fun is a dish best served cold

[chelidon]

Goin' hikin' today, goin' hikin', woo hoo, goin' hikin'! I may sing a different tune after several hours out in the woods out back, but hey, it's 16 degrees, almost balmy. Tonight it gets coooold, tho', wind chills of 12 to 25 below zero, burrrr, very good time to stay in around a fire and do round-robin tarot readings or soak in the hot tub and look through the greenhouse windows and watch the snow drift down. The heart of Winter is officially here, Brother North Wind has arrived, *finally*, no more of this 50 degree highs in the middle of January garbage... Now all we need is some real snow, like a foot or two, so I can go skiing and snowshoeing properly.

Yesterday on the most amazingly beautiful land in Vermont (Farm & Wilderness) I got to go sledding down a steep hill at quite interesting speeds through an orchard (oop, watch those trees!), over a road, down another hill and then over a lip of snow (wheeee!) and across a frozen lake (once you hit the lake, you could slide a loooooong way). I do love winter. I broke my housemate's plastic sled, though, will have to replace it (*oops, sorry!*). What I really want to do, perhaps for next winter, is build for myself and my son old-style wooden sleds. That would give me a good excuse to set up a small forge out in the barn next year and get a bigger anvil, etc. It's been years since I did any serious forging, but I used to enjoy it, and it's a very useful skill to have. And it would honor my dear friend and smith Kirby, who died a few years back, one of the most talented and creative knifemakers and smithys you could ever meet. Kirby's former partner is planning to move up here sometime in the next six months, and I think she'd probably enjoy coming on out and working on a forge, too. Brigid and Govannon are beloved to me, forge work is sacred as well as hugely practical (and therapeutic ;>)

Now out to the snow!

-------
The cold was our pride, the snow was our beauty. It fell and fell,
lacing day and night together in a milky haze, making everything
quieter as it fell, so that winter seemed to partake of religion in a
way no other season did, hushed, solemn.
--Patricia Hampl

Comments

[elnigma.livejournal.com]

Good and good! :>

And it sounds like Vermont suits you guys! Yay!

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

We do really love it here-- so much of the Wild around us. I took some more winter pics today, here (http://www.casachaos.net/Casa_Chaos2005/). We're actually in New Hampshire, but about 20 min from the Vermont border. Vermont is a bit crunchier, New Hampshire has no state income tax or state sales tax. Guess which won? ;> Actually, most of New England is absolutely lovely, we just happened to find our little slice of the Wild on this side of the border.

[elnigma.livejournal.com]

Wow, F is getting so big! Hermione time spinners, eh? cute.

These are my favorites of the outdoor pics - http://www.casachaos.net/Casa_Chaos2005/pages/page_26.html
http://www.casachaos.net/Casa_Chaos2005/pages/page_54.html
Its breathtaking out there.

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

He is a big 'un -- he's the youngest kid in his class, and the biggest. His pediatrician says he may get as tall as 6'5" or 6'6". Yikes. Hoooomeric ;> But two words shine hopefully forth... Basketball. Scholarship.

Glad you liked the pics! There were a lot of reasons we turned our lives upside down to come out here, but being totally surrounded by the wild and natural beauty was waaaay up there on the list. It's hard to take a bad picture of that (unless you turn the camera around and point it at the photographer ;>)