nothing terribly noteworthy

I don't have anything terribly noteworthy to report these days, hence, the lack of posts and pictures.

The weather has been quite cold (7 below the other morning!) and not snowy. The result is not conducive to getting out. Poor Tiika is getting a little bit stir crazy. I'll be taking her out to play ball here in a little bit so it ought to relieve her of some of her pent up energy.

We have been cleaning like crazy the last two weekends. My Mom is coming out this weekend for a visit so we want our place looking as good as it can. We really ought to do this more often for ourselves, too. If there's not a guest looming on the horizon though, it just doesn't happen.

Well, like I said at the beginning, not much to talk about right now so that'll be all for now. Just wanted y'all to know we are still alive out here. Ciao.

Montana High Tea

What you see is what we have decided to call Montana High Tea. Salami, olives, special cheese and dry roasted almonds. Yum! (As you can see, we're not the only ones to enjoy the spread. Tiika's drooling in anticipation, salami being a personal favorite. If we choose to share, of course.)

Yesterday I dug out the tea pot that's been hiding in a cupboard so we could enjoy a pot of tea together. I think it's going to become a new weekend ritual for us, tea in the afternoon.

[Oh, Rob wanted me to post a reminder that anytime a picture seems too small or you're missing a detail you'd like to see better, just click on the picture. It will open up in a larger size for your viewing pleasure. When you're done with the inspection, simply click the Back arrow in your browser to return to the blog.]

bird tree

Whew! The holidays are finally over...we created our last event celebrating ChriSolstiNew Year yesterday afternoon with a snowshoe into the woods.

It used to be the tradition in this household when going out to find a Christmas tree, to decorate a tree for the birds. We weren't prepared to do it on that day and decided to pick another day to so instead. That day turned out to be Sunday.

Rob purchased a suet brick, a nut block and a seed bell and I popped some popcorn to string. Sunday morning we spent time stringing said popcorn with only some mild cursing from me while I got the hang of it. (I hear Gretchen used to be a pro at this particular task...)

Once we felt like we'd strung enough, we packed up the truck with our shoes, the feeding supplies and the tree. Tree? I forgot to mention that the other reason for heading out into the woods was to return our tree to it's home in the forest. (It's the one standing next to Tiika in the picture above.)

You can't really see the goodies from a distance, so here's a closer shot. Yum for the birdies! Hopefully the squirrels won't be able to get to them.

The air was pretty frigid so we didn't stay out too much longer. All in all, it was a good trek. (Teal and Gretchen were missed though...family traditions may change over time but heartfelt memories never do.) We'll head back out at some point to retrieve whatever skeletons might be left behind. We certainly don't want to be litterbugs!