YES! It was a long wait this year but finally, there it was ... SNOW!   
We woke up to a thin layer of the white stuff on Thursday morning!                       

                                

                                

The forecast of earlier this week showed a lot more than we eventually got but still .. 'beggars can't be choosers' I guess. 
I'm not complaining ... well, maybe a little. 

                                                    

 

                                   

I raced outside before breakfast at 7:30, still in my 'pyjamas' with a quick coat thrown over it, and started to snap away some pictures before it would disappear. 
The temperature hoovered just around freezing, so I already knew it wouldn't be around for long.

When I went for a walk around 9:30 it had already deflated some, but there was still enough around to make that typical crunching, squeeking sound when stepping on it.
(Guess what? There's actually a word for it. "Crump." Dictionary.com says it is a verb meaning "to make a crunching sound, as in walking over snow, or as snow when trodden on.")

Than, as we do each year, we decorated and celebrated Fat Tuesday this last Tuesday. 
A tradition we adopted after living in Louisiana for almost 2 years.
(which is 10 years ago .. holy smokes!)

 

                  
I hung some of our (plastic) beads that we collected during the parades we attended during the time we lived near New Orleans and of which (18 pounds!) I'd saved a handful ..

                                                 
                                                                                My haul in 2016!

Once made of glass and cherished by parade spectators who were lucky enough to catch them, today cheap plastic beaded necklaces from overseas are tossed from floats by the handful. 
Spectators sometimes pile dozens around their necks, but many are trashed or left on the ground. A few years ago after heavy flooding, the city found more than 46 tons of them clogging its storm drains!

                           
        

Apparently a slow-moving trend at the moment is moving to more eco-friendly objects like the “PlantMe Beads” which are 3D printed from a starch-based, commercially available material called polylactic acid, or PLA. 
The individual beads are large hollow spheres containing okra seeds. That is because the necklaces can actually be planted, and the okra attracts bacteria that helps them decompose.

        

Of course I baked a King Cake:

                                              

I use a different recipe each year, there are hundreds on the Internet, and this one tasted surprisingly good, but the dough was #$@^%! impossible to handle so I most definitely won't repeat it!
                           
And so we've entered the period of Lent, the 40-day period of reflection, prayer, and fasting in preparation for Easter which will end on Holy Thursday, April 2nd.
If you're Catholic, that is of course ... we'll just merrily keep on sinning and indulging (just kidding).

Only one more month to go and it will officially be Spring! 
I wonder if we'll see more snow before that ... 

This foggy scene of our landlord preparing the soil next to our RV reminded me of the old dutch expression "de boer hij ploegde voort", which comes from Ballade van den boer (Ballad of the farmer) by J.W.F. Werumeus Buning. 
Literally meaning "the farmer he plowed ahead", it is similar to the English "soldier on" or more loosely "get on with it".

Nowadays it's mostly used in the context of stability, so despite things changing there is a thing that just keeps on going like it has always done.

After the plowing and discing he and his wife planted another 1600 fir saplings or so, all in long, neat rows following the down-slope of the land ...

   

We had quite some foggy mornings this week and the days were overcast and wet. 
Perfect weather for some long, quiet, peaceful walks through the fields around us ..

On the few slightly brighter days I discovered some first signs of spring:

                                     

This is Amelanchier, a native little tree with as many common names as berry colors:  shadbush, shadwood or shadblow, serviceberry or sarvisberry, juneberry, saskatoon, sugarplum, wild-plum or chuckley pear just to name a few!
It's one of the earliest to bloom and smells actually rather nice. I might pick some this week to bring inside.  

Twice a day I refill my bird feeders as well as casting some handfuls of seeds on the ground and I've attracted quite a following. 
They barely wait until I'm around the corner before flying in and trying to eat as much as fast as they can ..

They're mostly sparrows, towhees and juncos:

And an occasional song Sparrow ...

Of course I'm watching a lot of the Winter Olympics .. or at least I try. 
Since they're about 9 hours ahead of us I have to be very careful not to open any dutch newspapers too early in the day or I'll spoil the outcome of what's not yet shown here on TV.

The dutch are famous for their skaters and although the first couple of days were rather a disaster, they're slowly getting back 'in the groove' and we're starting to collect some medals.
Here I'm watching the men's 500m which ended in a second place for Jenning de Boo, a dutch skater in his first Olympics, who'd finished second in the 1000m as well!

 

We're fourth in the medal-count at the moment, all in speed and short-track skating, but still, not bad for such a small country!

Since I now have dual citizenship I actually can't loose of course in these games, because the Americans are winning their share of medals as well!                                 

Here's an interesting gadget I bought:



They're Prism glasses, often called 'lazy glasses' or periscope glasses which use built-in mirrors to allow for comfortable, 90-degree downward viewing while lying flat, reducing neck strain while reading or watching TV.
It looks like this: 

                                  

I know them from my nursing-days, they are ideal for bedridden patients, recovery, or watching television/reading without propping up the head.
My neck has always been a little bit of a 'weak' spot, quickly sore and stiff, which lately seemed to get worse, so when I came across these glasses by coincidence I remembered their use in the hospital and thought it might help since I like to read in bed before, and after, I go to sleep. Look
I takes a little getting used to, but so far - so good, I think they will work!

This puzzle was a lot of fun:

I thought I made it fairly recent but since I've started to put a stick-um in all my puzzle boxes with the dates I started and finished them, I could see that it was 3 years ago! 

Unbelievable ... there must have been a time warp ..

Well, Punxsutawney Phil, the groundhog weather icon, saw his shadow when he was plucked from his warm burrow and thrust out into the frigid air on Monday morning. 
According to Phil, that means six more weeks of winter are ahead.

