Oops

 
Oops. I managed to not put the SD card back in the camera this morning, so all the nifty pictures I took today are only in my head.

You'll just have to imagine. At church, communion was served by the young people. That was a nice change, and a great way to involve them.

I'm always extra happy when food appears and I didn't do much of anything in regard to making that magic event happen. Swiss steak, veggies, and some of that great lemon pie for lunch. Thanks, Sylvia!

In the afternoon we played games and talked and fooled around.

I was hoping for a walk, but the clouds decided to get serious about dropping a load of water, so that will have to wait.

More food, more pie. Now I have to do a little work.

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Time for Friends

 
Sometimes, midwinter, you just have to get away. I have fled to Chuck and Sylvia's house! (Secondary Roads)



Chuck and I did a good job of fooling around. Sylvia did the important stuff.



She's making the filling for a lemon meringue pie!



We've done a lot of yakking and joking and enjoying each other's company. More to come.

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Vocabulary Answers and the Sky

 
It was a really nice winter day today. There was a little bit of fresh snow on top of the packed stuff, and snowshoeing was fun!



I know you're just dying to know what those words mean, right? (I'm sure most of you don't care one little bit, but hey, I like new words, and it's my blog.)

1. agitprop
a. the turbulence near a propeller- just no, I made it up
b. political propoganda- a word compounded from agitation and propaganda, first used in Russia, to denote all sorts of writing and art forms with an explicitly political message.
c. a mine tunnel- an adit is a horizontal mine tunnel
d. stage dressing- properties or props, no agitation required

2. tessara
a. one unit of a mosaic- can be stone, metal, glass, tile, etc. The plural is tessarae
b. a type of lace- nope, another made up answer
c. a type of pottery- that's terra cotta
d. late summer- the name Theresa means late summer, from the Greek

3. diener
a. a unit of currency- that would be a dinar, a basic monetary unit in several Arabic countries
b. alternate spelling of diner- nah
c. a morgue worker- an autopsy technician, from the German leichendiener or corpse servant
d. a particular type of hardware like a nut- made up because of similarity to tool and die

4. bourse
a. a sac of fluid- that's bursa- in your shoulder or knee. Where you get bursitis
b. commonplace- you must be thinking of bourgeois
c. a type of stock exchange- yes, particularly in Europe
d. part of an insect's anatomy- just made up

5. shahtoosh
a. a type of jewelry- see b.
b. depiction of a royal name- that's a cartouche, particularly in hieroglyphics
c. a conquered king- you are thinking of "shah mat" the king is dead, the origin of the word checkmate in chess
d. a shawl made from the hair of Tibetan antelopes- yes, and the hair is so rare and difficult to spin that it's only made by certain monks, and is actually illegal to own

6. fry
a. fragile- you mean friable
b. a type of wetland- sounds like vly
c. a low vocal register- a way to produce lower sounds than in the normal vocal range by relaxing the vocal chords and allowing air to bubble through them
d. frumpish- no

Hope you had a little fun, at least wondering if some of the words were familiar.

The day also ended with a pretty sky. Nothing like the one two years ago.



Work tonight, and tomorrow... fun to come! Stay tuned.

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"Hello, My Name is Trouble..."

 
I've known for quite a while now that one of the baby red squirrels stayed to live with mama Riley. I'm pretty sure his/her name is Trouble.



So, now instead of an elephant on the roof, I have a herd of them. At least you'd think so from the amount of noise they make.

Oddly enough, they rarely come on the deck at the same time.

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Vocabulary Day- January 2016

 


I haven't done a vocabulary day in quite a while one heck of a long time. But I've run across some new words recently, so here we go.

Answers tomorrow or the next day. Take a guess, or maybe you already know these.

1. agitprop
a. the turbulence near a propeller
b. political propoganda
c. a mine tunnel
d. stage dressing

2. tessarae
a. one unit of a mosaic
b. a type of lace
c. a type of pottery
d. late summer

3. diener
a. a unit of currency
b. alternate spelling of diner
c. a morgue worker
d. a particular type of hardware like a nut

4. bourse
a. a sac of fluid
b. commonplace
c. a type of stock exchange
d. part of an insect's anatomy

5. shahtoosh
a. a type of jewelry
b. depiction of a royal name
c. a conquered king
d. a shawl made from the hair of Tibetan antelopes

6. fry
a. fragile
b. a type of wetland
c. a low vocal register
d. frumpish

Daffynitions always welcome!

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Thundersnow and Slush

 
Last night, just after I posted a blog entry, it began to thunder and lightning! When this happens with snow, it can be an indication of severe weather. I went out to try to capture a photo. Didn't even try to catch a flash of lightning, but the flash on the camera showed that it was snowing pretty good.




