Zeneedle...needleart as life

Wild Woman Rules

Mz Wild Woman has been watching over my Zen garden for many, many years and she cares not about weather conditions.  She dances through cold, heat, snow, rain and ice and could beat any competitor on DWTS.

However, (this photo was taken a day before 14" of snow fell) she was very pleased to don the beautiful, and warm, Foglifter.  She is a lovely model.

Knitting desire bounces back and forth between Foglifter and Henley, which means both show growth. Last night I finished the armceye shaping of Henley's front and hopes have soared for finishing the whole front this week. 

Foglifter may also be coming close to the finish line.  The question is, just how big do I want a warm and cozy shawl to be? It's hard to tell with her stuck on a needles, but I can hear Wild Woman now and she says make it BIG!

Gasp

 

Oh, what a beautiful morning! Friday's sunrise was spectacular even though it was bitter cold.  I wrapped up in an ever-ready shawl, and pranced out the door for this quick photo.   Are you tired of mountain pictures?  Can you tell I love where I live?

P.S. Our patio is covered with 14", or more, of new fluffy, white, gistening snow.  The mountains must have much more!

Breakfast

We slogged through 6" of new snow to feed and pet the chickengrrls. They were happy for the attention, as well as the fresh food and water. With snow covering their yard they cannot play in the outdoors, but the hover near their little door.  Everyone looks to be happy and healthy.

There is a reward for giving care us fresh eggs right from the nest, so good you can't imagine the flavor.  Here we have five eggs taken minute ago, the grrls do a nice job.

Add a little bacon and some poppers (we like oven cooked bacon) and you'll have one of the best breakfasts ever. 

The Last Five

16. My feet are happiest when wearing Keen shoes and, especially, when accompanied by hand knit socks.

17. Everyone fared well through the bitter cold of Thanksgiving 2010.  The chicken grrls were snuggley ensconced in their coop night and day (too cold to play in the yard!) and I have never been so grateful for long underwear.  I am a bad blogger and didn't think to take a picture of my sister holding Irene (the chicken).  Who knew I'd love chickengrrls so much!?

18. As I healed from surgery, my taste in food changed in major ways. At first I could barely stand seasoning of any sort and then, before the first year was over, cravings for flavors I'd never liked started.  I love lots of heat, garlic, onions, and more complexity and layers of flavor.  Watching the foodnetwork nonstop must have had an impact.

19. Speaking of TV... I love bouncing between the foodnetwork and the weather channel.  One show I like is Survivor, but this season completely sucks. (Nicely put, eh?) My newly organized fiber room will not have a TV, it never had one, and I like it that way.  I'll find an iPod/radio/clock which will fit all my listening moods.  When Smith and I met I didn't own a TV.  I really wouldn't mind living without TV again but, I can't live without Smith.

20.  Blogland is one of my favorite places and I've met many wonderful people here.  Because I've become a bad commenter, a non-commenter in many cases, I've lost contact with many people.  Between changes at work, and my lack of desire to be on-line constantly, I'm not sure I can keep up with everyone.  Hearing from readers, through comments, is very rewarding.  I will try to do better.

YAY! It's the last Saturday and you now know 20 (new) things about me (you may already have known most of them).  I'm looking forward to the end of November and the end of NaBloPoMo.

Mountain Views

Monday Evening

After the storm (Wednesday)

Thursday from the (frozen) garden

The Best Things in Life

Today is Thanksgiving Day in the US and we're going to spend the day cooking, laughing, eating, drinking and relaxing. There is much to be thankful for on this day. I am thankful for my family, every sister, my dear brother, and my father who is well at 83.  I am also thankful my sister, Neena (third from the left), will be here to share this day with us.

Living near the Wasatch Mountains also fills my heart with joy.

My family was together the day this photo was taken, our last reunion. I feel very fortunate to live close to this beautiful spot (which is now covered with snow!).

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Holes in My Fingers!

Just Before Dark

...we ran over to feed the grrls and make sure they had plenty of feed, plenty of water, and plenty of pets.  The temperatures are expected to plummet and we're a little worried.

Vanilla is very shy and it's only been recently she hasn't run or flown from touch.  No way are you going to hold or pet her.

Irene is a very friendly grrl, the only brunette of the brood.  She and Smith enjoyed some quality time. 

While a little attention and a bit of petting is acceptable, it's the time of year the chickengrrls just want to eat.  They must keep up their grrlish figures to stay warm!

Please send warm wishes their way. We'll be extra worried for them the next few days as a hugeass storm, and bitter temperatures, come our way!

I Do This To Myself

There was a bit of a disaster at the chicken coop yesterday because of the 8" of snow we had overnight. It brought down the protective netting over their small yard and tangled it up in the trees. Smith and I spent the morning tying the netting together, retying it to the fencing, and trussing it all up with rope. Oh, and that was after shaking the snow off and getting ourselves completely wet with snow.  After saving the net we fed, watered and petted every chicken, just to reassure them. Sadly (or not) I did not have the camera at the ready. The whole thing was very cold, wet and stressful!

The rest of the weekend was spent reorganizing the coat closet (couldn't find the gloves I needed!) and working on my fiber room.

It's looking very nice, if I say so myself.  This is half the room, the other half isn't quite ready for viewing, but this is as I envisioned. The closets in the room are finished and I think I'm about 90% (well, maybe 85%) finished. I have a place to spin (but must wait until the room is 100% complete), a place to sit, and a place for all my fiber and yarn.

Hopefully, over Thanksgiving weekend I can finish the room to the point the reorganizing bug, the crazy reorganizing bug, can be ignored!  I'm exhausted.

Snowy Sunday Sunrise

The last few days of incessant wind foretold of winter's arrival.