Last night I dreamt of snow

 

Last night I dreamt that

we went from a beautiful

warm Autumn day, like

we are having right now

to snow.  All white, no

color, no leaves, just a

soft coating of fluffy down.

 

So is my snow dream

a nightmare, or a

dream come true

to you?

 

How do you feel about winter coming?  Good, bad, indifferent?

 

 

We are looking at snow tires already, it feels too soon, since our trees have barely started to turn colors. But we know that even with no rain in sight, there will have to be a change in the weather.

 

 

So far we have escaped the frost that hits the lower valleys, but how much longer will that be before Jack Frost kisses our annuals?

 

 

Before the trees relinquish their golden leaves, and the branches lay themselves bare to the sky?

 

 

Hard to believe that the month of September is saying goodbye so soon, and October ushering it’s self in for a visit.  But seasons change, even if we resist.

 

Snow dreams, and golden daze….Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams

Autumn pumpkins on the front porch bring back memories

 

It’s a odd feeling to have

pumpkins, and squash outside

our front door and not having

to worry about them rotting

away, like we would on the coast.

October used to be one big orange

blur of pumpkins rolling in and out

of the doors at the garden center. 

 

Lug em out, bring em in!

Every morning, and night.

Hundreds of pumpkins

went through our doors

each day.

 

We all loved October, crisp days, falling leaves, mustering up all the shrubs, carting them off into the greenhouses for the winter.  Fall decorating for Thanksgiving.

And the best part was the arrival of the pumpkins, it was tricky timing, they only lasted a certain length of time because it was too warm and too wet on the coast.  Pumpkins left outside in the rain too long rotted, or were smashed by teenaged vandals at night.

 

 

So our October routine was rolling the huge, and heavy 6 foot square metal carts of pumpkins out the front door each morning, placing them in creative ways among the hay bales and antique wagons.

 

At the end of the day we were hurrying around in the dark to find all the orange globes, piling them back on the pumpkin carts.  Pushing those heavy carts up the incline to the front door that always threatened to send us back into the parking lot.  They wanted to leave them out as long as possible, which meant rushing around to get them all inside before we left.

 

 

It’s much easier up here in the Okanagan, we have a front porch where they all stay nice and dry, no more taking them in and out, which makes me very happy.

 

 

I have been working on getting my blog to reflect the colors of Autumn, but each time I get started on a new header something comes up, or I change my mind about the color scheme.  I really love those soft summer colors, and I would like to keep them for just a little longer….so a change is in the air, not just in our upcoming weather, but on here also.  Just let me linger a little while longer in our summer like weather.

 

Lingering……Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams

 

 

 

Savouring these sunny days like a squirrel hiding nuts

 

We are having a run of

weather that you could

write home about, shout

from the rooftops, use for

 the front page, pick any

cliché, it’s so beautiful.

 

They say it’s a unusual

start to Autumn, really?

You mean it’s not always

like this? 

 

I am savouring these days like a squirrel hoards nuts, marking them, and hiding them in the best places.

 

 

I know they won’t last, so every chance I get I take photos of the colors.  Soon all we will have is dead branches, brown seed pods, and stark winter light.

 

 

White snow, and ice will cover everything for months, only to melt into spring.

 

 

The camera is my favourite Autumn tool, I am using it to remember the feel of Fall.  The texture of Autumn, the crispness of the air, and sound of the leaves as they whisper down to the ground.

 

 

Don’t forget if you have not already put your vote in for the first snowfall at Far Side of Fifties, and here, you have until midnight to do so.

You can find the details, and the links here.

 

Clicking…..Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams

Do you sneak in blogging time?

 

“Hey Jen, are you up there?”

I hear my husbands voice from

down in the basement, darn,

busted….again.  More then

likely the sound of the

computer chair being

dragged over his head on the

floor above gave it away. 

Back to work I go cleaning

up the basement with  him.

Do you sneak in a little

blogging throughout

the day, when no one is looking?

 

 

“Dinner will be a little late, and it might be a bit burnt.”  I announce this to Boo our cat, and my husband as they are sitting in their favourite chair watching the evening news.  “Blogging again” he asks with smile. The man knows me much too well, and he has heard every reason in the world as to why dinner is: late, burnt, nearly raw, non existent, forgotten, or something quick, and simple.

 

 

Blogging is more fun then housework, TV, cooking, or feeding the poor cat.  “Hey honey, the cat is starving, can you just…..”  He knows that I am in the middle of a post, and don’t want to lose sight of the idea before I get it on the screen.

 

 

When inspiration strikes I must go to the computer and translate what’s in my mind, that itchy little voice that speaks to me, even if it is a bad time.  So far I have held off blogging in the middle of the night, but that’s only because I would have to get out of bed, and go downstairs, turn on the computer and wait for it to fire up.  But then again, I could always keep the laptop by my bed….