It's snowed most of the day again today, but I wouldn't call it "severe." The snow really wouldn't be much of an issue, except it's really been slushing, not snowing. It's just above freezing and the driveway is a sloppy mess which turns to grease even after I've run the snowblower.

Needless to say, we are sure playing games with the cars. Hope it freezes hard tonight.

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I Got the Sun in the Mornin'

 
One of my favorite songs from Annie Get Your Gun goes, "Got no diamonds, got no pearls, still I think I'm a lucky girl. I got the sun in the mornin' and the moon at night."

Today's sun through clouds and the tinted windshield strip.



"Got no mansion, got no yacht, still, I'm happy with what I got. I got the sun in the mornin' and the moon at night. Sunshine gives me a lovely day. Moonlight gives me the Milky Way."

Saturday's moon.



"And with the sun in the mornin' and the moon in the evenin', I'm all right."

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In the Mood

 
for scones. Oatmeal currant scones. In the mood for warm oatmeal currant scones. Done.

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Flaky

 
Look at the little piles of shiny flakes around the base of the grass stem!



This afternoon, almost every stalk had a scattering of shards beneath it. Here's what I think happened. This morning was one where every surface was covered with frost. Most of it was tight and fine, rather than large crystals. At least that's what it looked like from the house. I wasn't out this morning. However, when I left work at 3 am, the windshield had that kind of frost on it, the kind that is really difficult to scrape off.

When I got up around 11 am the trees were all while, but not fuzzy looking, as is the case with thick hoar.

The sun was out! A very welcome sight in late January. By the time I got outside for a walk, the frost had all melted off the trees, cars, and other surfaces. But Maybe the frost was thicker than I had realized, and the stems absorbed heat faster and so the frost flakes detached from the warm surfaces of the plants.

My favorites were these long flat crystals at the edge of a deep deer track in the snow.



These appear to be "white frost" which supposedly forms when there is a light wind with high relative humidity. White frost has large interlocking needle-like crystals.

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An Historical Day

 
Remember the Badger?



I've featured shots of it in dock or coming into the harbor before. Today is pretty special. Finally, after years of trying, it was granted status as a National Historic Landmark. It's the last of its kind operating on the Great Lakes, and has had to undertake some changes to it's systems due to EPA regulations. "“The Badger’s machinery is particularly notable as the last surviving and intact power plant of its type," according to maritime historian Bill Worden.

Or maybe that is... a big governmental oops! The Park Service posted on its web site that the designation had been granted, then took the notice down and now says it's still under review.

Talk about snafus. Front page of the local paper... of course we are proud of our "boat."



Well, I hope it's just some minor thing, like the ink isn't dry on the signatures or something.

In other news, the marina was quiet... a northern resort town in winter.

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Sunset

 

I haven't been outside much lately except for dealing with the endless snow in the driveway. However, the end of the day today was pretty special. (Yes, I left the snowblower running and sprinted for the camera).





I thought it was pretty much over, and then there was a sun pillar!

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Merry Christmas from Ester

 
Ester had to go home today. Darn. We sure had a great time even if we didn't take on any major activities. She made it home safely although she admitted it was kind of a white-knuckle drive.

We had another six or more inches of snow overnight with lots of drifting, and Ester decided she was going to pay to have someone plow the driveway for us rather than let me shovel for hours again.

Talk about a nice gift! Since our first snow was more or less slush that got all rutted and then froze, this was great. It packed the driveway flat and gave me a good base to work off of, from now on.



Here's the requisite selfie just to show that we were happy. This is not a picture I'd want to have framed, haha. But you can catch the mood.



And the snowblower has returned home, all fixed. It apparently decided to rupture a fuel line just as I tried to start it yesterday. I did check the gas when I was trying to start it, but the repair man said the tank was empty, so it all leaked out over the course of the day.

I'll probably get to use it in the morning. Still snowing (although not as much).

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Machines Can Make You Crazy

 
Remember my great accomplishment at getting the snowblower all ready to run for the season? Ha! It started right up this morning, ran for 15 seconds and decided it was all done. End of story. Tonight it went off to small engine hospital. Ester and I dragged it down all the way to the road because the top probably isn't cleared well enough for the guy to bring his trailer up and turn it around.



The rest of the day was spent shoveling by hand or playing games with Ester. Since the snow is going to continue, I'm pretty sure that tomorrow will be more of the same. It's a l-o-o-o-o-n-g driveway.

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Yup, I Think It's Here

 
Winter has genuinely arrived. So pretty, but none of us had to go anywhere today.



I love the snow clinging to branches. It makes any old bush look magical.



Ester and I went out for a short snowshoe walk. She didn't bring her outdoor gear, but we rummaged around and she couldn't get out of things that easily!



The "no one has to go anywhere" ends tomorrow morning, so I'll be up early enough to run the snowblower.

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