Glorious Afternoon

Hiking at a wildlife refuge that is one of our favorite places.

On the Road Again

Current Vango outing got off to a bumpy start, but we are currently installed and sipping.

Christmas Dinner

With carrot cake to follow. So nice to live some place where we can grill outdoors for the holidays. (Salad is from our winter garden.)

Thanks to ?????

Amazon.com delivered a surprise gift to me. Soap smells incredible, but there's no indication who it's from. Hope my secret Santa doesn't think I'm rude for not responding...

Carrying on the Tradition

The first Christmas my mom and I spent alone after my dad died was looking to be bleak. We sat by the tree on Christmas Eve, watching the clock, realizing it was still hours before we could reasonably go to bed. Suddenly, my mother perked up. "I have a frozen pizza. How does that sound?" Then she directed me to get under the tree and find a present from her good friend Minnie. "I'm pretty sure it's a bottle of wine." Soon we were sipping and munching on a Tombstone pepperoni pizza and opening gifts, which my mother had always resisted before Christmas morning. It ended up being a warm and wonderful and memorable evening, and I've carried on the pizza tradition--albeit not frozen--almost all of the intervening years. This evening Tom is the pizza maker.

Shhhh! Think the Rain is Finally Slowing Down...

After 17.5"/44.5cm. The concern now will be for falling trees as the soil may be too sodden to support them.

Next Round About to Begin

After 15"/38cm, we hardly need more rain...

Now....

Our weather emergency radio is screaming flood warnings for the area. Well, yes.

And Counting...

We're up to 14"/35cm. of rain. And it's not quitting any time soon...

Wet Christmas

Just emptied the rain gauge. Again. We've had 10.5"/27cm of rain since yesterday. At least there's nothing to shovel, but with much more incoming we're eying up our kayaks in the garage...

Ru-Dolphin?! Small-Town Christmas Fun

The "Gift" that Keeps Giving. Not.

Yesterday we had an arborist come check out our trees. He informed us that we had multiple lightning strikes in the big storm. Yikes! This morning he was back with a crew and bucket truck to take out a large, damaged pine that was leaning towards our house. Very $$$ with more to follow, perhaps. We're certainly hoping for a less expensive new year.