It's still winter!

Thought I'd share a few photos from the last few snowy days!

 The storm - Wednesday

My own abominable snowman?

   And the day after the storm - Thursday

my honey shoveled us out

And today - Friday

I took a stroll around Hovey Pond

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crazy time. And more gnomes.

Before I get into the real topic of the day, above and below are some more gnomes. Don't you just love the details? Earrings, baskets of flowers, braids, aprons, glasses, and shawls for the girls, and bows and arrows, gardening tools (not pictured), and even a banjo for the boys. The boys all were thrilled that I allowed the archery stuff, since all other weaponry was not permitted.


About the crazy time: I had an unexpected day off today. There's been a stomach bug going around our school and the poor daytime custodian has been cleaning up one hallway disaster after another. It spread through the elementary, and then into the high school, and by midday Thursday a significant number of kids had been sent home, and there were freshly emergency-washed spots up and down the the halls, and the superintendent made the decision to use our one unused snow day for Friday, today, to break the cycle of infection. Some people were thrilled with the unexpected day off, especially since the weather reports were good, but I was not. With just a week till we set up our art show, I could not afford a day less to get everything done.

Meanwhile, after school on yesterday, some kids in the aftercare program came up to my room looking for something to do, and I set them to work getting messy. We needed a sky for the art show garden, and I had a large sample roll of Smart-Fab to try out (more about that in another post when I've completed testing the Smart-Fab with various materials). Messy is an understatement. We newspapered the tables, but the paint soaked right through the Smart-Fab and then through the newspaper, so in the end we actually had 3 tables that were solid blue with acrylic paint. Luckily, the kids were happy "scrubbing bubbles" and did a great job cleaning up. Thanks, Mario, Manon, Grant, and Sarah! I'm going to put your names in the "bucket fillers" bucket, since you really filled my bucket by scrubbing those tables so willingly!
Here's the sky drying, over 4 yards long!

So, anyhow, being relatively healthy, (I guess I have an iron stomach) I went into the empty school today thinking I'd name-tag everything and make all the necessary signs, work on the Chihuly tower, etc. I didn't rush in though, sleeping in a little bit to help get rid of the cold I've been fighting. So when the custodians came around and told me that they were locking up and setting the alarms early (2pm) I was upset. I'd driven 30 miles to get there and then got barely 4 hours in the classroom. I didn't even get to add a single bottle to the Chihuly Rainbow Tower.
But it was beautiful outside, and our lakeside cottage is only about 3miles from my school, so I took a spin over there and relaxed in the sunshine for a bit before I headed home. Not a typical Friday! Here's a few photos of fresh spring growth.

And the crazy old phone booth that I'm so fond of.

Have a good weekend!

Snow and more snow; and views from an art show

Snow sleet blowing winds more snow more snow icy winds zero visibility more snow more snow... I don't know how much is out there yet - hard to tell with all the blowing but certainly it will be well over a foot by the time its done and that might be a moderate estimate. Though it's blowing so much I don't know how they'll measure it.

I keep looking out the window half expecting Omar Sharif (as Dr. Zhivago) to come staggering out of the blizzard, frozen, with snow and ice crusted in his hair and mustache (but still looking handsome despite it all), calling out for Lara... Lara... (if you are too young to have ever seen the movie Dr. Zhivago, put it on your Netflix queue now!)

The sky is gray white and even though it is after 9AM the paperboy hasn't even gotten here yet. School is closed, though we had already used up our 3 snow days. I don't want to guess how they'll get us to make it up. I hope I remembered to water the plants in my art room on Friday.

I can't even go out and shovel yet. It has to show some sign of calming down or it will be futile. So I'm going to make the best of the day. After blogging, I'll get out the beads and jewelry tools. Or maybe the sewing machine. Or bake some lowfat healthy cookies. Or maybe all three!

