Ah, Valentine’s Day: that’s a favorite of mine. As a cashier down to the A&P, I get to see first hand all the nice stuff folks buy for their honeys: cards, red roses, and sweets for their sweeties. Plus, I get to wear red, which looks good on me (it’s in my color wheel). And, ofcourse, it’s a chance for Charlie to give me a box of chocolates and for me to bake him a batch of his favorite cookies. They’re your basic oatmeal raisin, except I use Raisinettes, so you get the chocolate and raisin thing going. Try it. They’re delicious! Valentine’s Day also signals that we only have about six more weeks of …

As I write this, Charlie’s out snow blowing. We didn’t get much, thank goodness, just three inches or so. I already cleaned off the cars after my walk with our little guy, Scamp. I was all bundled up anyways, and it’s a snap with my snow rake. Honey, this thing is amazing! It has a long handle with a hard rubber, orange rectangle on the end. I got it last winter to take the snow off the top of my car. This was prompted by an unfortunate incident that happened one day when I took Scamp to the vet for his yearly checkup. Now, Scamp is such a good boy everywhere expect in the car. …

My Christmas decorations were put away weeks ago now. The only thing I keep out for the winter are a pair of children’s snowshoes, though I do take the little red bows off. I like having them around. They were my mother’s when she was a kid, handmade by her uncle, Octave Pease. The webbing is made from the hide of a deer he shot himself. Octave: now there was a character. He come from a big family, I don’t know how many brothers and sisters. And they were all liars. You should have heard them when they’d get together. One would start to tell a story, and they’d all try to out do each …

This week, winter arrived in Mahoosuc Mills, and not in a good way. The bad news is we got a major dumping of snow. The good news? You don’t have to finish raking your yard. Poor Charlie, one day he was rushing to put the garden to bed and two days later he was snow blowing. But that’s life, right? It’s darn near impossible to get it all done, and that’s okay. Blow It Off ‘Til Spring Got the deck chairs in And the table put away Never brushed the grill But that’s OK I’m afraid I couldn’t Get to everything Gonna have to just Blow it off ‘til spring I never quite finished Rakin’ …

It’s snowing to beat the band here in Mahoosuc Mills today. In like a lion, right? A snow day means baking in our house, and I just finished making a batch of my Grandmother’s molasses cookies. Boy, they sure looked beautiful, if I do say so myself. Just like I remember. I have Grammy’s recipe written in her shaky hand on white (now yellow) lined paper. The thing even has Grammy’s molasses stains on it. My mother had it laminated for me years ago, and I’ve used it so much it’s starting to separate along the edges. The thing I like most about this recipe is that in the margin at the top of the page, …

Winter brings it’s own sort of challenges. Some of these are big like the Polar Vortex. And some are small. Take for example those pesky cracks, mostly on your thumbs, that no amount of moisturizer seems to prevent or cure. Even when they’re tiny, that can keep you up at night throbbing away. Charlie wrote a poem about one of these little irritations. Not big enough to actually do anything about except complain. Gotta admit though, doing it in a poem is classy.  I’ll Get To It One Of These Days  There’s a nail head that catches my shovel, it seems Whenever it snows on the deck And then I think, Oh, what the heck …

They say if you don’t like the weather in Maine, just wait a minute. And ain’t that the truth! This week, we had that arctic blast for a couple of days, then our January thaw, which is good for the all the plants and wildlife. Us people, too. It actually got up to 40 plus degrees, if you can believe it, with flood warnings because of rain and melting snow. Then, back to the usual twenties and thirties. They call the super cold or strangely high temperatures “unseasonable,” but I say they’re just par for the course. Charlie and me walk Scamp every morning, and we always do the same thing. We get up, put …

Can you believe it? Two snow storms in November. Not the end of November, either. We’re talking November 15th and 20th. Now, I’ve lived in Maine my whole life (so far) and I’ve seen snow in November before. Sure. But usually it’s a light dusting that’s gone the next day. This stuff is not only sticking. It’s piling up. This is unnatural. What’s next? Locusts? Nope. A new poem from my hubby. I just love this guy! Everyone’s Buzzin’ ‘Bout Snow Weather’s a-comin’, and everyone’s buzzin’ Buzzin’ ‘bout snow wherever I go And wherever I’m goin’, the amount keeps growin’ Everyone’s buzzin’ ‘bout snow “How much we getting’?” this fella asked me Heck if I …

All and all, we haven’t really had that bad a winter. The brunt of it happened during one week in February. You know, the one where we had a snow storm every other day. Then we had some spring-like weather, even up here in the north country. Temperatures soared (meaning it got up in the fifties on one day) and so did our moods. What a tease ‘cause, honey, snow and single digit temps in March are just nasty! Sure it’s not going to last. But that’s what folks said about the cold I’ve just gotten over (fingers crossed). You know, the one that’s lasted for over two weeks. It’s the third one I’ve gotten …

We sure have had some snow up here in the north country. Well, it’s February. In Maine. What do we expect, right? January is cold and dry and February is a snowy mess. The worse is if you get on one of them “a snow storm every thirty-six hours” cycles, which we had a week or two ago, I think. It’s just a freezing, white blur, so it’s hard to remember. Snow storms are tough on Charlie’s back, my expectations, and both our waistlines. Charlie’s back because even with a plow on the truck, there are still paths to shovel and roofs to rake. My expectations because I’m the kind of person who looks forward …