Digging Out

Fran sludged through the snow and made it to work. Mary cleared off her deck and says the sun is shining.

As for me, I've stayed indoors and heard large chunks of snow and ice falling from the roofs.

Blackberries

I had a bowl of cereal tonight for dinner which became more appealing when I remembered I had bought these wonderful blackberries over the weekend. Each was like a little jewel, and looked as if it were the middle of the summer. The package said they were from Mexico, and I think for the first time, I thought about the person who picked these blackberries that I was enjoying so much. I was amazed at how gentle the picker and then the packer and shipper had to be to get these blackberries in such perfect shape to me.

In the meantime, it already looks as if snow is melting and that was made clearer with huge sheets of snow falling from the roofs and are really thunderous. Tonight we're supposed to have rain and then more snow in the early morning. I need more blackberries!

Snow-mageddon

Team Coverage: We're getting slammed in NYC.I keep thinking better I'm here than at O'Hare or driving. I've got groceries and work and I'm set.

 Mary says 9 inches in her front yard, and here's the proof.

 

and here's Mary's front yard earlier today:

 

 

and the back yard this morning:

 

 

Soup!

Love soup. In fact, my last meal could very easily be a big bowl of soup, crusty bread and some fragrant, soft cheese. I'd be willing to go out on that.

This is food porn to me -- it's labeled as Ecuadorian Corn Chowder and I started thinking about what is a chowder vs soup vs bisque. Of course there are hundreds of explanations, many contradictory, but it came down to a chowder is chunky and a bisque is smooth. A bisque is typically pureed shellfish or pureed vegetables. Some sources claim it's the cream that makes it a chowder as opposed to soup, but then the contradiction comes in about cream of x soup -- why isn't that chowder?

Anyway, enjoy your soup, your chowder, your bisque -- it's perfect weather for all of it.

Sign of Spring

Mary sent these yesterday --- we have no such signs of spring in NYC -- but at least here we didn't get any snow or even ice -- I don't know what this big storm did today. I see a cardinal about once or twice a year in my garden, and here are Mary's cardinals:

Unexpected Snow

With all the news of the Superbowl, today's snow storm took a back seat. I think we must have upwards of 6 inches as of 3 pm, and it hasn't stopped.

It's a big wet gloppy snow - here's a picture a colleage sent Mary from Philadelphia, and this is how it looks here:

Wow, not much to report

Just checking in so you know I'm still here. Nothing intriguing to write about; no complaints; no interest in Super Bowl. About to watch Downton Abbey.

After Downton Abbey, I've been watching this show, a reality show, about this place in Nova Scotia called The Money Pit where supposedly pirates buried treasure. People have been trying for decades to find this treasure. I read about it for the first time as a young girl in Reader's Digest and what's odd is that some of the treasure hunters had their first interest way back then as well. I think the article was in 1963 or so. I'd never forgotten that article. So now with all the electronics and detectors it's easier than the olden days to go treasure hunting and last week's show ended with them "finding" something but we might have been tricked with that cliff hanger.

You can read more about it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak_Island

Hope all is well with you.