WAS THE GROUNDHOG RIGHT?

Can we still have many more weeks of this to "look forward to?"  Yesterday it appeared that Mother Nature had decided to give us a recap of all possible manifestations of precipitation that winter has to offer. The morning dawned overcast.  Rain quickly developed, so I slip-slided my way down Blackhawk Street as I drove in from my first visit of the day to the country cats.  The rain on top of the ice-covered roads made navigating interesting, to say the least.  Then I sat in the house and listened to the staccato splatter and plop rhythm of freezing rain against the roof and windows.  I shuddered as I watched the sidewalk and driveway from which I had spent a sweaty hour chipping ice the day before picking up a fresh 1/2 inch layer of new ice.  The temperature rose making it just slushy enough to push the ice off the pavement late in teh afternoon.  Bless Randy for investing in a heavy duty push shovel this winter.  The usual cheap ones we buy that crumple like tin foil when they encounter a patch of ice would have bit the dust long ago this winter.  Then the snow began to fall - huge, wet clumps that made the evening drive out to the country solitary (I was the only crazy person on the road) and probably stupid.  Then in the night the promised wind picked up, freezing everything solid.  It's now 6 a.m., and I'm going to load the week's garbage bags into the bed of the pick-up and drive it to the end of the driveway to drop them off - it's too icy to walk on.  Randy called yesterday from Jerusalem to tell me he was wearing shorts and they had walked on the sandy beach of the Mediterranean Sea earlier that afternoon.  Bless his heart.

LUCKY

Last year at this time Lucky was a kitten being nurtured indoors due to the cold winter.  Since several months pass in between the times I take care of these cats, I am always amazed at how much he continues to grow.  He has grown into a very large and affectionate cat with rabbit-soft fur. Lucky and Phyllis, an equally soft little brindle-colored sweety, are always the first to greet me when I turn up at the farm.  They also beat me to the door, standing against it with their paws reaching for the door knob in hopes of dashing in to polish off the gourmet cat food that Sadie, the inside kitty, has left untouched.  On this sunny morning Lucky followed me down the road and hammed it up for the camera.  He seemed to know how beautiful he looked in contrast to the brilliant white of the snow.

SENTRY DUTY

When I arrived at the farm to feed the cats on Saturday morning, the tree shown in the photo above was covered with ice crystals and dancing with sparkles in the shifting light.  It was also bedecked with cats!  Lucky, the big jet black adolescent male and Tiger, his litter mate, and the yellow refugee from across the road were serving self-appointed sentry duty.  When they saw that the "food lady" had arrived, they quickly abandoned their post in their effort to beat me to the door.  After driving home to retrieve my camera and returning to take pictures, the tree was playing host to a flock of little birds.  On closer inspection I observed that the feather-shaped ice crystals lining each limb were also standing "at attention" in the direction of the winter morning sun.

ICY FEATHER BOAS

On Saturday I drove out to feed my feline "charges" in the country.  The sun was just burning through the freezing fog that lit the winter weary landscape with sparkling fairy trees encased with crystals that glinted in the early morning sun.  As I climbed the steps to the farmhouse deck, with a sinuous mass of hungry multi-hued cats weaving around my legs, I noticed that the deck railings were wrapped in crystal feather boas.  Inch long crystals in the shape of perfectly symmetrical feathers grew towards the sun - exquisite in their fragile ephemeral beauty.  After feeding the cats I drove back into town and returned with my camera in hopes of capturing a few images before they vanished in the warming sun.

SERENDIPITY - IT'S A GOD THING

I went to my shop a couple days ago to pick something up and found a brown box on my desk with a UPS label on it.  On closer examination I saw that it was from Spellbinders.  Odd, I thought.  I haven't ordered anything from them for ages.  I cut the box open and found it filled with about four packages of new, highly sought after, Wizard dies.  As I puzzled over this, a slip of paper fell out from between two of the die packages.  It was an invoice to Carol in Texas.  They had taken her order, charged it to her credit card and shipped it to me in Iowa.  Go figure.  

