Mandarin #1: Hey, buddy! You can lower that periscope. I can tell you where we are.
Mandarin #2: I know where we are. I’m just watching for the predators. You think you’re too sweet to be eaten, but I know different. I see them getting settled in their recliners, looking like they need something sweet and juicy.
Mandarin #1: What? You don’t think I’m sweet?
Mandarin #2: No, dummy. It’s because you ARE sweet that you’ll get eaten.
Mandarin #1: Well, if you think that silly periscope is going to save you, you’d better close the hatch now and “DIVE! DIVE! DIVE!” because here they come – that old couple that’s sick of winter and wants a taste of summertime – that’s US, by the way – the reminder of summertime.
Mandarin #2: So, what should we do?
Mandarin #1: I don’t know…. Maybe you can scare them off by looking weird when you wiggle your periscope. Maybe they’ll think you have some disease.
Mandarin #2: And what about you?
Mandarin #1: No diseases here, but I’ve got a plan. When they try to skin me alive, I’ll hold on tight to my skin, naturally, and make it harder for them to do a clean job. Their hands will get sticky, and they’ll get up to get a tissue. While they’re gone I’ll just roll away. Maybe hide under the table.
Mandarin#2: That won’t work. Haven’t you seen their dog? She’s always hanging around begging for food.
Mandarin #1: Oh, that. I’ve got that covered. I’ll squeeze a bit of OJ in her eye. She doesn’t like that. Ha ha. I’m looking forward to that.
Mandarin #2: What about me?
Mandarin #1: Oh, I think I can spare some juice and squirt you too.
Mandarin #2: No! Don’t be a smartypants. I mean how will I escape?
Mandarin #1: Well, like I said, you have that periscope. You can DIVE, DIVE, DIVE. Then we can roll away into the sunset…well, under the couch, anyway.
Photo at Silver Star (ski hill) courtesy of Pat G.
The ski hill is beautiful, day or night.
More snow is on the way.
Thanks for the photos, Pat.
Way up high on the hills, the rain turned into snow.
Why is it that white snow comes out of black clouds?
How did that sunshine get through to the hills when the whole valley is in shade?
Can you guess where the deer are that used to live up in the hills? Where are the birds? Bears? Cougars? Squirrels?
I can only hope that those who didn’t wander down to lower elevations are hibernating in some cozy den. Probably even those who might hibernate would have come down from the highest parts of the hills, if they were able.
Meanwhile, I’m in my cozy den at home, not hibernating, but also waiting for winter to pass.
A new year is coming. That gives me hope that spring won’t be too far away.
Have a happy year ahead, everyone.
Yule is a celebration of the winter solstice as well as the Christian holiday we usually call Christmas.
Often you may hear about yule logs being placed on the fire in the fireplace. Basically that’s just a big piece of firewood, usually oak, burned around Christmas time. In days of old, people saved a piece of the previous year’s yule log to start the new fire.
My favourite yule logs are the kind I can eat. They have dates and coconut in them.
If you’d like to get the recipe for them, please check my post from a few years ago.
I don’t know who wrote that poem, but I think it has been around a very long time.
Also, I should mention that these photos are from six years ago and are not a true reflection of the weather here today.
I thought we had escaped the grip of winter by now, but then, this morning, yuck!
March certainly came in like a lion here with a bitter cold wind and then a dump of snow. I’m counting on it to go out like a lamb, hopefully with mild springtime temperatures.
I did some digging and found out that some people think the proverb about March is not so much about weather as it is about the stars.
At the beginning of March, the constellation Leo rises in the eastern sky. Then at the end of March, the constellation Aries (the ram, or perhaps the lamb in its younger days) sets in the west.
Whether it is weather related or has to do with the stars, it’s often safe to assume the weather is better towards the end of March.
Just for fun, here is a timely Knock, Knock joke that you all know.
Knock! Knock!
Who’s there?
Marshall.
Marshall who?
Marshall come in like a lion and go out like a lamb.
Photo by Pat Gerrie
I apologize for the background noise of dogs barking and garbage trucks backing up somewhere in the world outside my own little world.
wordsfromanneli 