my mom, who turns 70 next Saturday.