Thing-a-day.com

Thing 22 was building our family’s snow dinosaurs last Friday:

Things 23 through 28 are more bits of scratch art. Dinosaurs, Mikro’s stuffed penguin, a weird imaginary bird, a memento of the snow dinos and some traced hands. Inspiration was in rather short supply the days I did the handprints, but on the little boy one, I wrote down the things he likes doing with his little hands– tickling, petting the cat, making crafts, holding hands with mama & daddy, etc. Anyway, just one more thing to make tomorrow, and it should be my favorite dinosaur, triceratops, but I’ve been afraid to mess it up, so I’ve avoided it…

Back to checking out what is around.

This church was recently unraveled from under walls and bricks. It now sit right oustide (one of) my (temporary) windows.

Some musician friends of ours are scheduled to play a gig in a suburban Philadelphia pub tomorrow evening, and we are planning on being there. HOWEVER, the forecast is calling for snow, beginning in the wee hours and continuing throughout the day, turning to what is euphemistically called a “wintry mix” [read:  ice]. If we are unable to make the gig, it will probably be some time until we see them again, as they are flying back to LA on Saturday. So, with apologies to the children’s skipping rhyme, here’s today’s haiku:

Snow, snow, stay away,

Come again some other day.

Marna wants to play!!!

Daily Photo:

We had yet another snowfall so I went over to the park to take some pictures. Too cold to hang out very long…

I probably should have brought in this table before the snow….but it makes for a pretty picture - and a good snow-level gauge!

Snow!  Flurries at first,

Then more, billowy pillows–

Landscape of whipped cream.

It’s been snowing all day, starting off with gentle flurries, becoming more intense, almost a whiteout at times, softening the edges of everything, rendering the earth in silence. Now comes the ticky-ticking of the ice crystals against the windows. And we are huddled, warm inside, enjoying a respite from the busy-ness of life.

We’ve been having a run of rainy, dreary, damp weather here in Pennsylvania–many days in a row. After a torrential downpour in the wee hours of Saturday night/Sunday morning, the wind got wild and blew in great heaps of gray-black clouds and snow, alternating feathery dustings with whiteouts. Today we were left with numbing, branch-snapping cold, the kind of cold that takes your breath away and freezes the insides of your nostrils. The sun shining in the high arch of dark blue sky did absolutely nothing to warm the day. The cat fluffs out her fur and huddles in a fuzzy C, curling her tail over her nose to muffle the cold. I’m shivering as I write this, in spite of the space heater going full blast at my feet.  So here’s my winter Haiku:

More and more each year,

I really hate the winter.

Take me to the sun!

Seems like it’s the theme for my February. Snow, and mountain, and colors and stuff. Trying to re-claim the neighborhood. I took a few pictures, this is the one worthy of a creative gesture for today.

more pics mostly for fun.

Striking while the snow is still available. Light outside was strange this morning.

Snow bunnies! One way to get cars to slow down and stare at you.

What do snow bunnies eat?

Why, snow carrots of course!

Today was a great day to be inside. I love watching the snow drifts form into icing on my neighbor’s roof, while standing inside my warm and cozy kitchen. I even managed a little time for felting at the kitchen sink until my little lamprey figured out that she wasn’t attached to my hip, as per usual. Then she stood between my legs and howled until I relented and picked her up. Fortunately it is still possible to make felt with one hand, as long as the lamprey isn’t struggling.

Each of these felt squares (about 7″ - 8″ wide) is made of dyed merino wool roving and took about 15 minutes to complete using wet-felting. The smaller colorful one was more experimental, made with end scraps from the purple and green rovings. Eventually they will be cut up to make needle-felted coasters and wall hangings.

My intention with joining thing a day was to improve my writing and my cooking, and to give me an excuse to bake more.  Of the three, writing has the highest priority, so what better way to inaugurate my month of thing a day than with a writing exercise?

With that in mind, I decided to take the word list posted by a previous thing a day-er, twickster, and see if I could work those ten words into something.  I wasn’t sure what.  My mind jumped immediately to poetry, but when I sat down to type, stream of consciousness prose came tumbling out.  I was still able, however, to work in those words.  I think even with only occasional awkwardness.

However, it’s long.  So I decided rather than clutter up the thing a day front page with the writing itself, I will direct people to my writing blog.

Thus my thing a day entry is posted here, and I hope everyone enjoys it.  It’s about a puppy and snow, and the start of my adaptation to winter.