A Winter Walk

Amy and I have been walking on Tuesday and Thursday mornings with Dex whenever the weather is good enough to go outside. (Once she walked with me at the church when it was snowing, but was overwhelmed by the sociality--it was the Relief Society walking group. It must indeed be weird to have ladies you don't know at all ask you about your life--'Mom, what have you been telling them about me?' Nothing, really, I'm actually quite careful.)

The other day we walked to the cemetery above our house. From somewhere came a low soft whistling--finally we realized it was the man ahead of us--maybe the caretaker--who was calling the bunnies and feeding them rabbit food. This was all extremely interesting to Dex. Isn't he being very good? (in the photo above)


Another bunny below:

It's some view, and as pretty at night as in the daytime. Sunsets are awesome.

Here is our Edgemont neighborhood. You can't actually see our house--it's hidden behind the Lovelesses, the Nielsons, and then the Slagowskis, but I think you could see the west half of the garage if you zoomed in.
We live in a gorgeous valley. 'Course it's hard in the wintertime because the mountains trap the bad air from cars and industry during an inversion and we can't go outside to exercise, unless we drive to Sundance or Heber. We haven't had too many bad days so far this season--not nearly as many as Cache Valley to the north.

PS: Dex was naughty on the way home. The road down is through a little uninhabited, open, but protected valley, so she let him off leash to run. We were fine until we passed another darling little bunny warming in the sun under a leafless bush--and he was off like a shot. Since then he's been on leash.

The Parties Are Over

...but we sure had fun. We gave up the traditional marathon present-opening with 25 people in the tiny Christmas room, and had the families open their presents whenever they arrived Christmas day. It was much more relaxed and more room to maneuver.

Ethan liked his truck from Grandpa:

Colette shows off a new book:

The next party was at J.Lynn & Tana's for Grandma E's birthday:

We ate in the well-heated garage. The California Moungas were there, and most of the Gales. Jody took two and a half hours driving through horizontal snow to get from Provo to the Farm, and Damien hadn't made it back from Utah County due to an accident on the freeway. John and I made it home by driving behind a semi at 35 mph after the fog had blown away. I was thankful not to be driving from Houston to Utah and back this year, as we did for several Christmases in the past. Much better to drive 40 miles than 1400 (or however many it is).

End of October...

...my favorite time in the fall. With the cooler weather, everything keeps blooming, like the honeysuckle (above), and the leaves change and drop, with more color everywhere. John and Chris and I planted spring bulbs in the swing garden (below)--red tulips and yellow daffodils.

John finished the grape juice, and now the grape leaves turn yellow.

(Another gratuitous photo of the water garden, because I love it so much).

Then one day we wake up and snow is on the mountains like a visitation from God:

and all our places are transformed.



But don't worry. It melts off by afternoon, and we're back to autumn again:

Claudio lives outside full-time now. John is working on a cathouse for him. He has a heating pad to sleep on.

I made Blood and Bones for Halloween (tomato soup with bread sticks),

and John ate his when we went to SLC to trick or treat with the babes. He was not supposed to put goldfish in the blood though--ruins the effect.

Nicolle made Johnathan an incredible matador outfit.

Here we are--Colette as a flamenco dancer, Nicolle as a gypsy, and me as my natural self.

John was a miner (not the Chilean kind), and the horse-head guy (by Rob) is sort of a cross between a unicorn and The Godfather?

Rob welcomes trick or treaters at his house:

and we're off to gather the loot. Johnathan let me know that the witch below was not real.

We had fun visiting Colette's kindergarten teacher, Miss Tammy, just around the corner.

Ethan was sick with an ear infection, so they didn't go out. We went to visit instead.


When we got back home, several sleepy looking teenagers were watching "The Man Who Knew Too Much" on our VCR (our DVD player seems to have bitten the dust).

Then Sunday afternoon, John and I drove down to The Farm to see Damien and Kelli's new baby Liam.

As a bonus, Tena was there! She didn't tell anyone she was coming, but drove up from California Saturday and rang the doorbell trick or treating. Grandma twice now!


For your viewing pleasure, a Bullfight:

Snow Day

Chris and I had drinks on the deck just a day or two ago--but we're not up for a picnic now.


The pruning is postponed in the garden.


Hero objects to the snow.


Indoors with windows--the best of both worlds.

There was no power this morning at THS, so we had an explosion of teenagers at our house at 7:45 a.m. But they were open for the second class of the day (thank goodness, as I have work to do at home). (That's why I'm blogging, of course).

Oooh, Pretty!

Our house, the Slagowski's tree, our street, the garden. Happy late January!

Winter in Zion Canyon

On the way back from Las Vegas we stopped overnight at Springdale, and visited Zion National Park. Weeping Rock (above) looks very different in the winter. The deer seemed not to worry about us tourists.
Chris, Niels, and John at the bottom of the Narrows.
The vertical hikes were inches deep in packed ice, and we weren't dressed for winter walking. We drove through the tunnels on the way out. I remember parking at the big bay windows and looking out on the canyon from the side of the cliff when I was a little girl.

October Roses

Sergene says the TV weather predicts snow tomorrow. So enjoy the roses which will never be full-blown.