Sledding and Snow Angels

No Two Alike

These amazing photos were taken by The Snowflake Man, Wilson Bentley. He is credited with taking the world's first photomicrograph of a snow crystal on January 15th, 1885. He captured over 5,000 images of snow flakes during his life time, revealing to all of us that indeed no two are alike.

Read more about Snowflake Bentley here or here.

It's here, the snow is here!

Finally! You can still see some grass peeking through but a least there's snow and it looks and fels like winter..

Where is Winter?

I'm sure a lot of people are happy with the unusually mild weather here in the north east but I could personally use a snow day.

I'm really hoping to get a snowman, some sledding and a few snow angels in this year! Here's hoping winter kicks in for a few weeks. I'm ready to go out and do a snow dance.

Escaping a Few Pages at a Time

Over the holiday I finally started a real book. Actually re-started. I had already read the opening chapters of Kafka on the Shore a while back and was really intrigued, but the hard cover book is too much to lug around.

It's such a nice luxury to lie in bed and read from a nice fat book instead of off a screen. Now that I'm back to work there's less time to slip away into Haruki Murakami's strange tale but I'm trying to get in a couple of pages when I can and clear my mind in this fictional escape.

What are you reading now? Do you have a favorite author or book that transports you from the everyday?

A Fresh New Year

2012 is all shiny and new and full of promise. I'm taking it easy on the resolutions so I don't get frustrated, but I've started a To Do List of things I want to accomplish. I'm including tasks that range from super easy to really difficult, and trying to include stuff that requires no money at all and things that will take some financial handiwork. I'm going to start on the easy and medium stuff so I can gain momentum, cross things off my list and feel like I'm accomplishing things. And not just serious stuff, but fun and inspiring activities. I'm wondering what everyone else is doing for the new year? Are you making resolutions? What's on your list for 2012?

Poster available at Keep Calm Gallery.

Here's to a Spectacular New Year

Happy New Year! Wishing everyone a wonderful year ahead.

Dolomites photo by KevinKunstadt.

Life in Miniature

One of our last adventures of 2011 involved entering a miniature world. My little one donned her Thomas and Friends conductor hat and we headed to Northlandz. This roadside attraction in Flemington, NJ houses the world's largest model railroad. It's a funny contrast, "the world's largest" and the miniature scale of this constructed world.

We've gone by it many times and never stopped. I decided to go when my daughter mentioned ice skating again. I couldn't think of anything else and the thought of getting on the ice again made it seem worth a try.

I'm glad we did. It was amazing to look at and lots of fun to experience with a four year old. The play on scale was a neat experience, it is both tiny and huge at the same time. The seemingly endless tracks and diminutive scenes were imaginative and remarkable in their detail. The displays are worn in a few places which went unnoticed by the little one and added to the feeling of an old style roadside attraction for me. It certainly felt like good old fashioned fun.

Small scale worlds were a bit of a theme this holiday. I also ended up watching Small Mercies, a Midsomer Murders mystery in which deadly intrigue and a model village mix. Tiny worlds are definitely fun with or without a murder plot.

Ice Skating is for Kids

The first thought I had when I pulled myself and my four year old onto the ice at our local rink was "I'm too old for this.", then "What was I thinking", then "One of us is going to get hurt!"

Well we survived and made it around the rink two and a half times before the free skate was over. Doesn't sound like much, but it's quite an accomplishment when your clinging to the boards and pulling a little one up off the ice every few seconds.

Miracle one was that I didn't pull her arm out of its socket, miracle two, I didn't break a hip and miracle three, she wants to do it again. I have to say I was really proud of her tenacity. Before we went in she said "to skate you push, push, glide" when we left her new skating motto was" when you fall down, you just get back up".

Thankful for Friday

The sun is out, it's crisp, the remaining leaves on the trees are a vivid yellow. Hurrah a fall weekend lies ahead. Looking forward to preparing for the holidays.

And I have to get two bags of bulbs planted while I still can. Not my favorite gardening activity but I be glad I did in the Spring.

The beautiful yellow leaves in the photo are actually in Vermont. Photographer unknown.