View from our deck this morning

A surprise return to winter for a day brings the rime ice to the other side of our valley.

Another day hard at work -

Our photos today will show the moments of relaxation, not the work. While Niki was writing a paper for school, Cheryl and Joyce were putting all the pieces of the quilt together (see Cheryl's quilting blog for an update), and her Dad continued to work on a jigsaw puzzle we've been putting together during breaks - even though at times the difference between the quilt and the puzzle seemed very slim.


(Well, Norris has not done any work on the puzzle: he wouldn't find it relaxing.)

We all had dinner at Luella's Barbecue - here are Joyce and Niki laughing about having their picture taken. We had a great dinner with flavors they don't find much in their part of the country.

Sustenance for the quilters

Cheryl's Dad is not a quilter, but he is good at helping keep the quilters hard at work -

Here he is shown preparing Chex Mix. Check out progress on Joyce's quilt on Cheryl's quilting blog at this link.

A new dancer in Asheville

Cheryl's Dad, sister Joyce and niece Niki arrived at our house early this afternoon in plenty of time for some evening ballet classes

No, Lu is not the dancer.... Joyce's quilt we are going to work on this week came out of the bag, and guess who showed up and promptly made himself comfortable. It seems to be a rule in Cat-dom - a quilt comes out, at any stage of preparation, and a cat has to be on it.

So back to the title of the post, the dancer is Niki! In the photo below, she's the one wearing pink tights who is closest to the left.


(if you click on the photo you can almost see her face in the mirror.

Our camera batteries were running low, so it was difficult to get photos. Niki allowed that this next one was not TOO bad - it's from the second class, which was Pas de Deux (partnering). Here the dancers are warming up on their pointe shoes.


The class had three men who, Niki noted with appreciation, were considerably stronger than the young guys she has to partner with at her high school. We thought Niki made them look pretty good.

First Sign of Spring

The warm temperatures in the 60s and low 70s this week have brought out some early signs of spring. The most noticeable showing around the house is our Witch Hazel, which has gone into full flower this week.

Hopefully the groundhog was right and winter is really over.

Valentine's Weekend

Norris and Cheryl went to brunch and then had a nice walk outside. But we have no pictures of that so we'll post a couple of different ones!

As we were putting on lightweight jackets to head outdoors, Moki barred the door. She didn't want us to go perhaps?


That paw crossed over the other one is a typical pose for Moki. It just seems to be comfortable for her.

And Norris' hurt paw is not completely healed up from his surgery just after Thanksgiving, but he's finally preparing for a banjo lesson again!

When trees fall in the forest....

... and the forest is your own backyard, you definitely hear them. Cheryl and the cats heard a few loud cracks in the wind and rain storm we had last night while the rest of the country was getting snowed in. Away on a business trip, Norris missed all the excitement.

This one fell right across the steps leading to the logging road from our back door -


(love that shaft of morning sunlight left of the stairs, trying to reach the house)


It appears the tree was very weak right at the base - it was growing perhaps 6-8 feet from the steps. We probably accidentally murdered this tree when we had the path cut. (the steps are just to the right in this next photo.)



It's not clear what became of the top of the tree - the trunk has a broken off point and there may be two branches on the ground nearby. This is afternoon sun from the opposite side of the cove - what became of the tree's branches was on Cheryl's mind all day.



Maybe the rest of them are still stuck up there somewhere?