Stuck Inside

 When Mother Nature isn't in sync with my preferences, I have to pivot.

In the last week, we went from subtle-but-unmistakable Signs of Spring to Winter on Reboot.  Alas.

Fortunately, there is always Art.  Art doesn't depend on the weather (like hiking) or seasons (like gardening) or holidays (like Turkey Day, Santa celebrations and Cupid extravaganza). Art can be anything, anytime.  

Christmas in a July heatwave. Tulips as leaves fall in October.   Ripe apples instead of February snowstorms.

My day could include loose sketching practice and watercolor giraffe caricatures,

 

followed by floral compositions as well as canine portraits, 

with thoughts on impressionistic landscapes and loose family portraits.

 Why not?!

Art is my creative playtime.  I'm not expecting masterpieces--heck, I'm not even expecting an occasional keeper.  I'm refining new skills, experimenting with new media, learning from new teachers.  

Sometimes failing.

 

Sometimes being surprised by the results.
 

Art is my ultimate coping mechanism when Mother Nature is on her own inscrutable timetable.

That and making lists of all the innumerable tasks any gardener faces as a new growing year approaches.   Ah, but that's a subject for a future post...

(I'm offering my very amateur doodlings in the spirit of real life with no filters. It's me, at this moment in time, knowing that I can only get better.  No living subjects were harmed in the creation of these drawings.)

No Risk, No Gain

Living on the outskirts of town is a blessing that I never get tired of.  

There are plenty of paths, but my favorites are little trails and open stretches. We might flounder in the snow and suddenly find ourselves knee deep in a snowdrift but that's part of what makes it fun.

Sights like this never get old though.  Changes through the seasons are welcome.  Some things are new, some are expectantly anticipated.

Goats will be goats.  Yes, they do nibble on anything. Even wooden lightning bolts.  Just in case it might be edible.  You never know. Risk not, gain not.

My first love has always been lambie pies.  But if I had the opportunity now, I'd choose goats.  Color me a farm girl at heart!

Ways to Make the Time Change Easier

 It's never gonna get easier to wake up an hour earlier, but there are ways to help yourself adjust more quickly.  Even so, a little grumbling is okay. 

Side note:  I just love having the morning sunshine in my living room again!

My number one key to resetting my internal clock is to change my eating habits to reflect the new time displayed on my clocks.  Not so much my breakfast or lunch, but definitely dinner.  It feels a little strange to eat an hour earlier at first, but give me three days and I no longer notice the difference.  I am ruled by my stomach.  Totally.

If you aren't the type to jump into the cold pool and would rather inch in gradually, you can anticipate the time switch by Springing Ahead by fifteen minutes a day.  So this Thursday,  I'll be trying to eat and sleep fifteen minutes earlier.  Friday, thirty minutes earlier.  Saturday, forty-five minutes. So a fifteen minute change on Sunday won't feel so monumental.  Can't hurt, right?!

The last thing I recommend is to climb into bed whether you feel like it or not.  If you aren't tired enough, then do sometime soothing that will make you sleepy.  Read a boring book.  Take a warm bath before putting on your jammies.  Listen to soothing music.  No smartphones, tablets or laptops.  This is the only time I feel like I have to be disciplined about my activity, because changing my bedtime to an earlier hour is hard for me.  It's helpful going to bed at the usual "time" regardless of what my head is telling me.  

One way or another, we'll all soon be waking, eating and sleeping on our new schedule without a second thought. 

I Might Be The Only One

 I enjoy Springing Ahead and Falling Backwards.  

I don't at all mind "losing" an hour of sleep so that my clock time matches the sunshine that has started to flood our east-facing bedroom.  If I'm gonna be awake anyway, I'm much happier to hit the ground running at seven instead of six in the morning.  

Getting up in the cool of a summer day that has the potential to go triple digits is another reason I'm thrilled with daylight savings time.

It may have been a few years (okay, decades) since I had little ones who, like chickens, woke with the sunrise.  I liked my kids a whole lot better when my clock radio said it was only six-fifteen instead of a dreadful five-fifteen.

I don't think I'm losing anything.  Especially since I know I'll regain that hour of sleep next Fall when the days are getting way too short.

With snow falling and accumulating on an almost daily basis--still!--I'm also ready for any hope of Spring.

Signs of Spring

Even if there is snow and it's not exactly warm, there's hope.

 It's March.   It's sunny.  I hear a time change is fast approaching.  And the first official day of Spring isn't far off!  Whoo-hoo!

A few leaves have bravely made their appearance.  Mini-daffodils are so reliable.  Buy a pot for color in the deep of winter, shove them in the soil later that spring, and enjoy them every year after.  No thought or care required.

This regular old daffodil is pushing through the snow too.

It occurred to me that this is a three-season photo: old leaves from autumn, snow from winter and the "can Spring be far off" leaves. 

It's not springtime without flowering bulbs and it's always a toss-up whether the crocus, mini-iris or mini daffs will blossom first.  

Except this year, the violets beat them all. Presenting the first flowers of 2023!

Another four inches of snow is predicted in our extended forecast.  More water for my garden.  But still, sigh...

A Silver State of Mind

 I do live in the Silver State actually.  But this isn't about that.

I'm in the market to update my style so I was laying out necklaces, trying to decide what length I liked and what style.  Before I knew it, I was possessed by a wild hare, grabbed those tarnished strands and ran downstairs to restore them to their silvery white sparkle.

Soon I was playing around with various methods of cleaning tarnished silver like a kid who needed a science fair project.  

I used baking soda, vinegar, salt and boiling water in an aluminum pie tin first.  Which worked. Then I grabbed my almost empty jar of Wright's Silver Creme.  That worked too.  Both required some scrubbing/polishing to fully shine the various bits I'd gathered though.

 Sparkly fresh and lovely silver now resides at our cottage.  Even it it is just plate, it's still pretty.

Chemistry was my least favorite class in high school.  I just never "got" it. But just like that science fair kid, I had to know why such a simple group of kitchen essentials worked so well.

I bravely googled "silver baking soda aluminum equation" though.  I do know about oxidation and reduction processes from years of firing pottery, so it made sense after a bit of reading.  I'm now smarter than I was when I woke up this morning.

I also now have a new way of cleaning my silverware--because I do use silverware because I like it so much more than stainless--that will be less tedious than polishing them individually.

My necklaces look lovely and fresh.  I decided I really like the twenty inch length.  

Coincidentally, I can report that metal around my neck gets REALLY cold when you are shoveling snow in a denim jacket instead of a winter coat!

Our sunny weather is causing the icicles come crashing off the roof onto the snow below.  In other random news, an icicle is hanging from a branch of the sugar maple.  I can't think of anytime I've never seen an icicle on a tree (other than our blown glass icicles on our Christmas tree). I can only speculate that a bit of snow on the branch gradually melted and the temps were just cold enough to refreeze it. Who knows?!

Hang in there.  Spring is almost almost almost here!

March Goal, a Month of Posts

Posting each day?? A lofty goal since I've let my blog posts dry up for longer than I even want to know!

Today's word is "tenebrous".  Pretty much the way our skies have looked for the past couple of days as the storms rolled in.  Not today though!

 

Today's March came in with glorious sunshine and relatively warm temperatures considering that the tail end of February brought lavish amounts of snowfall to the Sierra Nevada.  So, I think I'm crediting March with a Lamb entrance even though there's snow piled up everywhere and icicles have made a drippy-droppy appearance.

Tonight the western sky is treating us to the sight of Venus and Jupiter "kissing".  It's a lovely way to end the day.