Although still quite grey and occasionally rainy, we've had a few dry days this week too, hence this beautiful sunrise on one of those mornings ..

On days like that, when the temperatures are nearing 50F, you'd almost think the worst of the winter is over, but we're only halfway through January, so let's not get ahead of ourselves.
Besides, I like winter and wouldn't mind having some more frosty days and, if possible, a little more snow please!
For now though, that beautiful sunrise changed into a frosty, wintery morning .. our thermometer showed a whopping 26F (-3C). Brrrr ..!

It sure was purty though!

Everything had a little frosty 'edge' to it:

Nevertheless, and despite the cold, the daffodils are already popping up. They're such a hardy bunch!

Around 2pm, with the sun at it's highest and warmest, I ventured out to read in the sun for a while.

How about that? In the middle of January!

                                                            

We even went for a little walk that day. My heel is still hurting like the dickens but every now and than I just have to walk a little!

       

We walked by this little stream, Otter Creek, just up the road from Doug's house, which has a lot more water in it than last spring/summer when I took the picture on the right!

Most of the time though I'm still, grudgingly, staying of that heel and pursue one of my hobbies that don't involve having to walk.
Like weaving for instance!

      

Yes, indeed, I finally set up that loom and started 'dressing' it.

I first wound the warp on my nifty warping board that James made for me all those years ago (those are the pictures at the top in the collage below ..

The warp than was placed on the raddle (left bottom pic) and than sleyed through the haddles (bottom right) ... right .. sounds like Chinese doesn't it?
But I got it done!
Look at that! I'm weaving!

I'm following a sample-pattern out of Ashford's 'weaving on a 4 shaft table loom' book. It guides you through the whole thing and describes a lot of different, but common, patterns and weaves that you might come across most frequently.
So far I'm having a blast! Now when the world-as-we-know-it comes to an end, and in addition to my spinning, I can make my own clothes. Handy!

My birds are still hanging around, and by now I feel of course that I can't let them run out of their feed at all, especially in this cold weather, so I've added 2 more feeders, just in case they run out while I'm not watching ..

They're my substitute for not having any pets anymore I guess. I just love to take care of 'something' ..

OK, time to end this epistle. I'll end similar to how I started, but with a sun-set this time ..

Another year, another chance!

As usual, the new year arrived without much ado here in the Hess-mobile. We had our traditional lobster on New Year's Eve ..

And the next morning we made the, as always much anticipated, Oil-balls!

The only difference was that I run the whole show this year, meaning that I prepared the dough and baked them as well.
Normally James does the baking part, but he looked like he had too much fun organizing the file cabinets, so I thought I'll just start and before I knew it I'd finished them all!

                                           

                                                              Out with the old, in with the new!

We watched the Rose Parade from sunny Pasadena, which went on as usual again after being cancelled last year!

                                   

And we toasted the New Year with some (real) bubbles at happy hour:

Let's hope this year will be the year that Covid finally gets under control, so life can finally go back to normal again.

According to a Swedish researcher, due to the latest 0-micron variation that spreads incredibly fast but isn't half as potent as the previous ones, the virus will run it's course in a couple of months and come March it will be reduced to nothing more than a flue and fully manageable, even without vaccines.
Which of course will be totally awesome .. we'll see, I'm keeping my fingers and toes crossed!

In the meantime life goes on like 'normal' here. The snow is gone and temperatures are up a little, but instead it is raining cats and dogs pretty much the whole time.
Everything around us is dripping wet and soggy, it's dark and gloomy most of the time and I'm having the lights, and the heaters, on all day!
I'm keeping myself entertained with watching 'my' flock:

                      

Some of the finches have finally discovered the thistle seeds in this little feeder!
And every now and than the King-of-the-suet-feeder, aka a Northern Flicker, comes along to hack big chunks out of the suet ..

                                       

                                 He's making a big mess, and is a bully, but a strikingly handsome one!

During the snow we also had another interesting visitor:

    

He/she, a coyote by the way, was rather small and very scruffy looking, and made several passes through the orchard over the day. I think he was hungry ..

I'm still not doing any walking because my heel/foot is still hurting like the dickens. I've tried several different insoles and I should be doing a variation of stretching exercises, which I keep forgetting, and of course I don't see much improvement at all.
One of my New Year's resolutions is to work on it harder and get that resolved this year so .. we'll see.
Fortunately I have more hobbies than is good for me so I'm never bored, but I do love my walks and miss being outside something terribly.
Oh well, patience dear Watson ..

Talking about patience .. I finally finished my 'crazy elves' puzzle and am working on my Christmas one. I know, a little late but that one's actually  almost finished also, after which I'll move on to the one of the New Year's party ... I'm on a roll!
I've also dusted off my table loom, which I bought way back when in 2004 in a Texas thrift store and have not ever done anything with .. yeah, one of those buys ..
But, it's another one of my New Year's resolutions to finally set the thing up and do something with it.
So here goes nothing: 

 

At the moment I'm studying two you-tube videos on how to wind a warp, since that has to happen first even before you get to actually 'dressing' of your loom.

                                      

                                          

  

The lady who's explaining everything has a very strong New Zealand accent (where this brand of a loom, Ashford, is made), half the time even closed captioning cannot come up with the correct subtitles, and besides that it's sounding extremely complicated so .. we'll see how it goes.

New Year's resolutions are not my (any-one's?) strongest suit to begin with ..

