Holiday Visitors

We started a 1000 piece puzzle the day after Christmas and completed it the following day. We were on a mission! It was fun! All of our children were with us for Christmas including Sam’s boyfriend, Luca. Other than the puzzle – we ate!

My sister, Melissa, and her two daughters, Emily (behind the camera) and Mary visited us last weekend. We met up in Charlottesville to see Samantha’s Dear Lilith exhibit. We had lunch at Bizou in C’ville and came home for dinner and made Jambalaya.

We got up on the late side Sunday morning and took a walk at Thornrose Cemetery.

Ice Storm

On November 15th we had a full day of sleet and freezing rain. We lost power around 3:00 in the afternoon.

Reading Mendelwitz’s Guide to Drawing by candlelight. It got very windy that night. Dave said he could hear the popping of tree branches.

We woke up to an icy landscape and more branches on the ground than I’ve ever seen. The above photo is the front yard. Somehow my photos have gotten out of order so bear with me.

You can see the icy tops of the white pines as the sun is coming up.

Our poor siberian elm in the back yard took quite a hit.

Branches everywhere…and leaves. Many of the trees still had leaves so when the ice clung to the leaves it was just too heavy and caused so many of the branches to break.

Above photo is looking toward the front yard from the back path to the house. That is the sunroom.

The pine is sagging from the weight of the ice. That building is the garage/cottage.

Ice on the asters

Dave is cooking french toast on the woodstove.

These branches fell on the fence – totally crushed it. This building is what we call the shed. It is two stories and is where we store most of our garden equipment.

Looking toward the house from the backyard.

So many big and small branches – and a deep layer of leaves. We are still cleaning it up.

Duke is having a hard time getting around with so much debris in his way.

Looking toward the orchard from behind the cottage.

The cable we had installed in this siberian elm in the front probably saved this tree.

A big pine branch fell on the power line to our house (seen in the photo above) so we were without power for 3 full days. Our neighbors lost power for 2 days.

Colin helped with the apple pie for Thanksgiving.

A branch fell on the fence in the front too.

You don’t get to see Smokey very much. He always moves around too much when I try to photograph him. This is about the best I can get. He likes to rub up against the dogs. You can see Dukes legs behind him. Smokey is ready to dash outside. He doesn’t come in the house but does come into the mudroom to eat and sometimes to sleep. I think he usually sleeps in the barn – even on frigid nights.

Christmas

We put up the Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving. Samantha and Luca were here to help.

The weather was mild which was nice for putting up the outside lights.

Damian helped, too.

Making cookies the Saturday before Christmas.

Erin (aka Soupy) was here for computer help and was happy to roll up her sleeves (and don an apron) to help with the baking.

A special Christmas Eve

End of Year Wrap Up

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A Super Moon (whatever that is!) in November. Too bad the street light is there.

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Can you see the icicle on the elm tree? It is the sap from the tree.  We had a quick and steep drop in temperature the night before.

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Dave was bothered by the absence of globes on the dining room chandelier. Me, not so much. The weekend after Thanksgiving he said let’s go to The Antique Factory and see if we can find some. I was very doubtful we’d find what we needed. Couldn’t believe he found some right away and they were 50% off! It does look much better with the globes.

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Christmas cheer

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Many photos of our Christmas Day hike in nearby Montgomery Hall Park.

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The dogs had a great time being off leash. Not many people about.

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We had a new visitor over Christmas weekend. A black and white kitten. I’m surprised our 3 cats didn’t chase it away. Hope we can find a new home for it. We certainly don’t need another cat.

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More Christmas cheer.

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More time for quilting in the winter. I’m basting my ocean waves quilt.

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A couple days ago it was near 60 so Dave got out the chain saw and shredder and Damian and I helped him take down and shred some of the trees growing into the meadow…

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and around the spring house. It seems to be some sort of invasive that keeps spreading into our native meadow.

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Our daughters’ friend, Soupy, built these stairs for our tool shed. We are doing an hour exchange for her. Dave is doing computer work for her and I’m doing some mending.

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Another photo of kitty. Uh, oh! We are all getting too comfortable!

Slow Sunday

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Temps were in the 60’s this weekend. Took advantage of the warm weather today and did a little garden cleanup.

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Then worked a little on my Christmas cards while watching football. For the card I used a photo I took one evening last winter of our barn rooftop and the moon. I’m very happy with the simplicity of it.

Thanksgiving

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Dave’s mom, Winnie, and brother, Robert, and Samantha’s friend, Colleen, spent Thanksgiving week with us. We played board games every evening. Colleen introduced us to a new game – Ticket to Ride.

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Samantha, Colleen and Damian made a pecan pie using Lyle’s Golden Syrup instead of Karo syrup. It was much less sweet which highlighted the pecan flavor. The pecans came from Robert’s yard in South Carolina.

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