It's Really Snowing!

Until the flakes began to fly I was convinced that it would slide on by and miss us. The weather guessers have scaled their predictions of how much snow we'll get to 4-6" instead of the 8" or more they initially tried to curse us with. Henny & Penny were hard to convince to leave their roost this morning and instead of just leaving them after I hooked out the egg, today's the day I was to give them fresh food and water. Of. Course. So I encouraged them to leave by first tapping on the back of the roost and then shooing them out. Henny kept trying to get back inside but after a little scratch of her back and a pet or two she left me alone. I scattered the old, poopy seed out onto the chicken yard so they were interested in something besides what I was doing. They didn't seem to like the snow one bit. Maybe when I go to tuck them in I'll see that they've been out. Yesterday I discovered that one lays to be collected in the morning and the other to be collected later in the day--and one lays in the egg box and the other just in the shavings by the food dish. (We'll see if the second one today is in the shavings to prove my supposition.) Gah! I just realized that I forgot to put the camera in my bag so I can take photos at the Knitting Guild meeting this evening and I won't have time to zoom home to get it before the meeting, dammit. I could take pix with my cellphone but it seems that Trakfone had the function that would let me download them to my laptop disabled. The turds. I did remember to dig out a bit of worsted yarn and a pair of US8 needles so I could knit up the swatch for tonight's program which is learning decreases. I've got that done. And maybe I'll borrow a camera from the shop...

January 11--Childe Hassam, Surf, Isles of Shoals. The entry at Tori's Reef on the southern end of Bonaire is my favorite. You park your rental truck alongside one of the channels cut to allow ocean water to be let into the evaporating ponds at the salt works across the road. Once you have your scuba gear on, you climb down the boulders to an area of waist deep water. There's a natural breakwater across the opening in the shore reef so any waves are dampened to easy swells. The water is gin-clear, as they say, and you can see your fins stirring up the white sand as you get your mask on and settled. As you swim out toward the sea it gets very shallow and that's where you see octopus and scorpion fish nestled in the reef niches. Out in the open ocean the wide white sand stretches to the end of visibility. Skeins of silver fish stream by like ribbons on the wind and tiny dark specks of juvenile reef fish dart around little stands of orange fire coral as you swim out toward the deeper reef. But it's on the swim back to shore that Tori's Reef really shines.

Ah, of course I would torment myself with memories of warm salt water and sandy beaches on this cold and snowy January day. I'm cruel and heartless, aren't I?

--Barbara