Snow Days

Two days of blizzard warnings and high winds and snow this week resulted in two snow days for me.

It has been a pretty nice arrangement, actually. I spent both mornings chugging through my work to-do list, since I brought my work home with me in preparation for the bad weather. But because I wasn't required to work on my snow days, I've also had time to do a bit of freelance work and some cleaning and some baking and even some packing for a certain trip Conservative Hubby and I are taking very soon.

I must make it known, however, that Butter hasn't enjoyed the snow days quite as I much as I have. He normally loves to go outside and play in the snow, but he's smart enough to know that he'd rather be inside when the wind is howling and his chain is buried under the snow that has drifted against our back door.


Plus, for a good portion of yesterday afternoon and evening, Butter's window was so covered in snow that he couldn't sit there and keep an eye on things like he normally does.

This didn't stop him from trying, though. Every once in a while last night we'd find him sitting at the window, often for minutes at a time, staring at absolutely nothing but the white stuff stuck on the glass and his reflection.

Now the high winds and the snow have stopped and it's time to get un-buried.

(A friendly someone came by and snow-blowed our driveway and sidewalks just as we were getting up this morning, which made my day a whole lot nicer, by the way.)

If you got snowed in too, I hope you're staying warm and safe today!

Lavender in Winter

This is the lavender that sits next to Butter in the front window.


This is the lavender that used to live outside in the planter in front of our house, until the weather turned cold and I placed it in a pot and moved it indoors.

I did the same thing last year with a number of herbs but, alas, they didn't last long.

This year, however, is different. This year my lavender is thriving, much more than it ever did outside in the summer. It keeps growing, stretching toward the sun outside the window. It's even flowering.


And oh, the smell, when I walk by and brush my hands across the lavender.

It's heaven. It makes me forget, for just a moment, that it's winter outside.

Of course, then I see what's sitting right on the other side of the glass and I am reminded of precisely what season it is.

Winter on Lake Michigan

When I mentioned my visit to Wisconsin for a service-learning workshop last week, I failed to share with you the snapshots I took on the first incredibly chilly day we were there, when I grabbed my camera and braved the cold to take a walk near the lake.


The thing that amazed me most is, sadly, something you can't see from the photo. It was the way the water undulated beneath big chunks of ice. I could hear the gentle lapping of the water but couldn't actually see any waves at first, and then all of a sudden I realized what looked like a mirage of sorts was actually the water slowly moving the chunks of ice up and down, up and down.

The next day, the waves told a different story, for it got colder and windier. Then the ice mounded up near the shore and the water crashed with ferocity against the temporary ice cliffs that formed. I braved the weather again that day to see how drastically the water had changed since my last visit, but left my camera behind tucked safely in my room.


That first day, before my fringers froze from snapping photos of the water, I also managed to capture a few other photographs.


One was of the labyrinth near the shore, which in nicer weather is a place for people to walk in peaceful meditation. The next day, the labyrinth was covered in snow, so we were lucky we got to see it before the weather changed.