It's been a cold week here in the Pacific North West, although not as cold as in the eastern states where a polar vortex with record low temperatures and dangerous wind chills caused powered outages, frostbites and even several deaths due to freezing.
But we had several nights in a row when the temperatures went below freezing (24-28F).

 
Every morning we woke up to sunny blue skies, without any wind whatsoever, and all the meadows and plants covered in frost ..

Here's the proof:

              

The view from our back window is one of a pretty winter-scene .. especially from our lazy chairs with the heaters on full-blast while enjoying a nice cup of hot coffee:

    

  

     

  

The pond even froze over ... 
 

Still no snow, but I haven't given up all hope yet ...
As I said, despite the cold, the sun was out every morning and I really enjoyed my walks, taking deep breaths of the crisp, clear air ..

The daffodils, tough as they are and being able to withstand temperatures as low as -40°F, are already emerging in the border next to the pond ...

Inspired by this winter-weather, I winter-sowed some vegetable and flower seeds.

It's a 'thing' at the moment. 
My facebook page constantly talks about 'winter-sowing' which is an easy, low-cost method of starting seeds outdoors in recycled clear containers (like milk jugs) acting as mini-greenhouses during late autumn or winter.
 
Instead of the milk-jug method (I don't buy milk, let alone in jugs) I use the small greenhouse I have in which I tried last year to start seedlings early with the help of heating pads and lights ... and totally failed.

                                         

 

Winter-sowing without all this just relies on natural cold stratification to break dormancy for hardy perennials, native plants, and cool-season vegetables and prevents the need for hardening off seedlings.
Well .. we'll see .. you can't blame a girl for trying, don't you?

I really don't have much else to show for this week, but I'm totally fine with these slow, quiet months.
I did make a really nice and filling winter-soup; creamy butternut squash with orzo, ground chicken, mushroom and spinach. 
Talking about delicious!




And this nifty contraption I ordered online arrived in the mail. It's a handheld vacuum sealer for food!
I don't have room for a full-size countertop sealer but this small cordless device fits easily in a drawer. 

                              

It sucks the air out of storage bags (ziplock) preventing freezer burn or, if you use it in the fridge, to keep food fresh a lot longer than if you use 'just' a normal zip-lock baggie.
The bags are re-usable, come in different sizes and open quickly to add to or take anything out after which you re-vauum again. 

Easy peasy, so far I love it!

My walk around the pond was a sunny but frisky one this morning. 
With a nighttime temperature of 31F there was frost on the meadows and the car windows were frozen as well.
Fortunately I'd wizened up and bought a front window covering last week so I didn't need to spend an hour scratching before I could leave.

There were some guys fishing, as well as this little Bufflehead, who caught herself a nice Sunday breakfast ...

After the Christmas tree has been put away the room always looks rather barren, so I cut some moss covered oak and fir branches and brought them inside.
Together with a few hawthorn berries they make a pretty, 'wintery', arrangement.

In the ditch in front of one of the neighbor's yard I also came across a whole bunch of Snowdrops so .. yes, they had to come with me as well of course.

      

                                               
Their little bell-flowers were closed when I brought them in from the cold but within 30 minutes they completely opened up showing little green dots in the bright white petals:

       

I'd been thinking about getting a few plants after all the Christmas decorations came down because, like I said, the room always looks so sterile afterwards .. and I actually used to have quite some plants, that is before we moved into an RV, so now we don't travel anymore I thought it would be nice to get some again.

As luck would have it, when I did my shopping at Walmart, they were just reorganizing the area where they had their Christmas stuff and were bringing back some plants that were there before, so I seized the opportunity !            

These are some of the strongest, easiest, most adaptable plants you can get so I hope they will do OK in a small(ish), rather dark RV.

 

        

I like the effect. Next week I'll get some more! 

 

And look who celebrated his (67th) birthday this Saturday!

Since he wouldn't be home for coffee at 10am (he went golfing), he had his birthday 'cake' (an apple-blackberry crisp on request) for breakfast! 

