the snowy day

remember how a whole week ago i posted snow pictures

just in case we didn't get any more snow?

well.

ready for some night-time street sledding!

the sunshine brought a fair amount of melting,

helped along by our reliable maintenance crew.

The Shoveler

The Sweeper

a few snowy scenes from before the maintenance crew

rolled out of bed (also known as., 'the morning'):

sled at rest

the best word i could find to describe the snow as it fell last night was 'dandruff.'  it was a dry, finely-grained snowfall.  steady, for sure, but not much to show for it when it was all said-and-done.  maybe we got about two inches.  no dramatic icicles; no branches dipping to the ground under the weight of it; not really enough for a snowman (plus it was so dry, the effort would've been immense & produced little). 

but SNOW is SNOW!

snowbath

snowy laurel

i was intrigued by the variety and abundance of animal tracks in our yard.

by all indications, it was a busy night on dogwood drive.

rabbit crossing, with leaping dog (i think)

at first, i thought these tracks might have been left by a deer - which we actually have seen in our somewhat urban neighborhood.  they are definitely a four-legged track & are spaced out in groups of four, with a gap after each series that indicates to my highly untrained eye a bounding, leaping, running gait.  but i think, now, that it was probably a dog enjoying a leash-less run of our yard.  likely chasing the rabbits.

cat?  & something else...

this is an optical illusion - doesn't it look raised up instead of an imprint?  our footprints on the front walk.  this morning, i tried to step inside the ones Mike made last night.  obviously, i didn't try too hard.  i'm kind of stubborn that way.

alas, alack, there is one wee animal in our environs that i fear may not survive this frigid winter.  that's right.  winona the woolly worm.  in her frosty glass house on the back porch.  i have dutifully spritzed her with water every few days, although that now seems unwise.  i am hopeful she has done what woolly worms are supposed to do & buried herself deep in the dirt, dreaming of wings & other moth-like things.

prep work

shhhh, this is a secret!  joseph is (and, by default, i am) trying out a recipe for Nana's birthday celebration with us this coming weekend.

hint:  it uses a stunning amount of red food coloring, which we may reconsider.

we both thought this looked like nothing we'd ever seen.

 

although i suggested the shortcut of a box mix, Joseph wanted to learn how to make this secret item from scratch, including the icing.  he came with me to the grocery store to shop for the ingredients we couldn't find in our pantry.

it was quite an experience taking a fan of the cooking show 'Chopped' with me to the grocery store.  he is developing some very definite culinary ideas & tastes!

the dry run went well, so we will be making&baking the real-deal in a couple of days.  shhhhhhh.

happy birthday, Nana!

oh, my, my. Jason Isbell.

so, the little hamlet of Saxapahaw, NC, has developed this fabulous, renovated living & grooving complex along the Haw River.  there is a weekly summer music series (which, one year, featured a zipline and slip&slide combo for the kids) and an indoor venue called the Haw River Ballroom.  being married to a musichound, we've been to several concerts here over the years.  last night, again tempting my natural fate of turning into a pumpkin on the gong of midnight, we saw Jason Isbell.  oh.  my.  my.

the photo everyone takes.

it was bitterly cold waiting in line to go in.  but, being in the somewhat petite-in-stature realm, it's kind of all-or-nothing as far as me being able to see at a concert where everyone is standing up.  so, we were those groupies right at the feet of Jason Isbell.  really, i didn't mind.  somehow, i picked the corner of the room where all the tall people (and by that i mean giants) stood.  so we were kind of walled in by men who could've used my head as a great location to sit their beer cup.

here we are.

opening for Jason Isbell was Holly Williams, daughter of Hank Williams, jr., and (therefore) granddaughter of Hank Williams.

my husband has been a fan of Jason Isbell's since his DriveByTruckers days (Jason's, not my husband's).  we saw them, after Jason had already left the band, in the parking lot of Yum-Yum's a number of years ago.

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit

ooooh, a yellow guitar!

gossip fans will know that Jason recently married Amanda Shires (she of the lacy-racy black tights & hot pants), who totally rocked out on the fiddle during the show.  as a man behind me commented, 'hey, i like those tights.'  in my opinion, she really didn't need the help of the tights to be a totally rocker-chick fiddler.

photo by Mike

photo by Mike

one of the encores was just Jason & Amanda

the boots of Jimbo, bass player for the 400Unit

an amazing evening of music

things i didn't buy - & a couple i did

mini road trip!  on our way to Saxapahaw to see a music show (see next post), we detoured & wandered around Granddaddy's Antique Mall in Burlington.  hadn't been there in years....  the place is HUGE, with pretty decent prices.
i found many things that made me smile, such as:

this Class of 1938 autograph book of a woman named Lucille.  from some of the entries, it seems to be from around her tenth-grade year.  many entries were from rather bold young men.  i was especially taken by the very first entry.

"Lucille don't burn me.  -Elmer Bufford"

i think my knotty pine kitchen cabinets are worming their way into my brain over time (metaphor intended - or is that personification? whatever.), as i am finding mustard, rust, puce, and umber somehow appealing colors these days.  or maybe it was my youth spent playing with The Sunshine Family (see toy #7).

amazing toy camper van - oh, my!

in the latter years of high school and early years of college, i was a collector & wearer of nifty buttons (which, at the moment, seems like the absolutely incorrect word for these things.  but i just googled it &, yes, we call these 'buttons' even though you would likely not use them to hold up your pants.)

my favorite button from my button heyday was "my karma ran over my dogma."  i like to think that still applies.

fantastic jujyfruit puzzle.  i was tempted.

my weakness for cool, old toys pre-dates my profession as a pediatric occupational therapist.  but, now, i can pretend i have a legitimate excuse for the fascination.

like this one!  it's a teeter-totter balancing man!  an earlier version of that metal toy grown people put on their office desks to remind themselves to seek a state of zen balance.  or to pass the time.

this one was a little pricey, but i was fascinated by it.  it is a Tom Thumb Typewriter!!!  (i.e., a 1950's iPhone.)

i'm not sure, exactly, where my attraction for fake fruit & such comes from.  i suspect it is a specific gene i inherited from my paternal grandmother.  i found this glass & rubber geranium just lovely.
 

BUT, let me just say, i coveted these blue grapes.  oh, i had such a hankering for these blue grapes.  aren't they simply gorgeous?  i wanted these blue grapes.  sadly, as you can probably guess, they were not for sale.  not even telling the roving stockboy how much i wanted these blue grapes made any difference.

 i did end up finding a few things to purchase.

this will go perfectly with my knotty pine cabinets

and this AMAZING book, Blue2, by David Carter!

(really, you must click on the link i attached to Blue2 above,

just to get a sense of the wonderment of this book)

as i said, we were on our way to a music show, so we only managed to walk through about half of the antique mall.  a return trip is definitely warranted.  of course, i will feel compelled to start at the beginning again, just in case any new, magical items have been added.

eel vs. octopus

it is beginning to resemble a moray eel.  eek.

we are considering slight variations to the route

based on these alarming youtube videos.

just in case

just in case it doesn't snow again this winter...

(by saying this, of course, i'm hoping i cause a double-jinx & tons of snow)

fleur de lis sweet olive shadow

two-by-two periwinkle vine

snowy boxwood

iced camellias

 

sparkle snow

evergreen