Thanksgiving Weekend 2017

We celebrated Thanksgiving with Janet's family. It truly was a time to be thankful. A year ago mum was just getting out of the hospital and we weren't sure she'd see another Thanksgiving. I didn't take many before photos. Janet made a great dinner and we finished off with some yummy desserts. 

Lee created this one. It is a sauce made up of raspberries and other tasty things (Janet made that) on a biscuit with cool whip!

 After we ate, we worked off our meal with a fast game of Apples to Apples, a Disney version. One I enjoyed much more than the regular cards!

 Janet won.. We accused her of cheating, but we may never know!

 I wanted to take a family photo and didn't enunciate very well. So, Lee added a pitcher since I wanted to photograph one.

Before we left, Mum talked a bit to Hugo. 

 Friday was super windy and cold. All the lovely white fluffy snow was blown hither and yon and is pretty much gone in many spots!

 I went out on Saturday to get the mail and stopped by Arness Dock.

Winter is really truly here! And my camera still has debris in it. I thought I'd edited out the sawdust and dirt. It appears I did not! Some photos may show smudges-

It was really neat to see the ice in part of the inlet and then bare water on the far side. I also enjoyed the mountain cameo shots and almost visible  oil rigs out there.

 Mittens completely objected to the cold and was in hiding. I covered her back up after I found her!!!

"Snow.....

..I long to clear a path and lift a spade of snow. Snow..." 

Not sure if we'll have this sort of white for Christmas, but we've got it for Thanksgiving!!!

(Maybe I should have chosen a song from Holiday Inn instead of White Christmas!)

I took this at 9 am. It was less than an hour after I'd gone out to sweep the steps. The first time! 

At 1030 in the morning, I'd swept and sort of made a path with my spade lifting snow all the way to the newspaper box. The paper wasn't there, but it may have ended up in the drifts and gotten buried. I didn't check very well and probably should have! 

 By 230 in the afternoon, I decided to go out again and seriously move  snow. I wasn't sure when the plow guy was coming, but I wanted at least a path if we needed to get out. The car was pretty drifted on one side and the top, but I knew that would be much easier to clean off than the drive! My fist foray out from the morning was drifted in and needed tidying anyway!

 Obi Wan came outside with me. He kept grabbing the shovel in his teeth and trying to run off with it. Or something!!!

 His short furry body made furrows in the freshly fallen snow!

 I fell more than once. The last time was more painful than the others and I opted to give it a rest!

 I had managed to make several snow banks and almost covered up one of the reflector stakes I'd purchased!

 I even made a path for Obi. Oddly, the space at the corner of the house was almost clean of snow. Wind makes unusual sorts of drifts. I moved the snow from the walk into a mound behind the rig. It is incredible what one can do with a shovel, light snow, and body who doesn't mind shoveling!

 However, much more can be moved by a person driving a truck with a plow. Most of the work I did was quickly obliterated by this wonderful angel. Even better, our neighbor said he'd come over and do it for us the next time it snows. Jesse cleared quite a bit down to bare earth. We were fortunate to have him available to us. Now, it just needs to stop blowing and we can enjoy a picturesque view of  a place 'Where it's snowing All winter through..That's where I want to be!"

(Or in my living room watching one of our many Christmas movies!)

First Snowman!

Second snowfall, first snowman. We got quite a bit on Saturday night. Not even the Sunday paper arrived on time!

 I needed to clear so mum could get out to put seed in the feeders if she wanted. I realised it was much more efficient to make snowballs than shovel snow! So, I made a snowman. It took quite a while, he was close to my height.

 The poor dear had his head break twice. After a bit the snow wasn't quite as sticky. I persevered! I found one of dad's really aged hats in the shop (it reads Anchor Point!) and added rosehips for lips (they fell out rather quickly!). Since Jim had come by to chop down the trees, I had a lot of branches to choose from. I just snipped them until they looked arm like and he was good to go! I sprinkled seed on him before I went inside, the birds made him very festive!

The feeders were fairly full of snow. One of them, I just took it down. It is an open box and as it was still snowing, it was more efficient to move it. The little guys were working hard to get the suet. 

 

You can see how much snow we got--and this is after I tried to brush it off the vehicle! 

 Oddly, there are a couple of male mallards still hanging around. Not sure where they are swimming, but there are a few star shaped spots of weak ice on the lake.

 As the day waned, the sun came out and made it even more beautiful!!! I love this place and winter is truly a wonderful time of the year.