Homecoming '08

Wonderful Christmas and New Year's -- saw old friends, met new ones, and discovered that my godson has a really good eye for sculpture. Weather was mild in NYC; even going out to watch the fireworks only required a fleece sweater and hat.

My housemate had warned me that we had had a snowstorm at home. I came home to this:


Home sweet home!
(This is my apple tree).
PS - it's 1 degree Fahrenheit today.

Not-so-wet wood

I was given a carload of wood over the holidays - it had been raining, but the wood was reasonably dry. So I packed it in the car, and left it there for a few days. There was condensation on the inside of the car windows when I came back. So I toweled down the windows, finished packing the car, and drove about five hours to get home.

It was late when I arrived. I took my stuff in, left the wood in the car, and went to bed.

This morning I discovered the windows were covered with a very thick layer of frost -- inside. So much frost that the scraper only took off a thin layer. Besides, scrapers are not designed to work on a concave surface.



The soft surfaces -- the roof, sunshades, etc -- had frost flowers growing. (look closely)



The wood's drying pretty well, though. Maybe that's why so many people leave an abandoned car in the back yard here -- it makes a good drying kiln.... Eureka!