The blizzard o' '17

If you are at all in tune with the national news, you may have seen a report of a "huge killer blizzard sweeping across the Northeast" in the last few days.  Well I just so happen to live around that dear lovely part of good old America and amply partook of Winter's vengeful wrath!

Nah, it wasn't all that bad ;)  It was still coming down quite wet and heavy at the time of this photo, but I don't think we got much more than 16" total.  Definitely manageable, I've seen a whole lot more come down a whole lot faster!

 

 And I don't mind the snow too much, which is more than I can say for these poor little girls!  Chickens are generally pretty cold hardy, but the entire time I was out clearing around the coop, I could hear a powerful lot of complaining going on!  Oh well, it is only their first winter, maybe they'll learn to just deal with it.  Oh not... ;)

 Yeah, you saw right, that's a vanilla car freshener. Believe it or not, they're great for keeping away flies in summer! And I was just too lazy to take them inside.

I still can't really see what they have to complain about, though, inside the coop it was a nice toasty 36 degrees!  I mean, who would complain about that?

 The girls were being a bit chicken cowardly about getting their feet wet, however.  Louisa and Elsbeth were taking turns sticking their heads out the guillotine like, "Is it still there? Eww! It's still there!"

 Despite their apparent disapprobation for the unusual weather conditions, they did give me 11 eggs, so I suppose I shouldn't complain!

Did any of you get snow the last few days?  Did your pets/livestock have an opinion of the weather?

~Emma

Ramblings of Mischief and Preferences

I know I've been away for a bit and I've been thinking of all sorts of wonderful posts while I was gone that will come soon, but right now, I just feel like giving you a life update!  Not sure why, but answering a bunch of made-up questions sounded like fun to me tonight.  I hope you don't mind!

(Isn't this sweet? I wonder what they could be saying...)

My current mood:

Contented.  I'm not feeling happy or unhappy, really, just a comfortable, contented sort of gratitude for life.

What I'm thinking about:

Lot's of things are going through my busy mind right now, but my favorite recurring thought is that in just a few months I will be an auntie!  

Projects I'm working on:

(Or rather, "Projects on which I am working" ;)

Regardless, my biggest project this/last month was organizing a baby shower for my sister, but that's more or less under control now.  My next project will be all of the girly, ruffly little trifles I get to make for my impending niece!

(I mean, c'mon, aren't these two just undeniably cute?)

Things I've been watching lately:

Oh, that dreadfully wonderful BBC!!!  Isn't it just the greatest most terrible thing, my dears?  Ugh.  But I love it!  

I've recently finished watching Dickens' "Little Dorrit".  To those of you who've seen it, isn't it awesome?!?  I know it was long (14 episooooodes!) but it was great!  A tad dark at times, I had no idea how dark Charles Dickens could be, yikes!  Still one of my new favorites, though!

To whoever made this, this is gorgeous

And just this weekend I watched the 2004 BBC version of Elizabeth Gaskell's "North and South".   I thought it was lovley!  Granted, not the "cute" romance like Little Dorrit, but the story was pretty intense at times, which I thought was quite well done, even though I'm still not over the shock that Richard Armitage is Thorin Oakenshield.

Books I've been reading (or pretending to):

Ooh, ooh!  That one! ^ ^ ^  It is so good!  I thought Saint Catherine was a pretty interesting saint when I began this book (part of the reason for my picking it up), but it is turning out to be an even better read than I expected!  I'm a third of the way through and I can say right now I'd already recommend it.

I'm also reading "The Fellowship of the Ring" to Matthew, and "Flee to the Fields: The faith and works of the Catholic land movement", compiled by nine different men whom I don't have the patience to name.  The preface is written by Hilaire Belloc, if that rings a bell!

What I'm writing:

A short story I thought up, not sure where it'll go, but we'll see.

Listening to:

At this precise moment I have Pandora set to my "Humble and Kind" station playing "Middle Of A Memory" by Cole Swindell.  It's kind of sad, but not too sad to skip ;)

My current favorites to sing that are subject to change periodically weekly,  include:

"Leaving On A Jet Plane" John Denver

"30,000 Feet" Ben Rector

"Better Place" Rachel Platten

"Already Home" A Great Big World

And those are this week's "happy-songs" :)

And finally, my favorite things right now:

TEA! Raspberry, honey-peach, sugar cookie, all warm and wintry and lovely!  Dreary days.  Chicken keeping.  Singing!!!  Snow flurries.  My Favorite Person. The smell of wood smoke.  Chartreuse, coral, and turquoise.

And that concludes my ramble for the evening, I hope you made it to this point!  But if you did, let me know how you liked the style of this post. I found it quite relaxing and I'd be interested in your opinion :)

Always,

~Emma