 

 

Do you sneak in bits and pieces of blogging daily?  Do you tiptoe away from others, saying I just have something important to attend to…or are you a all or nothing, this is my only time to blog, don’t you bother me now kind of blogger?  Do you steal away to check the comments, read a few other blogs, and maybe leave a comment or two?

Of course we are all curious how other people find the time to blog…so share, even if you have to sneak away to do it.

 

Tiptoeing away….Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams

 

Now before I forget, you still have one more day to get your guess in as to who will get snow first, Connie, at Far Side of Fifty, or us.  See this link for details.

Contest closes at midnight Friday

A good friend is worth many times their weight in silver

 

Do you ever think about the

people that have entered your

life, and how much they have

enriched it?  What holes

they leave when they are gone?

 

A good friend is worth

many times their

weight in silver…

they are priceless.

 

 

Some moved on, others gone some just lost touch. But for a brief and shining moment they were part of your world, and they shone brightly.

 

 

Did you appreciate them while they were part of your life, and do you regret not seeing them now?

 

 

Have you gotten in touch recently with a long lost friend, if not, what is holding you back.

 

 

Times change, life goes forward, and friendships remain priceless.  Pick up that phone, send that email,you might be surprised how delighted that voice sounds on the other end.

 

 

Weighing my friendships in silver….Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams

 

PS: the little purse if from my Grandmother’s collection, when she lived in Holland, the clasp is pure silver, and it needs a bit of polish, but it is so dainty….a priceless memento to me.

Frozen turkeys, and hot flashes?

 

You know those pesky hot

flashes that we women sometimes

get?  Oh, not yet, well….you will.

Anyways they are annoying, and

they seem to come out of now

where.  It was hot in the almost

big city yesterday, and I was

running some errands, and started

to get rather warm.

Hot flashes, why on earth

don’t they happen when

it’s –20 we could use them

then.

One of my errands was to pick up a frozen turkey for Thanksgiving at the grocery store.  While perusing the aisles I realized two things, one, I was overly hot, two I had forgotten to get a grocery cart.

As I carried the frozen bird out to the truck, I had to hold the double bagged bowling ball sized nugget on my hip to carry it.  Hey I thought, this is the perfect remedy for a hot flash, a frozen turkey, I wonder if it will catch on?

Could you imagine being at work and suddenly a hot flash comes on, whip out that giant freezer bird and grab it with both arms, pull it against your chest and ahhhhh feel the cooling sensation. 

I think I am on something here, middle of the night hot flash, grab that turkey, when your husband wakes up, just tell him you are trying new ideas to cool down. 

I’m sure he will approve, just tell him Jen at Muddy Boot Dreams suggested it.

 

Frozen, no I’m hot, no I’m cool….Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams

Stories I have told myself

 

I don’t know if you tell

yourself stories while

you are waiting in line, or

while doing mundane chores, but

I do.  In them I am witty

and sometimes even

downright funny, rarely

serious, but always wise. 

Who is talking to

themselves? Not me

I am telling stories to

myself.

 

They are a diverse lot my stories taken from a smidge of conversation that just stuck in my head, or a line from a book, a show.

 

 

Something that becomes a starting point for creativity, to expand my brain just a little bit more.  Reaching out with the fingers to knead that mental clay, and create something new.

 

 

If I am the only one that does this, it might be rather embarrassing to admit right?   But I think that I am not alone, well I hope that I am not alone. 

 

 

Do you tell yourself stories?  And do you enjoy them?

 

Storytelling…..Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams

Why it’s not easy to be “not green”

 

It’s hard to be green, but it’s

harder being a brown lawn in a

sea of golf green grass in

your neighbourhood.

It’s tempting to just turn on the

sprinklers, and get our lawn to

look as green as every one else’s lawn. 

 

Who really wants to be

known as “those people who

don’t/won’t water their lawn?”

Wouldn’t it be easier to just

turn the water on?

Would it?

 

 

Part of me wants to conform to the standard, we grew up with green lawns, and they are beautiful. The other part of me, the stubborn, “I won’t back down, this is something I believe in” part of me won’t do it.  But I will be honest, it’s hard to look out at the front yard and see brown singed grass.  I don’t think turning it into a garden,or groundcover is the solution, even using water thrifty natives, we will still need to water, it’s that hot up here, for that long. The soil needs amending, and aerating, that’s not going to happen overnight. With our water restrictions I am already time sapped to get the gardens watered ever second day, I certainly don’t need another garden to look after.

 

 

I know that we live in a water tight world, and the last thing anyone needs to do up here is water their lawns.  But everyone does, the lawns are greener up here, than down on the coast where we used to live.

I’ve told the neighbours that we wouldn’t water our lawn, and we won’t.

Hardly trailblazing stuff, isn’t it?  But we are among a small handful of neighbours that have let our lawns go brown for the summer. 

It might not green up until next spring when we get some rain again. On the coast you can leave the grass to go dormant over the summer it will green up almost overnight when the Autumn rains came, there are no Autumn rains here.

