The pink fairy roses have a quality even in the winter snowscape.
Gimme all the pink fairy roses in the land.
Not much gets cut much back in the autumn, because these winter garden views are what get me through the snowy cold that is Canadaland.
Of course, if I lived on the east coast — New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador — this frontscape would be buried.
In Other News
I’m hibernating. We’ve yet to have a fire in the fireplace this winter, because that sucker just eats warm air for breakfast. It feels too cold, and the second floor pines for a hot water bottle. Me, too!
Five Hour Stew and home baked bread is the order of the day. Warms the gut and expands the butt. Always a double-edged sword. Anything hot. Get it? I’m living on lemon ginger and peppermint teas.
The tree is down and the stockings are off the doors, but the other remnants of the season remain. The G-Man whines if everything red and shiny suddenly disappears. I get that. The only poinsettia I bought this year is limping along on my desk. It was the Charlie Brown Christmas tree of poinsettias. Still is.
I might have eaten my weight in clementines in December. It’s one of my favorite holiday harbingers.
Speaking of the season, we went the non-trad route. It just felt right for this year. A French Canadian Tourtière for the eve. Okay. That is traditional, but not in my family. A Tuscan Bread Vegetable Soup for Christmas day. We didn’t miss a turkey or ham and all the trimmings. We had a Nicolas Cage film marathon and schlepped around in sweats and socks. Peeps visited. We visited peeps. A good time was had by all. The new year was ushered in with a great deal of hope, but without fanfare. The end.
And Monday is in the house in all its wintry glory.
I’m glued to Big Dell. Yes, I named my laptop. And flexing the writing brain. That’s gonna hurt.
You?
Elen
Elen Grey 
Those fairy roses are really nice. I don’t trim things back either. In fact, I just came in from taking some photos outside! We finally have some snow so I wanted to poke around. You will probably see some on Insta this week.
Love all the food you’ve been eating. We had peeps visit on Saturday (just too busy over the holidays) and Dave made vegetarian Scotch pies. So yummy.
Eating and being creative is all you will get out of me this month.
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Sing it loud. Sing it proud, Kellie! LOL Vegetarian Scotch pies? I’m interested.
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I’m hibernating as well, but from the heat not the cold. Love the photos.
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Yes, I’m not too good with too much heat either. Extreme temps are not my thang. Thank you so much, Leanne.
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Happy New Year. We did non-trad, too – made homemade egg-roll – they were nummy. So nummy that Christmas dinner will be on the menu on a regular basis. I hereby do declare it!
By the way, forgive me for asking – I feel I should know the answer to this – what are you writing these days?
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Mm. Homemade egg roll sounds divine. I’m getting kind of hungry. Right now I’m working on a year long course called 52Stories52Weeks where you hone your skills by writing 52 short stories in 52 weeks. It has my attention. Author Lisa Kessler is offering this course. It’s challenging. I think I’ll be finished in June.
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Let me know if/when you publish!
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Love tortiere on Christmas Eve!! I’ll take that Trad over turkey on the big day. The idea of Tuscan Bread Soup is very intriguing! We added German Stollen on Christmas morning to the roster last year, and a “Galette Des Rois” (or Kings tart) for the Epihany. It’s all about the food!
Happy New Year, Elen!
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You must tell be more about that Kings tart, Janet! It all sounds wonderful. I’ve been making the Tuscan Bread Vegetable Soup for a number of years. It was requested for Christmas this year. It’s from The Canadian Living Christmas Book (1993), p 112. And you can omit the chicken if you want a vegetarian dish. I’ve done that too. https://elengrey.com/2011/12/15/soup-lovers-come-hither/
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Oh! I have that cookbook!! I’m gonna try that soup! Thanks! The Kings tart is also called an Epiphany Cake. There is a light fluffy pastry and (I think) an almond paste involved. It’s delicious! But I didn’t make it – a local bakery did that for me 😉. Google image search for it … you won’t be disappointed!
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Let me know what you think. I surely did Google that. It looks delish. Now I just have to find someone to make it for me. 😀 Next year.
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Two adult step-daighters overnight: tourtiere and lobster on the eve with Julie’s (Frog Pond Farm) Toi Toi wine. We played CLUE. Scotch eggs, coffee, and clementines for breakfast. I have no recollection of what we ate for the rest of the day but the ‘girls’ left and I tackled TGaM’s puzzles.
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Lobster. Oh, man! Always loved Clue. What are Scotch eggs, Bunty?
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A peeled, hard-boiled egg baked in a blanket of pork sausage rolled in crumbs. Good hot or warm or cold. It’s the most consistent request from family members. You can get 5-6 from a pound of bulk sausage.
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I’m going to have to look into that.
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A great essay on winter! Love the images as well. Thanks!
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Thank you so much, Robin!
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Your photo of the roses in snow is delightful. I’m inspired looking at it. Best line of my day goes to you: “Warms the gut and expands the butt.” Thanks for the chuckle.
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Hey Ally – Thanks so much for visiting the blog and taking the time to leave a comment. Those roses are delightful! I’m happy I brought the chuckle for you. Cheers!
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Whoo Hoo! Nova Scotia got a shout out 🙂 We just got a lot of snow. We’re about to get 8-10 degree weather in the next few days. I think Mother Nature had too much egg nog over the holidays. We’re all undecorated inside, but the outside baubles are still alight…
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You almost got called out directly in this post, Eric. 🙂 How I loved our trip to Nova Scotia a few years back. I think we’re due. But not in winter. 😉 Yes, there are still some lights on our street. I like them on through Epiphany Sunday. We’re supposed to get about 10 cm today. It’s likely. Coming down all day. I love the actual snowing part of snow. Not so much when the plow comes through. 😀
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The plow only comes after you’ve shoveled your driveway. Enjoy your 10 cm!
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And that’s why I don’t like it. LOL We did. And then it turned mild and we lost most of our snow. Mama Nature wiggin’ out.
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She’s totally wigging out. It was 10 today. It’ll be 11 tomorrow. Then the temps plummet to -8 on Saturday. All the melted snow is going to refreeze.
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Sounds like a wonderful holiday celebration. I bet the food was relish. Must admit, im glad the radio is back to ‘yeah, yeah, yeah’ instead of ‘fa-la-la’. Quiet here, as usual…we’re boring But we are expecting a new member to our household today. More on ‘Daisy’ later…
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And Daisy is sooooo cute. Instacute!!
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Those hibernating roses are indeed beautiful. By now winter is probably slowly retreating where you are, too.
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Thank you, Otto. Yes. “Slowly” being the word. We’re back to cold-cold. My little burb missed all the recent freak snow activity across the Niagara Region and then Eastern Canada and the US. Unfortunately, the crocuses bloomed and the lilac began to bud in some unusually warm weather a couple of weeks ago. Poor dears.
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Hopefully they will recover. 🙂
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