Hey, when it's your birthday, you can have it any-way you want it!

He brought back his favorite food for dinner ... Sushi: 

That's one happy Birthday-boy!

We don't really 'do' any presents anymore but my dutch family surprised him by sending a package through Amazon. 
A pair of golf-socks (the frustrated golfer, ha-ha) and a handy dandy grill basket set for fish and vegetables.                               

         

Very nice guys! Thanks again!

Besides baking the crisp and a (delicious) rosemary sourdough I didn't do much else this week (what else is new?). 
But I'm doing a lot of research and am making a lot of plans ... what I'm going to sow in the garden this spring, new menus to try out (thinking of going vegetarian) and finding a few 'easy' exercises to do to keep in shape. 

I'm also starting to figure out and setting up appointments for a doctor's visit, dentist, eye and ear exams, vaccinations .. and more. 
I'm turning 65 in April which is when I finally will be eligible for medicare (after 25 years without health insurance) so I figure I really should have some basic tests done, especially  now they're covered.

I did finish this puzzle:

'Only' 750, larger than usual pieces, so 'fairly' easy. Which was nice for a change.

Once again I was just a little too late to catch the best of this sunrise ... oh well, I guess you 'get the picture' ..

It was followed by quite a nice day, at times somewhat cloudy and cool, but with plenty of sunshine as well.
Temperatures are just shy of 50F at the moment, around 48-49, while at night they're hoovering between 36/38F. 
Not bad for this time of the year although I was, and still am, hoping for a lot more winter-y weather! 

                                    

The low angle of the sun of these days was peaking prettily through these oaks on my morning walk .. and the Spanish moss hanging from the oaks made for a rather 'magical-forest' feel to it all ..

Looking back after climbing the hill in the meadow next to us, I saw these two forlorn looking creatures down below.

                                

They were bummed since I climbed over the fence where they can't (and aren't allowed to) follow me ..

                   

They waited patiently until I came back .. never taking their eyes off me.

Later in the day the clouds rolled in for real again and the light quickly disappeared.
I guess the days are getting longer, and it does feel a little 'lighter' I have to say, but only when the weather is nice!

 

James has a new toy .. it's a large tablet that he's going to use when 'in the field' which holds a camera and software that measures a property (house and/or property) and makes a drawing at the same time and has a whole bunch of other nifty features of which I have no clue what they all do.
Bottom line is that it makes his work a lot easier and faster so it's all good!

                                                          
(We're not going to talk about what this all cost us again .. nope .. better not .. sigh)

I didn't do much at all this week. 
I 'had' to read two e-books, that both came in off the waiting list of my library at the same time (after months of waiting), before they disappear again (in 2 weeks).
I loved them both by the way ('The correspondent' by Virginia Evans and 'Someone else's shoes by Jojo Moyes), which doesn't happen very often lately.

The sun didn't set as nice as it rose although in reality it looked much better than in this picture.

In the hope that my camera would function a little better than what it has been doing lately I bought a new (faster) SD card and battery but it hasn't made much of a difference.
I might have to bring it somewhere to have it cleaned one of these days .. god knows I've abused the poor thing something terrible over the years.

 

As usual, the new year sneaked up on us in the middle of the night, while we were fast asleep ... also as usual. 
Both fortified with ear-plugs and thus sleeping through 'all' of the fireworks.
In truth, there were a few loud booms during the evening but I doubt there were a lot more at midnight, there's something (actually quite a lot) to be said to living rural.

We celebrated this brand-new year with our traditional oliebollen and just like last year we baked some 'appelflappen' as well:
(Those oliebollen by the way were seriously the best we ever made!)

                                                    

 

                                                    

During this fry-feast (grease and sugar, how's that for a healthy start?) we watched the Rose Parade at the Pasadena Tournament of Roses, the parade that is held every year ahead of the Rose Bowl college football game.

It was quite a shock to tune in and find out that rain poured down on the parade for the first time in 20 years, and flood warnings and evacuation orders in Southern California joined snow squalls and frigid temperatures in the country’s midsection to mark the first day of 2026!

