Winter Warmth

I started blogging again over Christmas and rediscovered how much I really enjoy sharing the little things that make me happy. I decided that I wanted to spend a little more time here, and today feels like a good day for it.

We have SNOW! I hate driving here when there's snow, but it makes everything pretty and so much brighter! For a former prairie girl, that's a big deal during sunless winters here.  Winter skies are always so pretty against the snow! I love walking out in the morning, or home in the evening, to see all of the muted winter colours.

We have frosty lace all over our sidwalk! It's not quite as beautiful as frosty lace on windows, but I still like it.

The roads are pretty scary here when it snows, but the trees are so pretty! Our snow is very wet, and it clings to the trees kind of like hoar frost.

I've been excited about January because spring comes so soon here - sometimes we have blossoms starting to wake up already! I finally saw a few this week, just in time for the poor things to be covered with snow. That's okay - they'll just come out to play a little later.

Warm food always feels so nice during cold weather, so I decided to make soup! I started with a bunch of vegetables from around the house: acorn squash, carrots, celery, leeks, and potatoes, and then added a couple of handfuls of pot barley for good measure.

I cooked them all up in turkey broth from our Christmas turkey, and added some bay leaves, sage, parsley, garlic, a bit of mustard powder, pepper, and salt.

And I ended up with nice, hot, economical lunches for the week! Yum!