Sea change

The mild weather will be broken today.  It was in the 40s for the past few days and we got almost 3/4" of rain over that time.

But that's done.  Today the jet stream will slump south with fierce winds and cold air.

The sky of 15 minutes ago shows the onslaught on the way:  deep dark brooding clouds from the northwest.  

Meanwhile the wind is building.  Forget the flapping flags, the garden swing is being pushed up further and further during gusts. 

I know when the wind gets over 25mph - my bad window will whine.

Some snow on the way this week, though the forecasts aren't saying more than 3-4".  Well see.  Wonder if I'll get a chance to use the tuned up snowblower?

Down in the basement the greens are growing and today I saw that the New England aster seeds have sprouted.  :-D

Me?  I'm in the kitchen.  It's a good day to make up something savory in a pot to go along with the 2 loaves of sourdough I baked yesterday.  Yum!

Hang in there. 

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by 12:30 pm

Temps plummeted from 42 to 28, wind, snow....  

And by Tuesday morning --- temps in the teens with single digits ahead.

Meanwhile -- down in the basement -- the lights are on and things are green. Check out the Propagation Page.

And as for the snow .... Check THIS.  After which I needed THIS.

Luna - cy

Yesterday was a lazy Sunday.  I did a bit of housecleaning, ran an errand for Mom, and did some more baking (Click pic for details). 

Then, after dark, Luna (storm name dropper that I am) blew through leaving a lumpy glaze of crunchy ice over everything.  It's very treacherous out there so be careful driving on roads that aren't salted!

Good thing I don't really have to go anywhere today.  Hopefully the temps will rise as predicted (up to 40s) and the sporadic rains will melt the ice on the roads.  As for the sitting snow under the ice, I'm sure it will take the most of the 3-day warm spell to also melt away (good grief  57F Tue & 58F Wed then plummet back to 20F on Fri - I'm really not enjoying climate change.).  

This week looks to be busy what with needing some professional help with lots of household projects: replace innards of the main floor toilet, figure out why the water softener is leaving salt spots in all the sinks, clean/inspect furnace, and the chain on the garage door opener suddenly has a lot of slack which interferes with operation so now that'll have to be fixed to!  Jeeze, everything seems to happen at once.  Good thing I keep a repair fund for things I can't do myself.  Thankfully I've seldom had to use it for a good long time so it's really topped up.

Meanwhile, down in the basement, the window boxes of greens are coming right along under the lights.

Arugula, Swiss chard & Tuscan kale

(The later sowing of arugula on the right/front for some reason isn't germinating as well as those on the left.  Guess I'll have to oversow the last of the seed and buy a fresh pack.)

Drenched

It rained all day yesterday and the morning fog never lifted.

There was a brief break in the evening and then after midnight the heavens opened up again.

This morning there is almost 1.5" of rain in the gauge.  The dense fog has lifted, but there is still some drizzle occasionally mixed with large wet snowflakes.  The saturated ground can't take anymore and "the pond" has reappeared along the driveway entrance.

This is sure some kinda winter - weird, wacky, wet.  How wacky?

The crow is already building a nest (ark?) in the pig-nut hickory.

The rosemary plant has never succumbed to the season and still shows green leaves in spite of the fact I never mulched the darn thing.

And, as you can see behind the rosemary - the grass has never actually gone dormant.

Say - talk about WACKY....   Here you go, Glenda.  Two can play that game.  How's this for some fresh baking?  (Okay, okay, roasted on a dry griddle - but it's still bread! LOL)

Snow day.

Yesterday I used the snowblower on the 8" we got Friday night.  And some idiot plowing the road filled in the bottom of my driveway with hard-packed stuff.  My little machine wouldn't budge it and I'm far FAR too old wise to try and shovel that stuff myself.

I asked my neighbor's son if he could help me out with his much larger blower, and while he took care of that (thanks, Johnny), I did the rest of the driveway and turnaround.  And that was that for Saturday.

Today I went out early and shoveled off the deck.  *Whew*  Not my favorite job.  But now everything is clear now.  I really wanted to get that done before the rain (yes, I said RAIN!) that is due tomorrow.  Imagine the weight of 8-10" of snow on the deck soaked with rain.  As it is, I'm expecting we'll be having some flood issues if we get more than a sprinkle what with all this snowpack.

I gotta admit, after 3 days of wrestling with snow, I was pooped and kept to the house today.  But it didn't keep me out of trouble. *heh* To read my kitchen adventures - click the pic. 

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Monday a.m. - Pouring down rain with very high winds.  

Enough with the freaking rain already!!! *whine*

I need a little comfort....

And right this very minute!   Brrr.  We've had a couple of days when it never got out of the 20s.  Time for some comfort food.

I'd frozen 4 bags of stock from the Thanksgiving turkey.  I grabbed one and added the usual suspects: carrots, potatoes, green beans, cabbage ribbons, corn, hot pepper rings, chunked turkey and some dried herbs.  While that was simmering away...

I baked a loaf of my no-brainer ciabatta.  Ahhh.  There's no fragrance like fresh yeast bread.

Put them together and oh how all the cold weather seems to melt away.  Mmmm-mmm.