A Touch of Snow

 

Monday the 17th, we woke up to THIS INCREDIBLE SNOW!! And I even got out to take pictures in it.

COVID19: Let's Talk about Shoes

We had snow yesterday. It was that beautiful kind of steady snow that covers the tree branches and makes the ground white but mostly melts and doesn't make the roads dangerous. I call it "friendly snow," because it isn't treacherous or threatening as long as you watch your step and don't take stupid chances where the ground might be slick.

That will probably be the only snow we get, because I also ordered winter boots yesterday. 

I went to Amazon to look for something entirely different, but before I was finished, I'd scored Cyber Monday deals on shoes for both Jack and myself as well as Christmas presents for Sis and Chris. My holiday shopping has been more on schedule than recent years, and it feels good to be mostly finished here at the beginning of December. 

The boots I've ordered are purple and lined with dark grey fake shearling. They were less than twenty dollars, and I'm more excited about them than I probably should be, but I haven't had winter boots since I was a kid. This is going to be a whole'nother ballgame when it's time to walk Josie or do laundry. 

My favorite winter shoes ever were these things called "hut scuffs," which were insulated clogs with soft, gummy soles for walking on icy porches and whatnot. They came with extra liners, and I wore those shoes until there were holes in the soles. Jack and I both had a pair which we bought on final clearance from either Campmor or Sierra Trading Post back in pre-Croc days before most men, especially rural Tennessee men, wore clogs. Jack was on board from the get-go, because he's all about comfort and function, and if nothing else, clogs are comfortable and functional. 

He's wearing clogs at this very minute.

My clopping-around-the-house shoes have, until very recently, been a pair of worn out Keen sandals with stepped-down backstraps, I didn't realize just how much they were hurting my feet until I stopped wearing them, which was Thanksgiving. When we were at the farm, I slid my feet from my shoes and started rubbing them pretty aggressively. Mom asked what was going on, and I told her how much my feet hurt on a regular basis and how I probably need to get some new shoes to wear around the house. I told her about how much I'd loved the hut scuffs and showed her my worn out Keens.

She told me that she'd just gotten new house shoes from Amazon and retrieved them from the house. They were plain blue scuffs with bright chartreuse lining and lightweight waterproof soles. They looked huge, so I slid my big dawgs into them. With room to spare, I told Mom the shoes are obviously too big for her and claimed them for my own. 

As soon as I got home, I logged ordered just like'em for her in size medium. They came in the mail today, and we dropped them off (along with a little bag of hand pies) at the farm on our way to pick up groceries.

2016: Snow #2

On the heels of our first snow of the year came the second, and by Middle Tennessee standards, it was a doozy.

Heavy rain moved in last Thursday night into Friday morning. Jack and I walked the dogs around 9 a.m., and just as we stepped off the porch, raindrops magically turned to snowflakes - BIG ones. By mid-morning Friday, our deck and moss beds were white, and the snow just kept coming.

Jack and I sat for a couple of ours, drinking coffee at the dining table, watching the snow fall in wads as big as cotton balls and as fluffy as goose down. It was spectacular and reminded us of all the "good snows" we used to get when we were kids.

At some point, someone on Facebook mentioned snow cream, so we put a big bowl outside and let it fill up throughout the day and overnight. By Saturday morning, we had plenty of snow for a nice batch. Jack stirred in some cold half-and-half and a touch of vanilla, and "voila!" - breakfast. And I'm not even kidding. With coffee and a couple of homemade crispy lemon shortbreads, it was the perfect way to start a snowy day.

Warmer temperatures on Sunday followed by rain on Monday melted and washed everything away, which is fine with us. Having a pretty snow is great; being snowbound for more than a couple of days isn't.

2016: First Snow

Guess what? It SNOWED today!! Not much, but enough to close schools and look pretty while it was falling this morning.

I even took a moment to step out onto the deck with my smartphone -

A lot has melted since then, but school is still called off for tomorrow. The forecast calls for more snow on Friday and Saturday, so think about stocking up on provisions before the stores run out of bread and milk!!