Damn! It's winter!

My Pretty Girl

Snow Plants

Disappearing Fire Hydrant

Ivy on a Tree

Snowy Hydrangias

Red Snow Berries

Giant Snowy Boxwood

Pretty Snowy Yard

Disappearing Snowy Horse

Swans

Beautiful

Pen inching in for a closer look

Pen and Birds on the Beach

Beautiful Snowy Door in the Wall

Snowy Waterfoul

Snowy Angel

Cutie

Happy in the Snow

There is no denying it. We are really having a winter this year. Snow storm after snow storm. It began in the early afternoon yesterday. Steve came sliding into the driveway shortly after it began, parked the car, and we have been home ever since. While he and Violet were napping Penelope and I went for a walk down to our little beach. It was full of all kinds of waterfoul. It was so quiet. There were no cars out. The snow was falling so thickly, everything was beautiful. I pulled her in the little sled that our cousin Melissa passed on to us last year. She was cozy and happy while we walked through our quiet, snowy neighborhood. We stayed at the beach for quite a while, we were a little bit under a spell of wintery magic. It was so nice to spend the time with just her in this quiet, magic way. Violet has been very sick and much of my attention has been on her. Pen has been very understanding about it, and a little worried about her sister too. Last night Steve took a turn holding Violet while Pen and I read a big pile of books together in bed and after I turned off the light she said "Thanks for having a special time with me Mom, it was so much fun", and it made me want to cry. We used to have so much time together like this, and now it seems so hard to balance everything, and I'm lucky if I can read to her uninterupted for more than 10 minutes. But every now and then we are blessed with an unplanned, quiet bit of time, just the two of us together. And I know I'll treasure the memory of our snowy afternoon at the beach watching the swans and ducks and geese with her little mittened hand in mine forever. And I think she will too.