Sunday, January 27, 2008

The Winter Blues

Karen's cure for the unusually cold California weather is a nice toasty fire.


Pet's cure for the winter blues is a beach in Progresso Mexico.

Karen

Well the holidays are over and all I have to show for it is a messy house. Lol My Christmas decorating extravaganza was in full swing way past the holidays so I'm just now getting around to taking down my mammoth tree and the over three hundred ornaments. Why is it so much fun to put them up and such utter torture to take them down and safely put them away? Guess there's a down side to everything. : ) And once it's all down my house just feels so bare. Like it's taken off it's fancy party dress and put on a sweats. Lol

Pet

I miss the pretty lights this time of year when we still have more dark than light even though the days are getting longer now. Winter is kind of fun on cold, clear, sunny days. But on those dreary sleety days, we Easterners need cheering up. DH does his part by creating fabulous soups. We finished French Onion soup for lunch and he's whipped up seafood chowder for supper. While wholesome, hearty foods are not near as fattening as Holiday fare, how about working off the calories by hitting the fabulous winter sales at the warm and toasty malls?

Karen

This year I was all shopped out. Well, except for a 70 percent off sale that I just couldn't miss. : ) Now I have enough sweaters for everyday for two weeks! I agree with you about the weather and food. Even though I'm in sunny Southern California we do get cold nights. Gets all the way down to 40 so I put on a sweater and get out the down parka. I know, don't laugh. I love making stews and homemade soup this time of year. Makes the house smell so um um good. And it's actually cold enough that I feel guilty living in a Victorian if I don't fire up one or two of my four fireplaces. Usually they are just a place to put all my fantastic dust collecting eBay finds. : )

Pet

We only have one fireplace but being see through, two rooms get heated. Nothing is as cheery as a blazing fire on a cold night. However, just back from a short cruise through the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, we're already picking out a warm destination for February. Getaway to the south is the best cure for the winter blues. Folks here in Tennessee complain about the lack of snow. Protests about no snow go along with never having experienced a season long white out. When you lived in upstate New York, did you ever visit the Tug Hill Plateau where the snow is constant all winter long? Driving through that area is like going through a long white tunnel.

Karen

No. Haven't been there but I agree with you that people who long for snow don't know what they are wishing for. Have been in horrible winters in New York and Colorado. I always tell people here that their romantic version of snow isn't anything like the day to day reality. In upstate New York we had snow drifts way past our second story windows. Nothing like being totally trapped by snow. Couldn't get out for four days. After that long cooped up my brother and I couldn't wait to get back to school. Lol And in Colorado there were a few winters so cold animals froze. Nothing like walking to school and seeing an icicle cat. : ( Have to say I sure don't miss those kind of winters here in sunny California. 40 degree nights. Bring it on. : )

Pet

Frozen animals, yikes! Our animals here seem quite at ease with the single digits we've had today. Herman (almost 15 year old, one-eyed King Charles Spaniel) loves the cold. The Holstein cows seem quite content lolling in the sunshine, even though the Southern sun didn't warm anything today. The cows lined up for hours waiting to go in for their afternoon milking. That's when they get their yummy grain so they weren't happy about the delay. We pictured a disaster in the milking parlor such as frozen lines. They did manage to finally get inside for the milking before we ended up with instant ice cream instead of creamy milk.

Karen

LOL. Weather always seems to keep us guessing. One thing man will never control. Guess that's why some people become super organization obsessed. We have a container store here that takes up almost an entire city block! Walking in the store the selection is so overwhelming I loose all enthusiasm and go back to my piles of unorganized crap. : ) I have a friend who is an avid labeler. You open a kitchen cupboard and everything is in the appropriate sized container with labels listing all the contents. She lives in Upstate N Y so it's really obvious what she does when she's snowed in. Lol

Pet

Wish everyone here in ET had stayed inside today. We had icy patches on the roads and the whole area looked like a demolition derby. Cars slipping and sliding everywhere, mostly fender benders but unfortunately we did have a fatality in our county when a driver slid head on I remember once going up the mountain outside of LA to see the big observatory, and near the top, a light snow fell. The crazy Angelinos all wrecked on the side of the road and then attempted to dig out. Only problem was all wore shorts and sandals. Guess you simply don't believe in bad weather in Sunny California.

Karen

You must still be in your I-just-got-back-from-a-Mexican-cruise glow. Lot easier to take the cold after you've been basking in the tropical sun. I'm not a big cruise person. But maybe that's because the only two I've been on were with my hubby's crazy family. It's hard to enjoy tropical paradise when you have the parent's in-law who act like they are the cruise director. But they will proudly tell you they've been on 200 cruises so they know what they are doing. I'm convinced they need to go to Hooked on Cruises Anonymous. The last cruise we went on with them was 14 days long. We were on one of the biggest cruise ships ever built and somehow it still didn't seem big enough. : )

Pet

Yeah, I know what you mean. When we went on a long cruise we really didn't like the folks they sat us with for dinner. So we spent most of the time eating upstairs at the 24-hour buffet. We could have changed to another table, but we really like dining while wearing shorts. Food tastes better without worrying about spilling on dress up clothes. I don't know about taking the cold better after a few 80 plus days. Seemed colder than ever when we got back to the boonies. For our morning walk today, I wore two pairs of pants leggings under velour. We were the only ones in the park where they have a great bonus for walkers a heated rest room. Great place to stop whether you have to go or not. : )

Karen

Lol Well have to say I don't have that luxury where I walk. It's a big old park and the bathrooms are made of stone. Very cute and quaint but this time of year even though the lowest it gets during the day is maybe 59 it feels like that last thing you want to do is pull your pants down. Lol One thing about the weather cooling down, I get my two-mile walk done in record time. We just had a big storm come through with some much needed rain. The local mountains and foothills are covered with snow. They look so beautiful. Only happens a couple times during the winter. But as I gaze out my second story window to admire the dusted white capes I have to admit I'm glad that the snow is off in the distance and not piled high in my front yard. : )

Pet

Whoops you hit a sore spot with us living in ET. I'm talking about that word rain. The weather channel just had a drought tracker map on and our mountains have worst drought than your desert. TVA is talking about shutting down the nuclear plants since the water they need to run is getting scarcer. The result would be huge utility bills. So we'd even take a couple of feet of snow to make up for the lack of rain. But enough about snow. My spring bulbs are popping up despite a few single digit mornings, so my favorite time of year is not far behind! Meantime I think I'll hibernate!



3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes-- snow is beautiful until you have to shovel it!

Ruth said...

Ladies, I've tagged both of you to participate in telling a little trivia about yourselves. See the rules on my blog.

Anonymous said...
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