But if all the snow predicted for October comes true like your comments indicate we have only a few weeks of brown, before it’s all white for months.

Don’t forget to join in Snow Daze, you still have a few days to leave a comment on both Far Side of Fifty’s blog, and here at Muddy Boot Dreams in order to win a really nice gift pack of greeting cards.

 

Crunchy…..Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams

 

Full on summer daze continues

 

Yes, I know we kicked off a Snow

Daze contest yesterday, [be sure

to enter at both blogs] and it

almost feels silly to be thinking

about winter when it’s so hot

out.  It’s full on, hot

summer daze around here, temps

are hovering just under 30C.

Who’s hot, we are?  Who’s

not afraid of winter not us.

Oh no!

Winter?

30 Celsius is hot by any conversion chart, but rest assured according to those who know these things, it’s going to change one of these days and with a bang.  Not a whimper, or a slight change of heart, no a bang.

 

 

One day it’s 30 C out there, and the next you are waking up feet frozen in your bed, and icicles on your toes.  Hmmmm….unless they know something that I don’t and arguably they do, doesn’t summer just fade out, and Autumn waltz in with some sort of grace?  I mean icicles on your toes is a little extreme for the beginning of October.

 

 

After all I am still collecting the seeds from my annuals, and quite a few of the sunflowers haven’t bloomed yet, so winter cannot be close.  Or can it? 

According to those in the know, “it’s going to be a hard winter”  well they [ Just who are they ? The people I overhear in the grocery store, that’s who] think that because the Mountain Ash trees have lots of berries it’s going to be colder then normal.  And because we had a wet long spring, it’s going to be a hard winter.  And baby don’t you forget it…sigh. Whatever.

 

 

We have been told that last winter was nothing, –20 Celsius, and a freezing cold wind chill was not nice.  Oh great, you mean it gets better?  We had snow from December to April, and that’s not enough for you naysayers?  Sigh.

 

 

Well excuse me while I go and find my winter mitts, scarf, and heating cables for the truck.

Don’t forget to join in and predict when we will get our first snowfalls. 

Snow daze on Muddy Boot Dreams, and Snow daze on Far Side of Fifty.

 

Searching for my mitts…..Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams

Snow dazed…first snowfall contest

 

There, I’ve gone and said

the “S” word. SNOW!

Yes, snow, it’s still

hot here, but Connie

from Far Side of Fifty

in North Central

Minnesota, and myself,

Jen from Muddy Boot Dreams,

in the Okanagan

British Columbia,

Canada, have a friendly

little wager going on.

 

SNOW? Who’s talking about snow?  Well us of course.  It could happen any day for either of us, but what day will the first snowfall happen?

 

 

We are holding a snow daze contest and you have the chance to win a pack of greeting cards from each of us.  Just leave a comment on each of our blogs telling us what date our first snowfalls will be. The closest guess to the actual date will be the winner on each blog.

 

 

To leave a comment here on the Snow Dazed page look up at the top of the blog, there are some pages and Snow Daze is one of them.  Leave your comment here at Muddy Boot Dreams on the Snow Daze page to be entered into the contest, and if your date is the correct one, then you will win.

Visit Connie at Far Side of Fifty to enter the date that you think she will get her first snowfall.

 

 

One winner per blog, contest is open until Friday September  28, 2012.  Should more then one winner choose the correct date, a random draw of names choosing that date will be held.

 

 

Winner will be notified by email, so please make sure to leave a valid email address.

One entry per person, card images may not be exactly as shown.

 

Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams

Days of peaches and caramel popcorn

 

It’s still summer…I think. 

They haven’t mentioned

Autumn yet but we know

they will.  Tiptoeing

around feeling as if summer

won’t stop if we don’t tread

too hard on the sun baked

sidewalks. Today we are like

kids at the fair, stuffing

too much caramel popcorn

into our mouths and denying

that it will make us feel sick. 

 

Bring on the glorious sunshine, let it stream into our yards as we all greet each other with smiles, and ask. 

Summer won’t end, will it?

 

 

Basking in the light, glorying in the warmth, soaking up the heat.  

Telling each other, never let this end….please.

 

 

But these days of golden sunshine and peach colored sunsets that slowly glide through the evergreens to fall into the dark mountainside, will end with a thump as they hit the earth.

 

 

Ahead the cold winter looms like a bad nightmare, foggy, and elusive in the daylight.  We know that we dreamt it, but we can’t remember clearly how bad it was.  Or if it was at all, not with these days of peaches, and caramel popcorn.  We have strayed to long at the fair, and all good things must end, peaches will be over, winter will come, and the days have already started to shorten.

 

 

When it arrives we will dream again of spring, of snowdrops, and of summer.

 

Eating caramel popcorn and peaches….Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams

 

Look for a special post tomorrow as I link up with Far Side of Fifty for a contest called Snow Daze.