Snow on second Christmas day!

We had a wonderful Christmas this year, actually we always have, but this year was extra special because we had snow! We had a white Christmas!
Look at that! Isn't it gorgeous?

To be totally honest, I have to mention that this snow appeared on second Christmas day, which of course in America there's no such thing, but in cases like this I fall back to my Dutch roots, where we do celebrate two Christmas days. Besides that, this snow fell overnight, so it might have fallen on the first, so hey .. it's all good!

We had a nice, quiet Christmas eve day, just the way we like it. Hanging out in our sweats in the warm and cozy RV we had lots of coffee and cookies while James did some more studying whereas I worked on a puzzle and did lots of reading.

Since we knew we were not going to have any Turkey at Doug and Brenda's the next day, and we didn't have any for Thanksgiving either, I decided to have it at Christmas Eve ..

         

To top it off I made a (best ever) chocolate mousse Bûche De Noël (Yule Log):

                                         

The next day we spend Christmas morning at home as well where there was delicious Panetone for breakfast, Turtle-mousse pie with coffee and deviled eggs for lunch (and yes, it's all about food again) ..

                                                      

For a short while we braved the cold outdoors to get some 'fresh' air and have a little fun-in-the-snow time, like James making a snow-angel:

  

We also had to take some snow off the awning, it started to sag a little which makes it hard to open the door properly, and if it gets too heavy it might start to rip off ..

                             

In hind-side we should also have made a snowman but I totally spaced .. next time ..

By the way, here's a pic from our water/sewer line . You can see how the power for the heating cord came on automatically (it's set for 38F/4C), that little green light there on the left, which melted the snow around the hose as seen on the right. Perfect!

 

At 3 pm we dressed up a little and went next door to have a light dinner with Doug, Brenda, her dad and Sarah. We hadn't been with family for Christmas in 10 years so it was a great and very special occasion.
I'd made a big pot of Turkey-corn and squash chowder, which came out really good, and Brenda had prepared a salad and put out a delicious spread of different cheeses/cold cuts and crackers.

                                             
(I brought the camera but didn't take any pics except from the soup .. sigh .. what else is new?)

I kept my bird-feeders full all day during the snow, which was much appreciated and it was a coming and going of all sorts of birds, including a few 'new' ones, like this Purlpe Fich:

And this rather unusual looking yellowish House Finch. Apparently (male) plumage colors can look very different from one to another due to their diet, the more carotenoid rich foods they eat, the redder they become!                     

                                  

OK, I don't have much more I'm afraid. Which is good sometimes ..
Or maybe this .. just a fun fact .. since the solstice we gained 4 seconds the first day, 8 the second, 13 the third, followed by 18, 23, 27, and 33 in the next for a total of 2 minutes and 6 seconds in this first week!

Here's one more pic of the snow, just because ..

It stayed on the ground for a few more (cold) days, but it really started to melt yesterday.
Oh well, it was super-fun while it lasted and who knows .. despite getting lighter each day, winter has only just started!

Last Tuesday was the day of the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, after which we're of course slowly, very slowly, gaining a few seconds of daylight each day.
The Pagan celebration of Winter Solstice (also known as Yule) and the return of the light is one of the oldest winter celebrations in the world, when pagans keep a fire burning and light shining until the sun rises, light bonfires, tell stories and drink sweet ale.

Following that tradition, I tried my hand this year in setting up a Yule altar, incorporating various items that have a special significance for this celebration.

Evergreen boughs like fir, juniper and cedar are typically associated with themes of protection and prosperity, as well as that of a continuation of life and renewal and sprigs of holly ensure good luck and safety to your family.
Gold discs, yellow candles, anything bright and shiny as well as fresh round fruit like oranges and apples can represent the sun.

 

The white of snowflakes and stars signify purification or your own spiritual development, and red indicates prosperity.
Winter nuts symbolize the sleeping seeds of Mother Earth and last but not least the stag or reindeer, who represents regrowth and rebirth, as deer routinely shed their antlers each year to replace them with new ones.

Of course a lot of these 'decorations' are very similar to setting up a christmas tree, decking the halls with boughs of holly and celebrate with familie and friends, good food and wine.
For me, as a non-believer, I very much enjoy celebrating the Solstice as 'the reason for the season' !

Talking about bringing back the light, we went for a drive on Wednesday evening to see Newberg's christmas-lights following a light-route of festive houses:

They do take their lights serious in this town!

           

I've seen some large 'Grinch's, but this one was really huge! And yes, that Santa was 'mooning' us!
And how about this house on a street one block away from the golf course:

They must be golfers!

We didn't participate in the scavenger hunt, for which you had to collect stamps at certain houses, but it was a lot of fun seeing all the festive lights. It certainly got us 'in the spirit'!

Here's some more fun, which happens on a daily base right outside my very own window:

Whenever the squirrels run out of their 'own' food (peanuts and corn) they try to raid the bird feeders. It's quite hilarious to watch their antics ..

                           

And many afternoons our backyard is the scene of yet another world-record attempt at how many Titmice can hang on a suet feeder ..

  Unfortunately the jury has a hard time keeping track ...

Also, I think I'm done with all my christmas-cookie baking. There's enough to give some away, and more than enough left for the two of us to last us to New Year!

 

So, there you have it, soon it will be Christmas, and seeing the forecast I still have some hopes for a white one, or at least for a white 'second' christmas day!

Keeping my fingers crossed!