Happy New Year and...update!

Barely making it to a single post for the month of January!  

New year resolution: make this a regular bullet on my task list!

I guess for now I'll have to back track a bit to get up to date (please start from the bottom of this post)

January 28

Another perfect day. Bright sun and pleasant temperatures. T and I went  skiing  at Ironton  for a couple of hours.  We have only 12 or 18" of snow on the ground and it feels like Spring. But I know better...

January 22

Last week, I flew to LA  for a short visit with T.  Perfect weather, upper 70's, clear skies, flowers and greens everywhere!!!  I had forgotten how LA could be the land of year round gardening! (I tried hard not to think that back home I will have to wait another 4 or 5 month before I see the ground!) 

Now, back in the peace and silent white of the mountain, in what feels like another galaxy...

Today, we got on our back country skis and went up on the hillside opposite to our house.  This is the view we had, after a nice hour of good exercise!  But we could not see our home, which is hidden in the trees a little bit further up than the cabin sitting at the edge of the woods. Are we in the mountains or what?

On the way, we had to pass through my favorite grove of aspen trees.  I call them the "Zebra Trees" and find their trunk very graphically striking, especially in the snow.  I am very curious why they look so different from other aspen around here but haven't found any relevant information.

January 15

This year, I have been delaying a bit the planting of the Ziva narcissus bulbs in order for them to bloom while we had our visitors from Florida.  I also had timed the Amarillys perfectly and the Clivia (Khafir lily) I have had for years decided to bloom at the same time. So did the African violets I had rescued from the grave last year, and the peach geranium! Flowers and colors always make me happy!

January 6

We finally got the 8" of snow we needed to make the snowmobile route user friendly... At least P & A wont have to walk  across the Mesa  carrying their luggage (:

December 24-25

Every year, early winter storms  bring down a few trees on our property and we have made a tradition of trekking through our woods around Thanksgiving in order to find a broken evergreen.. This year we cut the top part of a huge down tree and brought it to our deck for another month of glory. Still not much snow on the Mesa but we at least got enough on Christmas Eve for our tree to look festive! 

We had to walk across the meadow, carrying the 2 pies I had baked, in order to go to B's Christmas diner.  And for the first time in years, guests could DRIVE to her party instead of snowmobiling!