As Winter Settles in

 After the hustle and bustle of the holidays, winter has settled in around us.

Currently we have a beautiful, heavy snow on the ground and I love looking out my windows and seeing that pristine, white snow that has blanketed everything.

Across the street from our home is a park with a lake and pavilion. I take Pepper down there every day to let her run and play frisbee.

As a Seeing Eye Dog, she came with two sets of boots for her feet. When she was in harness and guiding, they protected her feet from hot pavement in the summer and snow and ice in the winter.

Now she prefers to go barefoot, but I will put them on her when the temps dip below 10 degrees and we are outdoors.

As beautiful as the snow is, it makes it difficult to get out to the barn, even if the roads have been plowed.

The round bales (you can see them if you look just above Abby's withers) are stored out at the very western edge of Tim's property. There is a feeder next to them and the horses spend a lot of time in the field by it.

I dislike making Abby walk all the way up for a couple of peppermints. But by the same token, neither do I like walking out to her - losing weight has made me far more mobile, but my balance is not very good. Add in uneven ground covered with snow and ice, and it's more than I feel up to doing. 

I'm still getting the house put back together from our family Christmas - the tree is down, most of the decorations are back into their tubs, and I'm just about ready to go back to writing, sewing, and embroidering.

I've been invited to enter a couple of photo shows, but those are on hold for me until I finish putting away Christmas - I don't like to begin a project when another is still incomplete.

One that I can't postpone is that I volunteered to judge the china section for the January Great Lakes Congress photo show. I have until January 15 to judge and then submit the results to Chris Wallbruch, the show secretary. 

There is plenty to do around here, but as winter settles in, I sort of do, too, and don't get as much done as I normally would.

I'll give myself another day or two of relaxing and puttering, and then I'll resume my normal busy routine. (And I'll make myself a mug of hot chocolate and get busy on the GLC judging today.)