I live in a part of the country that has
four distinct seasons and from now through March is my least favorite time
(I much prefer Spring and Fall). The last couple of years in particular, I've had a really hard time getting through the
bone-chilling and hard Northeast winters. Driving is
treacherous here on the unpaved back roads in Cow Country and though I love my house and acreage,
I don't know how many more winters we'll withstand here. New York is a tough place to live and though I'm a native and have been here all my life, between the winters, the roads and the taxes (don't get me started), I think it might be time for a change.

Does the Winter inspire you to create more or do you hibernate? I find myself alternating between being creatively active and just wanting to snuggle under a quilt with good books. The library has been one of my favorite places since childhood and I still go every week. My library of choice is the Cheney Library in Hoosick Falls, everything a small town library should be with a great selection, friendly staff who are always ready for a chat about books, good hours, and access to the online upstate NY library system, so for what isn't on hand in the libary, they can get for me within a few days. Ironically, the book I'm reading right now is Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah. I highly recommend this author and I'm working my way through her books now. Time for a few chapters and a cup of tea now!

It's a New Day

Good Morning. Isn't this a glorious sunrise? The picture was taken from my front porch.

I've had a rough few weeks. I made a tough decision to leave a group after a few years that I had nurtured and grown from its infancy. It was the right decision, but it's been a painful journey and quite enlightening. Right now I'm feeling very alone which is odd because by nature, I'm a hermit-like person and enjoy being with myself. I enjoy my creative time in my studio and don't view it as "being alone", but rather enjoy the solitude and freedom that I'm grateful to have. The past few weeks I've taken a beating though .

So this morning I pulled up this picture from my files and I'm ready to let go. I deserve it.

Have a peaceful and blessed day today.

Still lots of white stuff in the Northeast

There's still quite a bit of snow here in the Northeast, so I thought I'd use it to my advantage and see if I could get some good pictures with it as a backdrop.

The weather is supposed to be warming up a lot today, so I'll have to snap quickly! Luckily these can be taken right outside my studio door, so I'm not tramping a lot of wet snow and mud through the house (nah, I'm not a huge fan of washing floors!)

Welcome to the Northeast

Fun times this morning up here in North Country. The actual temperature is minus 6 degrees with a windchill of minus 20. Can you say BRRRRR?

The first picture is part of our side lawn. Lawn? Who am I kidding? The second picture is the steps coming up to our front door so I guess no one will be coming in that way any time soon. The third pic is part of our front lawn. Oh where, oh where, have my little dogs gone, oh where, oh where, can they be?

This is actually such a beautiful part of New York for most of the year when I really love it. The winters are hard, though, on both the humans and old furry ones in our house. Some years ago I had some nerve damage to my right hand due to some dog bites (never ever ever ever EVER try to mediate a dog fight), so my fingers are always like popsicles (orange,pineapple,orange,cherry,orange please) in the cold weather.

I had to drive my son to work this morning (he has some developmental disabilities so doesn't drive ....... yet) and at 6:30 a.m. the ice crystals sparkled like diamonds across the driveway. It was still dark out but I attempted to take a picture. My camera's button froze so I couldn't click it - smart camera! Those ice crystals were really incredibly beautiful though. We were plowed out (AGAIN) last evening, so the trek down our long driveway wasn't too bad. Like I said before, fun times!

There's something to be said about forced hibernation. I have 3 kilns on right now with new glass goodies for my Etsy shop. All's well in Willowglass world!

How is it in your part of the world this morning?