holiday blue

From the woods below.

Winter.

Blue.

Nice.

Happy Blue Year to all the cowgirls & cowboys out there.

Look Right, Look Left, Look All Around

 

Here's the thing about winter in the north.  There seems to be two schools of thought--hate it or love it.  I am talking about those of us who live in it not those of you who live amongst swaying palm trees in balmy temps down south.  My bent is that there is so much beauty in each season and winter is no exception.  You just need to be sure to layer up in order to see it and make sure you don't have cold feet - figuratively.

Once you figure that all out its time to get out there and SEE some stuff.

The mexican dog loves the winter and never seems to get cold.  She'll go on a hike anytime no matter what the temperature or what is falling from the sky -- ice, freezing wet rain or big cottonball snowflakes (the best).

There is nothing like a jaunt in the cold to stir up your emotions and put some colour in your cheeks while listening to the muffled silence of your newly snow covered world.

 

  

NicoPiccolo

Now at the end of October and all is ready for winter.  I have been working  hard outside for months now and with the help of my  'uber' assistant  who shall be known as Marky-Mark ,  so much  got done.  Many trees were planted -- deciduous, of course, so hopefully in the falls to come there will be even more colour out among the green pines and yellow larches.  


 One big goal was to get the soil weeded,  prepped and ammended in the fenced garden plot and we did it!   Years and years of unmolested wild growth back there took us ( me and M-M )  the entire summer to clear out.    Oh and the rocks!  Can you say "good drainage" ?   

Heck, we even sort of built a road down below one of the rock walls.  There was a space there and it was a usable but just barely....well now it can be driven on and parked on with ease.   

One of the many uses for straw besides strewing straw  everywhere,  is to make a  scarecrow and so we did.     First one ever and a fitting  end to a fine work season.  M-M and I got to yuck it up while stuffing tights and making a shapely 'crow     We named her/him  NicoPiccolo and that is way too long of a story to get into here,  but it fits, eh?

So much more was dug, hauled, planted, terraced and trimmed,   but enough with the boring details.....



 

 

 

wanderlust

So we got out an wandered for a couple of weeks once again in the Motorhovel.  September is a really good month to hit the roads as the campgrounds are nearly always empty and the weather usually good.  This year was exceptional.  Warmth and sunshine everywhere.  We started by stocking up at Trader Joe's and the stuff lasted us the entire 2 weeks on the road.  Exceptions were made by stopping whenever we saw a farm stand sign to buy fresh produce.  I think once again we dined like royalty even while living in the Hovel.   

I do love the state of  MONTANA.  So many lovely places and cool people.  Although,   I was dismayed  one day when I read some kind of hunting notice tacked up on some bulletin board somewhere that listed all the timeframes for killing so many different kinds of wild animals.  Blow me....but it just isn't necessary....I mean, really, bobcats?  wolves? cougars? wolverines?.   People, people, people....it is NOT a sport.   It put a bit of downer on all the natural beauty that was all around when I thought about wildlife being stalked by 'sportsmen' and (oh so sexy....sportswomen).    Come on and please I am not looking for a debate on 'hunting'....I will not be swayed and neither will you.  I am also aware that this is not just in Montana, but that is where I saw the notice that  got me thinking.     Some of the nicest people I know are 'hunters' and that is so puzzling to me.   But anyway.....
  
The dog and I took a swim in this pristine lake under the beautiful sky, of  BIG SKY COUNTRY MONTANA....sweet.


.

HOME

HOME....well I have, with an addict's difficulty,  wrenched myself away from the incidious  F-book for the time being.   I have become somewhat dependent and in love with the instantaneous comments and the 'likes' and just the nice responses to postings,  so I will most likely be slinking back and forth.   Its a classic love/hate disfunctional relationship that is too good a drug to really give up entirely...the delusion being that I can have 'just one' which we all know is the lie we tell ourselves to get what we want, to get what we need.  Oh well.

Okay, here's what I have.  Pictures, not of puppies or kittens although I love both,   but of the making of a small home, an oasis of sorts.    We all should be so lucky (at least I think so)  as to get to make a home to our liking...one that pleases us in its use of materials and the lines of design that make us happy and feel cozy.  It is simple & clean & functional & methinks melikes mehome.

HUGE -- it's the new AWESOME

  I have always disliked the word  'awesome'  as it is currently used  and deliberately avoid using it in my everyday rants & raves.   Recently though, I did (!).   It felt so awful spewing out of my mouth and I wished I could have taken it back,  but, no,  there it was -- out there.  Yuk.  I had called something 'awesome'  that was really just mediocre.    I broke my own record of, well,  never.  Took a perfectly good word and made it into 'groovy' or at least that was what it felt like.    Where had that come from?
 Now  'huge' is a word I feel I can get into.  It encompasses sooooo much and it has girth, which if you know me, you know I love the word 'girth' and everything it insinuates and the accompanying innuendo.  No apologies here for any  of this and the pictures should be considered merely  gratuitous like most movie sex scenes.   You know you're sitting there watching and asking yourself what does that have to do with the story?    Well, nothing, just an excuse to look at pretty things.  So please enjoy these memories from gardens past.