The floats had been lined up out in the open since the evening before and some had a bit of damage from the downpours overnight, but mostly the flowers looked actually very fresh and bright due to that same rain!

 

 

There were some amazing floats as usual but this one, the America250 float, with three life like bald-eagles, wings flapping and heads moving while soaring over a mountain landscape, representing the past, present, and future of the U.S , gave me goose-bumps ... so beautiful!




(This year of course, on July 4, 2026, America will commemorate and celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence (from England).
Apparently there will be celebration events all year long!)

The beginning of the week was cold, but mostly dry, with several frosty mornings and temperatures of 30F!

 

 

                                     

The cows in the neighboring meadow, who came back from their coastal summer grounds the week before, were steaming in the morning sunrise ..

 

 

And the horses further down the road were snug in their winter-blankets ...

I'd made a big pot of 'lucky' black-eyed pea soup in my Instant pot:

                                                            

 

 

And finished my Christmas puzzle. Not and easy one but very pretty and fun to make!

          

James has been working on transitioning to a different computer program for appraisals. 
One that will make work a lot easier, and faster, but involves some studying and getting used to for a while.
Fortunately work always slows down during the holidays, but he has held back taking work for a bit as well so he'll have time to work on it.

So, bring it on 2026! We're (getting) ready for it!

                                                           

 

And just like that … another Christmas has come and gone .. how I wish time would slow down a bit!
We had no plans to go anywhere or do anything and spent the whole day just relaxing, lounging around in the cozy RV, eating too much and watching some sappy TV.

                                     

The RV always looks so festive, cozy and peaceful around this time, especially at night, with all the soft twinkling lights ... I just love our little home.

I simplified the food, and especially the making of it, even more so than last year and went for easy, ready-made (store-bought) stuff like a fudge chocolate cake for coffee (to which I added some cherries and cream), some easy snacks like smoked lox, deviled eggs (a must in this household) olives, dates and nuts, than pizza for dinner followed by chocolate mousse for dessert. 
It was perfect!

 

And now we're in that strange limbo, the 'Twixmas' period between Christmas and the New Year's, that time that is mostly a quiet, relaxing period in which pretty much nothing is being accomplished, before Old/New Year's comes around.
We usually spent it going over some paperwork like taxes and/or finances, cleaning up some stuff in cabinets or cupboards that has piled up or can be thrown out, and thinking about the next year and what we want to do or see, change or achieve ..

It finally stopped raining the day after Christmas, although we still have some short showers occasionally, but at least I was able to get some walks in.

On my walk yesterday I found this clump of Snowdrops, still dripping water from all the rain we've had.

                                                     

Two days before Christmas we had a storm going through the area as well, which downed down quite some trees in the county, blocking roads and bringing down power-lines, but fortunately only a few smaller trees closest to us, like these on the logging path where I take my walks .. 

                        

Yesterday evening we drove around Willamina to see the Christmas lights. The town had put up a contest:

And a map toured you by the houses that had entered ..

This was the winner, with Santa in a sleigh on the roof, the Abominable Snowman, quite amiable, next to Rudolf and lots of other reindeer and elves in the yard (they had Christmas music going as well):

       

Besides the 14 on the map there were many more houses decorated .. here's a few:




We liked this one, very festive all in green and red:

Of course the town put up some lights as well:

                                


Well, that was about it for this Christmas-week I think. I'm going to watch some speed-skating .. 
I know, it's not something you hear a lot about here in the States but in Holland we take our skating very serious and at the moment the qualifications for the winter Olympics are being held so ... lots of anticipation and excitement!

We don't have any sports channels in our TV-package but I finally found a way to see it live on my computer, without having to sign up for anything. Cool!

And hey, apparently the official Christmas season (Christmastide) actually runs until January 6th (Epiphany), so the festivities aren't technically over yet! 
I guess the focus shifts towards ringing in the new year .. during which we're usually in our warm bed, snoring the night away. 

OK, here's some fun cartoons that I came across, just for fun ...