Cold day...

It's 35 below in town today. Being up in the hills a little, it's only 20 below here. Jake and I are planning to take a brisk walk later, and maybe break out the snowshoes. It doesn't bother Norway, who has his full winter coat in; he's outside rolling around in his straw. Velcro adores this temperature, because we turn the woodstove up and she can melt into a little puddle of happy cat fur.

J. and I went out to the hotsprings yesterday evening for a soak in the outdoor rock pool. Heavenly. It's a lot more fun at 20 below than it is in the summer. In the summer, it's just sort of hot and you don't un-hot. In the winter, you can cool off for immediate re-immersion just by standing up and steaming off for a moment. It was much-needed relaxing and I feel very detoxified and re-energized. It's hard to grasp how quickly the end of the year is creeping up!

It looks a great deal like this today:

Happy After-Christmas

Santa did not get the memo that I'd been naughty, so I have new toys to play with, and the food has been out of this world. We even got snow! I will have to snap some shots of it; the whole world is draped in pretty white fluff. Jake is out clearing the driveway now, so that we can get back into town.

I've been working on my years goals for 2009 and should have those to post soon. 2008 was a good one, for me; I don't have any real complaints. But I think 2009 will be even better, and I'm looking forward to tackling a few exciting projects. Some of you had really crappy 2008s - I hope that your 2009 is infinitely better.

Test

A test post, to get started with...