COMING SOON...

Coming soon to a MO-bile near you -- more space to do just about anything in.  Here you see the dog taking advantage of a newly tarped floor that marks the beginning of this project.  She already approves.    This is a figure-it-out-as-we go venture as well as a re-use-it-if-we-can one.  So far,  so good with just the rain annoying us but in no way stopping us.  Maybe we are finally becoming Canadians (sort of )  since we just keep on working and commenting that " at least it's not freezing".      I think I will only post the dramatic 'before & after'  photos as no one is really interested in all the boring, along the way messes,  so if any one is out there reading this...you (and you alone) will have to wait. 

    

CHICKEN KILLER

THE DOG KILLED A CHICKEN YESTERDAY !!!!  Yes, I was (am) appalled.  Actually the neighbours who owned said dead chicken and from whom we get our best-est eggs ever, were so cool about it that we were very touched and relieved.    WE STILL FELT JUST AWFUL last night and most of today until we made proper amends.  It did make their 10 year son cry a bit which was just a heartbreak.    Couldn't bring back the chicken but thought that maybe a homemade loaf of whole grain bread and some red haven peach jam (of course canned by ME last summer) and a note of sorry,  might soothe any bad blood (pardon the pun).   It was all I could think to do.

Just for the record it was totally the Mister's fault (are any of you surprised?).  I think not.  I know this screwy dog and I tend to watch her like a hawk....HE on the other hand tends towards a more laissez-faire attitude with accusations of my 'uptightness' and 'control issues'....his point totally missing the mark here this time.  Need I say more?

All seems well in the Valley of the Crescent once again.  Peace and harmony have returned and all BADDOGS are staying close to home and trying to suck up to the BIG BOSS LADY.  Here's hoping this was just a one-off 'cause I will totally lose it if it's not.   

 

Lost in Translation?

 

Sometimes a road trip leads to a place like this.   How big I smiled as the MotorHovel u-turned in the parking lot and I spotted the  Ho Ho Buffet.  There it was in the corner of a nondescript,  strip-type mall,  in all its uncensored glory,  beckoning us to come in and enjoy the mirth of the Ho Ho Buffet.   We did not.  What we did do was have a few ho-ho's of our own just enjoying the sheer wonderfull-ness of saying  "Ho Ho Buffet"  many times throughout the rest of the day.  Being a big fan of repetitive humour I found this to be  HI-larious.  I also thought it might appeal to certain friends...wink, wink.

home...it's good to be

What is more wonderful than walking into your very own home and looking around and thinking how happy it makes you.

After three months on the road seeing amazing sights, eating amazing foods, discovering things to like in places we thought we didn't I will say again...

it's good to be home.

Thanks to all our truly lovely friends and family for letting us impose on your everyday schedules and making time for us to visit...and to those whose driveways became our  

MotorHovel camp site,

we give you a big HUG...you were all so patient and somewhat amused at the famous 'leveling of the RVfiasco'...that would be the fault of the damn rv reefer and drives us just as crazy everytime we have to do it.   Of course having an audience when we are doing it keeps the language rating 'PG'...you should hear us when we are on our own.

It's embarrassing. 

...it's true, everything is BIGGER in Texas !

 

dear 'friends'

Anyway, here I be back for a moment from the life-sucking grip of FB.  Wowza.  It is so easy to get drawn back in and it takes a herculean effort to back away.   I am not saying I do not like it. That is the main difference this time around.   I find myself liking it and have come to appreciate how it can have its place and time. I have even added a couple of 'friends'.  I still feel that it is quite impersonal and a bit too public (which is why I find myself resorting to the private 'chat' most often).   It is a connection, of sorts, of course it is, but I guess for me it just misses the mark.   It comes close but doesn't hit home.  It just feels 'less' and somewhat lacking.   But I get it, I do and I'm in.

Arizona to Texas to New Mexico then back to TEXAS...

So we are back in West Texas after leaving el Paso a few days ago  and meandering around New Mexico for a bit.  Why, you might ask?   Well, because we ran into some of our Canadian compadres a few days ago and they raved (and ranted a little bit) about how spectacular Big Bend National Park is and how we just had to see it as we've come so far and we are sooooo close.  So we made a u-turn at Demming, New Mexico and now we are on day two of desolate, 'Texican' interstate travel.   Not there yet, but getting closer.    Can I just say, Texas is a big ass state?  Of course if you know us at all you know that we take at least twice as long as any other normal traveller  does to get anywhere.  Not sure why that is but 'tis a fact.   

So here a few pictures of the Arizona and New Mexico meanderings.    Both places  outstanding and very different deserts.  My pictures cannot even hope to capture their magnificence,  but here you go anyway.  Feel free to enhance with your own imagination.