A little snow for your October?

Thursday was a cold rainy day. Our coldest day of the season with no doubt. I felt sad for my husband who had to be out in it working. (He has a driving around and being outside sort of job) When he got home I made him some spicy hot cocoa to warm him up. Our fall has been on the milder side of weather so far. There have been very few days where I actually felt a need to wear a scarf. It made me happy to feel it cooling off. But  as the sun set and it started getting even more cold, something weird happened.

The rain started getting slushy. And then it started getting floaty and on the drier side...

Wait a second! This is SNOW. It's only October! What about autumn! The leaves haven't fallen yet! Some of our leaves are still green!   We want brisk days not frozen days. Heh.
It was magical, though. The first snow always is....

 Actually every time it snows it's magical. Do you ever just stand in it and listen to it hit the ground? And watch it turn the world white and clean?
You should.

The next morning we had a thin layer. Not a lot. I hear some areas got a few inches. We had enough to make scraping the windshield necessary and to turn the grass white. Bits of icy snow clumps clung to leaves causing them to sparkle in the morning sunshine. And then they started melting and falling and caused a bit of ruckus. You didn't want to be standing underneath a tree! And when the sun really got high it sounded like the first thaw, that musical drip-drip-dripping of snow really melting. Lovely.

I hear we're supposed to get a few more inches tonight.

Anyone dreaming of a white Halloween?

Summery Update

Summer is full of activity and adventure. It's hard to find time to stop all the fun and actually take time and record it all sometimes. I've been pretty bad with writing here and even my photo taking has been slack lately. With all my running around and picking berries, making sun tea, going to the beach and delving more into herbalism I just keep forgetting that I need to keep track of it all!

Yesterday, I picked a quart of wild black raspberries. I haven't yet made my mind up about what I want to do with them. I'll need another 3 quarts to make a gallon of wine (according to one recipe, at least) and I'm not sure if I want to put that kind of effort in. It's pretty hot out there, even in the morning! Maybe ice cream, hmm.... Got any ideas? I don't want to just eat them, after all that work!

We've spent some time at Plum Island at John's parents house. They're doing some remodeling including adding 2 decks (besides upgrading their first one). One is a roof top deck and the view is incredible!

Looking to the west south-west

East-northish

We went up to have a look before the actual deck was on, and the only way to get up is by ladders. Soon there will be actual decking and some spiral staircases. I'm really excited to see it done, it'll be some cool architecture.

Of course there's been sun tea:

 

And some very pretty flowers!

Lilies

Roses

Purple and White (Anyone know these?)

Echinacea

We went to Odiorn State Park for Independence Day

 Our group went geo-caching....

There was a tupper-ware in the crags of the rocks....

Which is really great for the pretty hikes you get to go on...

Path through arched trees

 

I crocheted my first hat! I felt inclined to go to my pastor's daughter's baby shower and thought it would make a pretty decent gift. Cheers for youtube.com tutorials!

Baby Beanie

John models the fab hat

And probably the dumbest activity of the summer thus far! *drum roll, please*.......
I made cupcakes!.......No trust me, it was a dumb idea. It was probably the warmest day of the year yet and so humid and muggy. Not only do you not want to be turning your oven on for 30 minutes, but you also don't want to be creaming sugar, beating eggs, whisking flour OR whipping whites and boiling sugar water for buttercream. At least the butter softened fast...

And they tasted good. Earl Grey cupcakes with chocolate orange butter cream.

Not to mention these fail cute hello kitty and flower decorations....

I got the recipe from Katiecakes, and made the buttercream from Joy of Cooking with lots of alterations. I kind of preferred them without the buttercream, though. The earl grey flavour was delicate but really good and the buttercream sort of stole the show. But they were still yummy. Also, the recipe is in metric, which really throws me, but you can use this handy calculator for translating it into American measurements.

We also went to Old Songs Fest, but that deserves its own post; coming soon!

The Beginning

Almost a year ago, we decided it was time to leave. We being my husband John and I, Christiana. We had been living in Tampa for about two years and were sick and tired of it. Key West was out of the financial question and John never liked the heat of Florida any way. He only put up with it for my dear sake. But now we were married and settled and ready to move on. And on to where would we move? you may ask. Well, New Hampshire of course. John's home state. The state in which we were married (oh right, state of bliss, yes.) I never liked Tampa anyway, it was just cheaper to branch out on one's own than the Florida Keys were. And so we pulled out a map.
"Here, here or here." I said. It looked like a nice area. Close-ish to friends we knew. Close-ish to the seashore, close-ish to John's family. Several good churches were also in the area and a community college. We ended up deciding on Exeter. It's gorgeous. I love it.
It was spring. Almost. It was mid-April, really. The trees were still bare and the grass still yellow, but the air was growing warm (not to my tastes, but to others who had experienced a full fledged winter, it was) (to my Florida skin, it was positively freezing)
Then leaves popped out. And flowers really started to bloom. I was going to love this. And I hadn't even experienced a real full New Hampshire winter yet!
Now 'tis a year later. I had my winter and now the air is growing warm (for real this time) and snow is disappearing. I'm ready for spring with the mindset of one who has seen enough snow and cold for the next three seasons. Last year may have been my first year of experiencing seasons, one by one, spring, summer, the glory of fall and the sparkle of winter. But this year I'll truly be seeing them. Looking forward, knowing what they bring and the way they feel.
And oh BOY am I excited!