Hi. I’ve just completed 96 hours of work in the past 2 weeks. A lot, but I have become comfortably accustomed to working 72 hours every 2 weeks——soooooo, Mama tired. Actually, I slept so good last night and had a leisurely morning of coffee, omelet and relaxation so I feel renewed and ready for the next few days OFF! I figured I’d include some work pics of me (and my personalized lead apron) for you to enjoy before my photo/essay dump.
Now let’s dig into our last two months of adventuring in our New Hampshire winter shall we?
Hubs had his annual ski weekend with friends and at the end of the weekend, I (along with other friends & wives) joined them for a few days of fun in the White Mountains. We snowmobiled, shopped, some skied, took in multiple amazing views, basked in fresh snowfall and delighted in yummy meals both in-house and out! A good time was had by all!
I don’t particularly love snowmobiling, but the fresh snow on the trail was really something to behold. We were literally flying through a real-life snow globe. I was grateful for a full suit, boots and hand warmers on the handles and enjoyed following bear tracks for about a 1/2 mile or so on the way back. The warm winter has everyone confused!!! I regret not making Hubs stop so I could memorialize the paw prints, you’ll just have to trust me. I was glad we only saw the tracks and not the owner.
After a shopping session with my UK “girlfriend” (inside joke) we joined the skiers at the Mt. Washington hotel bar for apres ski. The hotel is incredibly opulent and luxuries abound at every turn, just as you’d expect from this iconic institution but I still can’t get “RedRum” out of my head and so we opted out of this for our upcoming anniversary trip. Daylight, yes. Overnight, nope! I know The Shining is a fictional movie and only some filmed at the hotel, but it is forever deeply and creepily etched in my brain, therefore I’m just not sure I could do it.
Our last day in Lincoln, we went to Sunday Mass at St. Joseph’s and then hit up the Mountainside Cafe in Lincoln for a coffee flight. It was delicious. With 4 shots of espresso, 1 per cup, it was a good thing we shared! They also had hot chocolate flights which looked amazing! We beat the crowd, and were able to score some comfy seats and enjoy our coffee and skedaddle before it got really crazy.
Since it appeared that winter was coming to a rapid close with temps regularly in the 40 and intermittent rain paired with it eating the snow a little more each day, we enjoyed snowmobile trails for walking Bandit and took a day to visit Stowe, VT for a day of skiing and exploring. It was our first time visiting and the mountain was phenomenal for me with long green runs, limited crowds and opportunity aplenty to enjoy my improving ski skills. After a few hours of increasingly wet snow, my knee cried uncle and we called it a day. We scouted out the resort, enjoyed a gondola ride to view the shops, and ski runs on the other side, enjoyed some coffee and I grabbed a sticker for my collection! Side note: Hubby made it back to ski Stowe a few weeks later and had a phenomenal day so we will be sure to visit again next ski season (and later this summer on our anniversary trip, but that’s another post). On the way home, we stopped at Ben & Jerry’s factory but passed on ice cream because we had our hearts set on a fat burger after a morning of skiing and exploring and we were not disappointed in McGillicuddy’s Pub in Waterbury, VT. Highly recommend!
And as the snow continues to melt, we’ve walked Bandit around the town square to avoid muddy trails and consequently hated baths.
I continue to work on my sourdough recipes, tweaking and cursing as I go, but committed to win this tasty battle.
Our baby boy and his girl came to visit and we enjoyed snuggling, exploring and hockey—-love spending time with our kiddos.
And the bird feeder is back. Along with skunks, budding trees and turkeys in the yard. I think spring may finally be coming!!
And then we hilariously received two more whopper snowstorms. It took me 20 minutes to dig my car out and clean it off after working a 12 hour shift and doubled my drive home—basically the worst weather I’ve driven in so far. Thankfully, I got a hotel room the night before so I only had to drive it once! And then we played in snowshoes, shovels, skis and watching it from the kitchen with hot tea in hand.
And then Easter! Hallelujah!!! And what a glorious day to enjoy. Good Friday brought flowers and Easter brought a gorgeous 3 mile walk around Kezar Lake and checking out Musterfield Farm, finishing with homemade cheesecake—if you are lactose intolerant, look away.
The following weekend we watched our first Pond Skim at Mt. Sunapee. A hilariously impressive series of people of all ages skiing down the mountain and across a 50ft pond in a variety of costumes to the cheers of the crowd. I’ve no interest in partaking but watching was a HOOT and we will absolutely watch it again next year!
THE ECLIPSE. I watched after work from the parking lot. At 97-98% totality it was interesting, however, at total eclipse it only darkened similar to a storm cloud passing over, with lowered temps and cool shadows from the trees. Fortunately, I was off early enough to miss all the traffic a few hours later. Close call!
Among winter projects, the largest one was taking the pine ceiling Hubby experimented with in the bathroom to the kitchen. We still need to finish off with the moulding, but I LOVE it so much. Eventually, I’d love to carry this over to the living room to cover up the popcorn ceiling but this project is still too fresh and I believe we both need time to recover (Hubby more than me since he did the bulk of the work—-but my shoulders need some time away as well). Maybe next year. Maybe.
Lastly, this week I went to the annual 5 Colleges Book Sale and wow! I was so blown away. I knew it would be big, but it was really BIG! The event is 4 days long and held at the local high school. The cafeteria, gymnasium, classrooms were filled with books spilling along hallways, organized by genre and accompanied by CDs, puzzles and a variety of “oddments”. I spent about an hour with my friend perusing and filling our bags and finally hit a wall, checking out with 2 piles of books at $30!!! Will definitely be doing that again next year!! But also Sunday is 1/2 price day, so…………….
And that brings us to a close of another post. Hopefully it won’t be another two months until I blog again, but I guess time will tell. Hope you enjoyed sharing our adventures, until next time!
Peace!
T