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Fire & Ice

pondI am my father’s daughter.  I know how to make a raging fire. I have spent years watching him build fires, in The Most Beautiful Fireplace in the World,  and strategically place wood in locations ready to add to the smoldering logs.

When it snows, I typically yearn to be at my parent’s house gearing up to go sledding or hunkering down to play games. This is the first snow that we’ve had at HBHQ and I’m feeling quite cozy and down-home happy.

We were left with a fairly large woodpile when we moved in and it is finallyBarry's Woodpile coming handy. I found myself bundled in a random combination of pjs and one of Barry’s extra large ski coats this morning strategically piling wood outside our door in order to ensure fewer trips to the woodpile.

I have countless childhood memories of making such trips in and out the door to fill the wood box with my family…. loading one another up and hoping that each load would be the last.

If The Most Beautiful Fireplace in the World was cozygetting used, my dad would take on the wood-getting and fire-building himself to make the a-fore-mentioned raging fire. The stones stay hot for days and it is best to lean up against them if you’ve just come in from the freezing weather.

Now, we don’t have stones that heat up and we certainly don’t have The Most Beautiful Fireplace in the World, but I am my father’s daughter and I have made a raging fire.

Excuse me, while  I go enjoy it.

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Cute as a Button

It seems like we get the Skagit Valley Itch every couple weeks and need to head North to see our family and friends that live up there. My parents got a new dog, Tagert, and it was necessary that Sydney gave her blessing before he became too much a part of the Camp Janet Crew. Luckily, she was able to give her seal of approval.

Midge and Mac ended up coming out and we took a walk around the property…WHAT BEAUTIFUL COLORS!!! I love my grandma Lowman for about a zillion different reasons, but one of the reasons that I love and adore her is that she dresses like me…or rather, I dress like her. We are both always FREEZING, so bundling is a MUST.

When I hop into her hot rod, she’s always got it toasty and she even shares the heat with me. When I ride with My Man, I have to keep his internal thermometer in mind. I usually can take the hint from him that it is too hot when he rolls down the window and starts peeling off clothes.

Anyhow, Midge and Mac came to visit and we trotted up, down &all around.  Eventually we ended up in the neighbor’s field to watch Barry demonstrate his baseball skills. I too tried to show that I’ve got an arm that can throw….I promptly threw the ball in the middle of the ‘no-throw-danger-grass’ zone. Of course, right?

I think Midge got warmed up laughing at the dogs sprinting and my dog thinking that she was part of the game. Who knew a pug could run so much?