* UPDATE: almost noon now, and just in from first shoveling. I'd say there's at LEAST 18" so far...though it seems to be slowing now, finally, and the sky is brightening.

In the meantime, here are some views from a mini art show I set up at our little local public library last week but forgot to post. The kids' work will stay there for a month. You've already seen most of this artwork if you've been reading my blog.

150 Followers! WOW!

Here I am, home on a snow day, having gotten the call at 4:20 this morning. I just came in from my first shoveling session of the day (about 1/2 foot of fresh heavy snow so far, and probably another 1/2 foot left to come). They say the snow will stop by 7:00am tomorrow, so maybe we'll have a delay tomorrow. Unlike those of you in other regions, this snow won't stop us for long. Some of our high school students were talking yesterday about using the snow day (which was strongly anticipated) to ski at Gore Mountain, a nice ski center about 1/2 hour away from the school. So try to understand this parent philosophy: the weather isn't safe to run the buses, but what the heck, give the teen the car and let him drive (with a few friends) 1/2 hour on hilly lonely country roads to go skiing!
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Anyhow, I figured I'd take a computer break, and I clicked on my blogger dashboard and voila! 150 followers!! I can't believe that 150 people actually think that what I say is worth reading. Thanks! I'd like to do something special to thank you -a random give-a-way or something, but I need a few days to figure it out. I hope you'll check back and see what I come up with.
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Here's my worry though - I feel like I've gotten to know some of you pretty well after almost a year of blogging, and I worry that I can't keep up. I read/follow a lot of blogs, love them all, and also like to take the time to comment and to respond to comments left on my blog. So bear with me if I don't get back to you right away. I have to remember my primary responsibilities are to my family and my job (and today, to my sidewalk!).
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A word about the sidewalks, family, and human nature. I used to love my cozy neighborhood, but over the years a number of houses have become rentals and the tenants are a disappointment. Today shoveling was hard work; I was trying to toss shovelsful (or is it shovelfuls?) of snow onto banks that reaching toward my 5' height. And a neighbor across the street was snowblowing (we don't own a blower; my husband refuses), and had his blower aimed... you guessed it; over a snowbank right onto me and my newly shoveled sidewalk, as well as my husband's car. I stood there and stared at him as my sidewalk filled in and he kept right at it. I didn't realize my husband, who was shoveling in the back, had seen this, until he told me he called the police when he saw the snow hitting ME (I was so bundled with hat/scarf/hood that I didn't realize it was landing on me at first). We've been on the street about 25 years, and this was a first. We used to help shovel each OTHER's driveways.
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I've noticed this change elsewhere too; you stop when driving your car and wave to let someone cross a street and they amble across without nary a hand up to say thanks. Or a kid talks back to you in school the way you wouldn't have DREAMED of speaking to an adult when you were a kid. I'm sure you know what I mean. I hope my 22 year old son, as he makes his way in the world, remembers that he was brought up to be respectful and kind. Hopefully he and his friends can counteract the wave of disrespect that I seem to see in society these days.
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OK, didn't mean to seem so grumpy. It's beautiful outside, and I have a lot I want to accomplish today with my extra time. Meanwhile, my next post, I promise, is finally going to be about Lucy, my dragon. Enjoy the weather, whatever yours is like!

There's no delay; there's school today!

Oh dear, guess I need to shovel.
OK, I've made it to the car; now I'd better clean it off.

Getting there...
Let's peek down the alley and see if it's been plowed.
Nope. Oh well.
Hopefully the city streets are better than the alley.

Question: Wonder if the highway will be cleared?
Finally. Car is clean (sort of) and warmed up, windows defrosted, and the sun is coming up. I'm off to school.

Answer - NO the highway was not ready for us early travelers. A one or two hour delay would have made a vast improvement on the conditions of the morning commute. I'm glad it's Friday. There have been a couple of treacherous morning drives and a challenging afternoon one, and while, (as you know) I love my car, I've had enough for a couple of days!