Life in a Snow Globe

It is snowing again this morning. It snowed yesterday, and as you saw from my Sunday Stroll photos, it snowed on Sunday. I haven't heard any accumulation figures for this fall yet; it seems to have snowed often but may not have added up to much. This is the deepest it has been yet this season. Here are a few photos; of the snow fort, the log pile and the garden. Sijo said yesterday that it was like living inside one of the tiny houses in a snow globe.

Today, my only day to stay at home this week, I will be catching up on housework, laundry and, of course, doing homework. We are in the homestretch for this semester, with just one month of classes remaining. I will very much enjoy those three or four weeks between semesters, to make our home holiday-ready, to bake, and decorate, and just be the Mom for a while (instead of the student, and the employee, and the chauffeur, etc.)

I may even find time to read a book for pleasure over the holiday season! If anyone has a recommendation for a "must read" book (something homey and comforting, preferably) please let me know in my comments.

As the snow comes down today, my continued prayers and good wishes are going up for my friend Robbin and for my friend Rapunzel's Mom. Where-ever you are today, whatever the weather, I hope you enjoy the day.

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Sunday Stroll - Blossoms in the Snow

The calendula above, and a few of her wilted sisters, are the only real color, aside from green and silver leaves, that remains in the herb beds. The beds are tucked in with a blanket of snow. Over the past several weeks, Limerick put the big vegetable garden to bed for the winter. He pulled plants, turned the soil, and planted a new asparagus bed along the east side of the garden. Also along that side are some sprawling artichoke plants which are perennial, so he left them in place. We'll see how they survive our northern winter! This little wild mustard sprouted up around the artichokes and is still blooming despite the snow, and some pink yarrow is still blooming along the east side of the playhouse near the big garden.

An orange and yellow chrysthanemum cousin, dendranthema, is still blooming in the butterfly garden though many of the leaves and petal are brown and the ground is snow-covered.

The front our our house faces west and takes the brunt of the weather coming in from the lake. At this point, that means wind, cold and snow. Surprisingly, there are a few small, bright bits of color that are holding up to the weather. Bright blue flax petals are folded in upon themselves and laying down in the snow. A wild white fleabane blooms in the spot where purple petunias bloomed through the summer, and one yellow cinquefoil bud is still fresh and vibrant despite the seasonal weather of mid-November.

Sunday Stroll Invitation

"May you have warmth in your igloo, oil in your lamp, and peace in your heart."

~ An Eskimo Proverb

As I write this, the wind is pelting snow against my front door. I feel more like hibernating with hot chocolate and a good book than strolling, in other words, enjoying the warmth of my "igloo." I will, however, make my best effort to bundle up and walk in the gardens later in the day.

If you have time to stroll in the garden today, please post about about it on your blog and then come back here with a comment and a link to your post. You may use the Sunday Stroll button at the top of this post on your post or side bar if you would like. I will add participant names to this post so other strollers can walk through your garden too.

Look who's strolling:

Abbie at Farmer's Daughter

Ruth at Everyday Woman

Margaret at Periodic Pearls

Linda at Vulture Peak Muse

Joyce at Tall Grass Worship

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Sunday Stroll - November Color

Once the leaves fall, we tend to think of November as the gray month in our region. We see gray skies, gray weather, graying fields. But on this cold Sunday afternoon, Maudie and I found plenty of lingering color.

Red

Orange

Yellow

Green

Blue

Indigo

Violet

These Canada Geese flew energetically toward the south as Maude and I moved briskly back into the cozy house, were a woodfire warmed the air. I like the second goose, who seems to fly to the beat of her own wings.

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Sunday Stroll Invitation

"Announced by all the trumpets of the sky,

Arrives the snow, and, driving o'er the fields,

Seems nowhere to alight: the whited air

Hides hills and woods, the river, and the heaven,

And veils the farm-house at the garden's end.

The sled and traveller stopped, the courier's feet

Delayed, all friends shut out, the housemates sit

Around the radiant fireplace, enclosed

In a tumultuous privacy of storm."

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Announced by all the trumpets of our northern sky today, arrives the softest flurries of snow. While we will not be insulated in the "tumultuous privacy of storm" that Emerson wrote about, unless Nature really surprises us, we will enjoy this white dance of snowflakes on and off throughout the day. We'll see what I find when I go out into the garden later for my stroll!

If you have time to stroll in the garden today, please post about about it on your blog and then come back here with a comment and a link to your post. You may use the Sunday Stroll button at the top of this post on your post or side bar if you would like. I will add participant names to this post so other strollers can walk through your garden too.

Look who's strolling:

Abbie at Farmer's Daughter

Linda at Vulture Peak Muse

Me here at the Quiet Country House

Margaret at Periodic Pearls

Jena at Married to the Farm

Ruth at Everyday Woman

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Sunday Stroll - In the Village

I took my walk in the village today. At the bottom of the spillway above, a pool of foam bubbles and swirls, but its quiet edge, reeds grow. These two mallards were swimming in and out of the reeds as I stood on the river's edge.

Here some steps lead from the boardwalk along the pool created by the spillway up to the sidewalk at street level.

In the garden near the street, these roses still bloom in bushes heavily loaded with ripe carnelian rosehips.

Here a footbridge spans the river.

Here the river spills into the bay.

Everywhere I looked, this blue November sky met my eyes.

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all photos by Aisling, November 2, 2008

Sunday Stroll Invitation

"O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being.

Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead

Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing."

~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

This morning, the "breath of Autumn's being" which Shelley wrote about is an easy breath... the breath of moderate temperatures and gentle breezes. This is a little respite from harsh November weather. We've had frost, a hint of snow... but now for a few days, we will have the right weather to "tuck the garden in for winter." Though there is much to appreciate in the coming seasons, I find these warm gentle days a blessing to be appreciated.

If you have time to stroll in the garden today, please post about about it on your blog and then come back here with a comment and a link to your post. You may use the Sunday Stroll button at the top of this post on your post or side bar if you would like. I will add participant names to this post so other strollers can walk through your garden too.

Look who's strolling:

Joyce at Tall Grass Worship

Abbie at Farmer's Daughter

Margaret at Periodic Pearls

Ruth at Every Day Woman

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