Happy New Year!

 

My, my, another year speeding by and we are well into winter! Despite winters here being about 8 months long, it seems to go by far too fast for me and there is never quite enough time to get everything done that I hope to do before the summer business returns. We accomplished one thing I've been needing to do for a while now, get a new photo showing some of the changes to life in Fy Nyth to replace the old one of just me and the tiny house in it's old clearing that has been the thumbnail shot everywhere you find Fy Nyth for many years now. With the house in a new home and two of us in it, that needed an update. Thanks to one of my younger brothers being willing to snap a whole lot of photos for us in the falling snow on New Years day, we ended up with one I really liked and was able to use an editor program to turn it into the above painting look which I think is perfect for that.

Otherwise, there has just been the day to day stuff, feeding, watering, and caring for all our creatures, breaking ice, cooking and other housework, shoveling and blowing snow, and trying to grab a few moments to sit and enjoy a cup of tea by the fire or snuggle with the dogs.

The winter started out colder than average with temps near or below zero F. for much of November and December at times down in the -20F area. Temps like that are not unusual for our winters, but they often don't start out quite so early in the season. That did come with many sparkling clear bluebird days with sunlight glittering off of millions of ice crystals. 

We got some snow, enough to help insulate the garden beds and bushes and trees in the ground, but not a lot. Then we got a massive wind storm. It did snow all day, but when it blew out again there was less snow than when the storm started. It had scoured many things bare. Took almost all the existing snow off the garden, left bare spots in the yard, and cleared whole fields and mountain slopes nearby. That was kind of sad as I am always happy to see the snow deepen around us.

While every other creature sensibly snuggled up for a nap inside in one form or another, the ducks insisted on sitting out in the wide open and having a nice nap themselves while the drifting snow nearly covered them. They do not seem to even notice bad weather.

We've had many beautiful views created by the mountains we are surrounded by and the snow, alpenglow, or rays of sunshine. I love the scenes we can see from our yard!

I discovered that if you cut a cabbage head through the middle rather than slicing the way I normally have, it makes a lovely star or snowflake like pattern! These mini purple cabbages were the largest one our garden produced this year after being nearly killed by the flea beetle plague. Aren't they pretty?

Experimenting with some canning projects was something I had on my to-do list for once the summer craziness was blanketed under the snow. This led to some home made cranberry juice among other things and not only is it brilliant to look at, we love the taste! 

We have continued to enjoy our bumper crop of garlic. We grew several varieties, but aren't these Chesnok Red cloves lovely? That is after they were peeled! The flesh on the inside is still white, but the outside has all that pretty purple/reddish color.

Hardy Icelandic chickens just keep doing their thing no matter the weather. 

The dogs love playing outside in the snow but also seem to enjoy naps in the house after they are tired.

As they grew and Zipper became about three times the size of Velcro (not that you can always tell by looking since she is so fluffy) I wondered if they would stay good friends or become rivals. But though they play games and chase and pounce on each other at times, they seem to really enjoy snuggling too. Sometimes they act like siblings (which they are not, she's about 4 months older than he is) and have little spats, but the vast majority of the time they share food, hunt together, snuggle together, etc. And I just think they are beautiful cats. We do not have any mouse issues around the place with them in charge!

I had a few chances to watch some wildlife including this lovely fox who was also busy rodent hunting in a nearby field. 

When you blow snow off the lane on a breezy day, it can leave you all snow encrusted like I was here! :) 

Once again the snow is falling softly outside as I type this and deepening once again which makes me happy. The snowpack is running just over average for the first time in three years so that should help the water table out through the coming year if that continues the rest of the winter.

From our house to yours, we hope you are all having a wonderful start to your year!