Of course, no one was at Spellbinders when I called them, as they were no doubt all at the big trade show.  So, I called Carol, whose phone number was on the invoice, to let her know that I had received the order she was waiting for.  "Oh," she sighed, "I was hoping that would arrive today, as it is a birthday present for a friend whose birthday is this weekend."  She was glad to know where it had strayed off to (Arizona to Iowa, instead of Arizona to Texas).  

Then we got to talking.  It turns out she closed a store three years ago, so we commiserated about how hard it is to figure out how to liquidate the inventory and how painful it is to lose touch with customers who have come to be close friends.  One thought led to another and we discovered that we both lost parents when they were only in their early 70's, we both had our youngest children at about the same age, both viewed our work as ministry more than anything else.  I shared that my husband was on his way to Israel for two weeks and I was concerned about the "heightened alert" status.  She asked for his name and promised to add him to her prayer list.  Before we knew it, we had talked for over an hour and were reluctant to sever the connection, so we exchanged email addresses and the promise to continue the "conversation." 

I was going about my normal business, a little lonely and distracted, and God used the shipping department at Spellbinders to orchestrate an unexpected and unsought blessing in this "chance" encounter with a stranger, who turned out to be, in fact, a kindred spirit.  Thank you, Lord, for this breath of kindness on my day.

DON'T YOU WISH YOU LIVED IN IOWA?

These photos were taken during our latest snowstorm.  I think it may have been the third time Randy shoveled that day.   Annie was having fun racing back and forth between Randy and me. She must be part husky, because snow brings out the puppy in her!  Let's just say that by the end of this winter, Alyssa, our sixteen-year-old, will be an expert snow driver.  When she took the driving test to get her license in November, there was slush on the roads.  The ground has been covered with snow ever since.  In one early-morning, heart-stopping moment, she did her first 360° in the truck on the highway on the way to school.  She didn't go in the ditch and she didn't hit anyone, but she did pull over to the side momentarily until her hands stopped shaking.  Now she knows how it feels, and is certainly a better driver as a result. 

MY CUP OVERFLOWS!

Good things, indeed!  Today the sun shone brightly in the winter blue sky casting a sea of sparkles on the pristine surface of the snow that has blanketed our yard for months.  Ice-encrusted bushes hold a beauty all their own, but ice-encrusted bushes with sun shining through the ice are dazzling!  

Even our radiator-perch loving animals wanted to go out and play in the snow - over and over and over again.  Annie, our 16-year-old dog, and her rambunctious side-kick, Rusty, the adolescent cat, are amusing to watch as Annie creaks her way clumsily down the steps while Rusty prances behind her rubbing against her and weaving back and forth under her belly as she walks.  I don't know what they do once they are out there, but they always come back with faces covered with snow and a dusting of snow on their backs.  

A few days ago, when the weather was much less hospitable, I drove up my driveway and Rusty was sitting at attention in the center of three windows in the living room (to the left of the porch).  Moses was sitting on his radiator perch in front of the center of three windows in Ian's room (to the right of the porch).  Annie was standing inside the front storm door, our loyal greeter.  The cats looked like "bookends" to Annie.  I wished I had my camera, but by the time I got out of the car and in the door, all three were standing there for me to trip over as I tried to get inside.  Our homecomings never lack a welcoming committee! 

This afternoon it was hard to believe, when standing on the front porch looking out on all that sunlit snow and feeling the warmth of it, that we are in for an ice storm followed by more snow and blizzard conditions tomorrow.  Perhaps that caused me to savor today's beauty more intentionally.  

My husband, Randy, is on his way to Israel one step ahead of the storm, and Alyssa is hoping we will get enough snow so school will be canceled on Monday.  I am trying to get my new camera battery charged so I will be poised and ready to capture some postcard-worthy images.  Thanks to my good friend, Rachael, who came by today and gave me some "getting started" encouragement regarding my camera, and showed me how to actually add things to this blog.  You're one in a million, Rachael!