Sunshine and Snow

A Facebook friend posted this little hummer this morning and it's a perfect fit for this day--we woke up to high winds and snow.  

The sun is out now, but it's still windy and cold. It's a shoes, socks, t-shirt and cozy shirt over the t-shirt, coffee in hand kind of day.  They predicted that we might lose power, but thankfully that did not happen although we have friends on a rural power company and they did lose power late yesterday afternoon.  Of course the problem for them, and also for us when it happens, is that they also lost access to water because they have their own well.  They have horses and she said that fortunately the horse trough was full so they could grab bucketsful and at least make their toilets flush.

  

We've been enjoying watching the Gonzaga Zags basketball team in the March Madness playoffs. Ann and her gang have come over for several of the games which has made for some fun parties, especially when "our" team wins!  We have high hopes for Tuesday night's game!

Bruder Bear and Karen are due to arrive Wednesday for an overnighter on their way to daughter Kirsten's house for Easter so we have more fun in store.  Thankfully we did a good house cleaning last week so no pressure to get it done now.  Ann, Eric and boys will be here for Easter dinner on Sunday.  We'll have our usual ham/salads/pies picnic.  Yum!

So that's the latest from here at the resort.  The quilt has seen quite a bit of progress and I'll do an update soon, but it will most likely be April by then.  ♥

March

March is such a strange month.  Weather all over the place, daylight savings time kicks in (and kicks me!), and it's neither winter nor spring. But, it is what it is.  Even the muse has been missing.

I have been reading lots of fun "cozy mysteries" on my iPad using Kindle Unlimited.  I've kept up the subscription as it's less than ten dollars a month.  You can hardly buy one paperback for that price and the library has been either closed or on weird hours due to the virus, so it's been a treat to be able to prowl for books and download whatever strikes my fancy.  I'm currently on a series in England in the l930s.  

The sewing room has actually been seeing a little of me and I'm working on a Christmas quilt from a kit Dan got me for Christmas.  It's been a little slow going as the template that was sent to use with it had an error in it.  It took some doing to get that settled and then I had to figure out how to line up the different pieces as they're triangles. Tricky to do to get them placed properly before stitching, but now that I've gotten the hang of it, I'm finding it fun.  A learning process for certain though. In the picture below, only the top row of trees is done.  Hard to tell since the white triangles between are the same color as my flannel backdrop.

And a further update on the new dishwasher, christened Louise by Dan (also called Weezy and LuLu).  She continues to perform perfectly!  I'm so happy! ♥

As February Draws to a Close

We had snow in October, snow after Christmas, and now February has brought winter back in full force.  We must have gotten at least a foot of snow last week, and almost every morning since then we've gotten up to more.  Yesterday it snowed and this morning we had snow and wind.

It was amazing to watch.  I'm attempting to insert a video of it, so we'll see how it does.  UPDATE: I published and it seems to work just fine.  It's fun to watch in full screen! Brrrrr!!

In two short days March will be upon us and I think I'm ready.  Spring is starting to sound very good.  ♥

Dishwasher Update

No picture, because how many pictures of a dishwasher do you need to see?  

We finally ran a load. (Is it bigger inside?  Seems like we usually filled Brunhilda every day or two, but it took us four.)  We decided to try the one-hour wash and see how it did before we bit the bullet and went for the two to three hour cycle. There were plates and forks with egg on them, a pyrex pan that had enchiladas baked in it plus having the left-overs run through the microwave, and the usual miscellany of a well-used kitchen. The silverware basket was stuffed.  

So how did it do?  It shut off in exactly an hour and we trooped right into the kitchen to check it out. Everything was spotless and shiny!!  We were thrilled.  We examined every dish and piece of silverware.  Nary a spot. There's rising hope that this new one will be a winner!! 

Changing of the Guard

It is with some sadness that I tell my faithful readers that my beloved dishwasher, known to one and all as Brunhilde, went to that great scrapheap in the sky on Tuesday.  She had performed with great faithfulness and I knew we were on borrowed time.  The service tech who installed the new one today said he thought she was probably original to the house.   That would be forty-two plus years!

I had just set her to run Tuesday morning and stepped over to the stove to finish cleaning up after breakfast when I stepped back into a large puddle of water with more pouring out.  Thank goodness I hadn't gone any further!  

We contemplated trying to see what was wrong and fixing her, but finally decided that we would be afraid to leave the room when she was running.  We'd noticed a spot in the drum where it had rusted through just the day before and Dan had caulked it.  We finally declared total organ failure and went to look for a new one.

The shopping was an eye-opener.  Who knew Covid has played havoc with appliances?  Our local appliance store, the one we've used for thirty-some years,  had a limited number of dishwashers and only two were white.  I knew there was no hope of getting a bisque one to match the other appliances in our kitchen, but had no idea getting a white one would be a problem.  I don't want stainless, I've never liked it.  We finally picked the Whirlpool white model.  We decided if it wasn't up to our standards, we'd put our names on the list for the Bosch model we wanted and donate this one to Habitat for Humanity.  

An interesting comment was made while we were looking.  The lady helping us mentioned that someone had come all the way from Spokane a few days before to get the last white Bosch in stock because there were none to be had up there.  Apparently people building new homes can't do the final closing on their homes without a "working kitchen" including all appliances. Apparently it's a Washington rule and it's causing some problems during this pandemic. 

Well, my new dishwasher is in and we'll be giving it a run in a day or so.  I'll keep you up to date.  Here she is.  

I hope her name doesn't turn out to be Rue. ♥

The Big Snow

For once the forecasters seem to have hit it right. We've had a little snow over the past week, but then we began to hear that a big storm was coming, followed by yet another one.  And we have snow! Over a foot with more to come starting later today.  It's gorgeous and only in the twenties, so we have it much better than the south.  I hear Texas is a mess--single digit temperatures and no power; they're having a very bad time.   

But here at the resort we are enjoying a beautiful, cozy day. Coffee cake for breakfast, cups of warm coffee and tea, a little counted cross stitch and a fun books to read.  The big grandsons have taken off to do some skiing.  Ahh, the young!! Meanwhile, D is enjoying a little sledding.

Here are a couple of pictures from here at the Resort this morning.

View out the back--not a black and white photo!

The front view.  Boxwood marshmallows!

  Brrr!! Stay warm!!  ♥

Hello!

Well hello there!  Here it is, Presidents' Day weekend and Valentine's Day all in the same few days.  How quickly February passes.  And today is the birthday of one of our nieces.  Party on!

It's been a beautiful day.  Snow was forecast overnight, but it didn't begin until about daybreak.  It's cold, very cold as in the teens, and so even though it snowed almost all day, we got maybe three inches of very light, fluffy snow. We are supposed to get more over the weekend so we'll see how it goes.  

I don't have a lot of Valentine decorations, but I did make that runner last year with a kit from Shabby Fabrics so this is its first appearance.  I do love it!

I still use the four red hearts on sticks that Daniel gave me when he was five.  They warm my grammy heart each year when I get them out. Treasures, that's what they are.  

And of course, we must have the appropriately colored peanut M&M's in a bowl.  

I'm continuing to stitch away on my counted cross stitch.  I ordered a few more patterns for the Prairie Schooler Santas from more recent years and they came.  I saw a framed piece someone from the Instagram group for the Santas did and I'm hoping to do something similar.  It will probably take me a year or so though, so don't hold your breath!  :-)

And last, I ordered a new Instant Pot cookbook by the Six Sisters and it came.  I think it's going to be a good one!

Hope everyone is keeping warm!  This cold seems to be affecting a large part of our country.  But it is winter! ♥