Sunday, January 16, 2011

wintery weekend

It's been the kind of Sunday morning I enjoy most, waking up slowly, drinking coffee and reading and watching birds, making a breakfast of blueberry pancakes with locally processed maple syrup, and later playing some Irish tunes on flute. The birds have been very active this weekend--this morning I had two hairy woodpeckers, two downy woodpeckers, and one pileated! They're attacking the suet cake I have hanging from the birch tree in front of the house. Sorry no pictures--I can't find a pair of AA batteries for the regular camera, and my iPhone camera doesn't zoom.

The iPhone camera is nice for times like Friday afternoon when I took a few hours off work to go cross country skiing at a local state park. (Sorry for the blurriness; I emailed this to myself at low resolution). The trails were in great condition with two inches of fresh fluffy snow that was still falling. The trails were in better condition than me or my skis, which are in need of glide wax. Nevertheless I had a great time and enjoyed the scenery and the roar of the Kettle River rapids.

Apres ski, I went across the road to the school for Starflower's basketball game, then endured a slow crawl up I-35 fifteen miles in increasing snow for Calvin's game. Traffic was moving slowly, which was appropriate for tthe conditions, but I was getting nervous because my oil light was starting to flicker on. I made it to Willow River and purchased two quarts of oil. My Subaru is experiencing an oil leak that threatens to rival BP's. Appointment tomorrow at the dealership in Duluth; hopefully it's not a big thing.

The Willow River game is fun because Calvin played with these guys, including a best buddy of his, two years ago on a sixth grade traveling team. Funny, they all seem to have grown a foot in height! Here is Calvin shooting a free throw. His team ended up losing, although they fought long and hard.

It's the time of year when I start mulling over seed catalogs, planning my strategy for the growing season. Hopefully I'll get a chance to post about my plans soon.

4 comments:

webb said...

Ah, seed catalogs. I have already chosen dozens of kinds, but know I have to cut back to about half or give up the entire flower garden! So much fun to plan!

Jayne said...

And so we go into the dark weeks of winter now, knowing that spring will be but around the corner! :c)

Rabbi Gershom said...

I've been browsing seed catalogs, too. I always get "Siberia" tomato seeds from the Totally Tomatoes catalog, they are a Russian determinate variety that do well and are only 55 days to lucious tomatoes!

Visit my blog for some winter pix. (My name above goes there.)

Deb said...

Webb- I don't have time to do much with flowers, which is probably good because they would take up space that could be used for vegetables on my seed starting shelf!

Jayne- This is typically the coldest week of the winter in Minnesota; we are turning the corner!

Rabbi- I don't know if I've tried "Siberia" or not- I'll have to give it a try this year. I've learned to restrict my tomato varieties to less than 80 days, and still I'm usually not getting tomatoes until mid September.