A Wintry End of the Year

It has snowed

and snowed

and snowed.

And now it is the last day of 2013

It has been a good year.

Fourteen Days of Christmas

It's been a quiet Christmas

Just the two of us

Brett couldn't get time off work

So

all the kids decided to come in January

and have a family Christmas then

Good thing

the ice storm and snow 

have wrecked lots of travel plans

A star for Christmas Day

For the last few days of the year

I think I will finish up thready odds and ends.

I do like that higgledy-piggledy darning in the middle.

I should explore that further.

Stitching Row upon Row

Snuggling up in front of the fire

stitching

stitching

stitching

A pebbly shore

of row upon row of loosey goosey stitches.

and a flowing ocean

of layers of stitch.

The Colours Before a Winter Storm

Driving up the valley

past clusters of homesteads

protected from the Bay of Fundy

by the North Mountain

The highway takes a sweeping bend

where we pass my favourite sight

of trees leaning in towards the road.

I always look forward to seeing them no matter what the season.

Then there are beautiful copses of trees....

and row upon row of neat little apple trees.

Another thing I love is the sight of stubble breaking through white snow.

The colours are so gentle at this time of year

yet the weather can be so harsh.

Pale blues. soft greys, beige and white and

perhaps an occasional bright red front door to catch the eye.

Let's Scratch Winter!

A snow week

Our song birds disappeared in the Spring

with the arrival of the falcons.

This week the cardinals finally came back to the feeders.

I'm a happy camper.

We travelled up the valley past fields of snowbound stubble.

Snow devils flew snow up into the air

and it snowed

and snowed

and snowed!

Old Man Winter must think it is January or February.

It's freezing.

Rooted

Aged roots

Reaching out

Hugging ground

and sometimes kissing a rock.

What that Palliated Did

Do you remember my tale of the Palliated Woodpecker and the squirrel?

I walked that part of the garden to see what damage

he had done with all that tap tap tapping on wood.

I was shocked!

that is at least 2" square.

Poor tree is doomed I fear.

This fall we had to cut down another tree in that area...

....and another....

....and their crispy crunchy branches.

Icy Inspiration

We found a dead tree captured mid-stream

by rings of ice.

and another imprisoned for the winter months.

Frozen reflections

The winters are harsh up here in the North....

....but beautiful

The frozen lines in every corner of the woods

each had their own personality

Nature's lines full of stitch potential.

Clementines are in the Shops

Hard to believe Christmas is nearly here again.

Handy Hubby flew back from London

Just scratching stitches

South Africa mourns the passing of Nelson Mandela

and celebrates his life.

Not pumpkins but  clementines!

Christmas is fast approaching

and I'm just not ready.

Disturbing the Peace

Monsieur Palliated Woodpecker

spent a long time tapping the base of this tree

I began wondering if this would be the next tree to fall

and

obviously one of our local squirrels thought it was a bit too much

all this tap tap tapping on his tree

so he came to find out what was going on.

Dailies Doubled

Scratching a week of arrivals and departures

of scraggly dead spruce trees

and snowy days

My second week

this time all alone

The Rusty pups and I have walked in snow nearly every day

Visiting a friend who looks across the Basin 

at Annapolis Royal

Looking very grey 

as tiny snowflakes hung in the air.