Which actually, duhh, is nothing new, since the start of Spring is on the 21st of March which is ... you guessed it, about six weeks from now!
Unless of course, he means the winter-weather is going to stay 'wintery' for six more months but who knows? He's only right 37% of the time so we'll see ..

                            

But, since the week started sunny and warm (62F!), we decided to take a day off and do some sightseeing. 
We chose to drive to the town of Falls City, about 45 minutes from us, where we hadn't been yet and which sounded interesting, being in the middle of a forest and having a nice waterfall and all.

On the way down we made a short stop at the Basket Slough to see if we could spot any interesting birds.
There so happened to be a huge flock of Canadian Geese right in front of the viewing pavilion:

 

 

 

 

Not the most unique or special species of birds of course but their sheer number, and noise(!), made them fun to watch for a while.

A little further down in the field I spotted a Bald Eagle. There's quite a lot of them that call this slough home and there used to being 'spotted'.
I forgot to bring my 'big' camera so I had nothing but my phone .. oh well ..

       

 

Since we passed Dallas on the way we'd planned to have coffee in our favorite coffee place (New Morning) there and so we did. 



We split an outrageous expensive slice of Cheesecake, at least, that's what I think .. $5,95! .. but prices are this high these days I guess.
We must be getting old ... 

It was a windy but scenic drive to Falls City through rolling hills, picturesque meadows and dense forests.

This picture shows pretty much all there is of this very small town.
It started life as a mill town. Today visitors can delve into the forest with a hike through old growth at Valley of the Giants (too far in for us to hike to) or with a ride on the Blackrock Mountain Bike Association’s trails.

It turned out that the forest park I'd red about, the Gerlinger Park, was closed more than five years ago because of vandalism and has recently been turned into a 'mountain-bike only' park.
Apparently it has gained some fame already as one of the best free-ride mountain biking areas in the world!
But alas, no hiking .. well, darn!

Little Luckiamute River in the summer

Fortunately, there was a waterfall .. and quite a decent one!
The Little Luckiamute Falls or Falls City Falls (duhh) is a nice display of crashing cascades, fed by the , and gets its name from the Indigenous inhabitants of the area, the Luckiamute people.
It can be viewed from both sides:

                           


Some steep rocky cliffs form the borders of the fall on one side ...

And the other side slopes down more gradually and forms a grassy hill ..

 

 

 

The spray brought out a little rainbow:  

 

 

 

I noticed several of these butterflies (California Tortoiseshells) warming themselves in the sun on the rough bark of this tree ... it seems early for butterflies but it has been unusually warm lately. 
Nature must be a little confused  ...

 

                                            

 

We drove several miles up into the surrounding forest to see if there was any cance of going for a hike somewhere but we didn't find any trails and the Gerlinger park turned out to be closed for hikers indeed, so we decided to leave and go for a drive around the countryside while slowly heading home.

We ate our lunch, homemade sandwiches, in a city park in Monmouth after which we drove to the nearby town of Independence to check out a park we'd driven by on a previous visit but didn't have time to visit. 

                        

Riverview Park is a 20 acre park located in downtown Independence on the Willamette River. 
The park includes a playground, performing arts amphitheater, river access, and is the starting point for a riverfront path.



We took a little walk along the river and followed the hiking path for a mile or so after which we had to retrace our steps since it unfortunately doesn't make a loop, and got back to the car.

                            

All in all not a very spectacular day but it was nice enough and it felt good to see and do something different than our normal routine.

This Sunday we went to see our first theater show of the year, 'Almost Main' at the local theater in Mcminnville.
This is a popular play often staged for Valentine's Day because it beautifully explores love, heartbreak and connection and this all under the magical Northern Lights. 

                                                                              

Almost, Maine is a place that’s so far north, it’s almost not in the United States. It’s almost in Canada. And it’s not quite a town, because its residents never got around to getting organized. So it almost doesn’t exist:
One cold, clear, winter night, as the northern lights hover in the star-filled sky above, the residents of Almost, Maine, find themselves falling in and out of love in unexpected and hilarious ways. 
Knees are bruised. Hearts are broken. But the bruises heal, and the hearts mend—almost—in this delightful midwinter night’s dream.

           

There were 8 different scenes and most actors played in 2 different stories, that varied from lovely and tender to very funny and sometimes just quietly heartbreaking. 
It was a great show and (as usual) we had a great time.

We went for Sushi afterwards. Perfect!

After a mostly cloudy and cold start of the week this weekend temperatures rose to almost 56F (13C)! It was quite sunny although there were a few short showers as well.
When we went for a little walk down the road this afternoon we got caught in one of those short downpours during which this beautiful rainbow appeared. 
If you look closely there's a very faint second one just above it!

In the fir trees next to our landlord's house this pretty Red-tail Hawk kept a careful eye on us:

Yes, we see you too! 

                                           

Earlier this week I walked to the pond in Willamina and found a lot of ducks in the pond:

              

 

 I saw a few Buffleheads. We've had them in our pond as well but none so far this winter:

And this is a  Greater Scaup on the left, an abundant migrant and winter visitant in the Columbia River estuary, and a common American Widgeon on the right.

I took a little detour to the (South Yamhill) river where it was even foggier than at the pond. Nothing to see here ...

Oh wait .. another hawk peered down on me from his high perch in a dead tree .. almost didn't see him there ..

                                                            

And that is really all the excitement there was this week .. I can't come up with anything more. 
James is still trying to get familiar with all his new software and does a lot of studying and researching.
I could show another sourdough bread of course but that gets really old doesn't it?
OK .. you twisted my arm:

       

See that part of the crust that split and rose up on the far side? 
That's called an 'ear' and in the world of sourdough bakers you have pretty much reached perfection if your ear looks like that.
                             Who'd thought I would ever get there?  .. not me!