Hibernation

All last week the forecast was showing that new snow would be here for the weekend. On Thursday, the forecasted snowfall totals for Friday/Saturday were stepped up a bit. It quickly became evident that this weekend might be a good one to hibernate at home. Friday morning’s commute was a bit longer than normal because the first round of snow was coming in. Thankfully, the rest of the snow held off until I was back home before dinnertime.

(click the picture for details)

I woke up on Saturday morning to quite a bit of snow on the ground and it kept falling all day. The neighborhood soundtrack throughout the day was filled with shovels scraping the pavement, wheels spinning in the snow/slush and the whir of snow blowers. Before long, lawn chairs were out in the street as parking spot placeholders.

My “goals” for the weekend were simple.

• Never ending pot of coffee: The french press was in constant use all weekend – the It’s a Grind Winter Blend is my current favorite. A bit of Italian Sweet Cream creamer & my sheep mug made it perfect.
• Finish holiday cards: Umm, I had good intentions of getting cards out at Christmas and then life got in the way. So I’m going with a “New Year’s” approach instead. Signed, sealed & ready to go in the mail tomorrow.
• New knitting project: I cast on a for a new “big” knitting project & have been making great progress on it. As the inches of snow increased, so did the inches of blue garter stitch. More details later this week.
• Order 2008 pictures for scrapbook: It’s January – time for a scrapbooking retreat in 2 weeks, so I had fun going through the past year & figuring out what pictures to be ordered.
• Catch up on Netflix: Ladies in Lavender and The Ballet Shoes were perfect knitting flicks.
• Make a pot of soup: At the grocery store on Thursday evening I decided that I was in the mood for a pot of cauliflower soup. I found a couple of good recipes on a few food blogs & ended with my own hybrid that hit the spot (roast the cauliflower, onions & garlic before going into the pot, add some walnuts in with the ‘normal’ ingredients – blend it all together- yum!). Since I had the big pot out from the back of the cabinets, today I decided to make a big pot of chili for this week & the freezer.
• Read: Between Christmas gifts and library books I had no shortage of reading material. This weekend it was The Reverend Guppy’s Aquarium and The Lace Reader.

I had hoped to head over to Jen’s for a bit of knitting this afternoon; however, I feel like I’m fighting off the start of a cold so I’ll continue to hibernate. (And be very grateful for a building mate who shoveled my side of the garage!) The snow is definitely getting old this winter – there have been too many long commutes in the snow, slush & slick. It was nice to enjoy this snow storm from inside my cozy home.