After what was starting to seem like an endless winter, the heavy snowfall in Seattle that’s lasted nearly two weeks turned into slush and then rain by Tuesday. Unfortunately, now that snow just won’t go away. Even worse, early Tuesday morning, we lost power, as the weight of snow began to cause trees to start shedding limbs as if they were dropping leaves. After work - what little work I was able to do with no electricity and no internet that is - I spent a few hours knitting by candlelight until Andy got home and we decided to venture out into town for a hot dinner and some outlets to recharge our phones. Wednesday morning, with the power still out, I packed up my laptop and ventured out onto the sludgy sidewalks to work find a coffee shop with free wifi where I’d be able to work more effectively. After being cooped up in the apartment for so long, it was refreshing to work outside my home, especially with an almond milk latte and gruyere & thyme croissant for breakfast!
Read moreLife: Week 6
What started last week as a light dusting of snow has turned into a full week of actual winter in the PNW, with even more snow forecast to come over the next week. Overnight between Friday and Saturday, the Seattle area saw more snow than we typically get over the course of an entire year! While some are starting to tire of all the snow, I’m loving it! When I moved to Washington with my family as a child, I imagined that we were leaving behind the eternal summer of California for Great White North, where there’d be snow for three months out of every year. Our first winter in Washington was a snowy one - not the three months I’d imagined, but enough that we had an extended winter break with school cancelled for multiple days. I loved every minute of it, with sledding, snowball fights, and cocoa to warm up inside while our soggy winter clothes dried. Sadly, while we had a light snow most winters, that memorable snowstorm in 1996 was a rare event, and since I’ve had to head east for adventures in the snow.
Read moreLife: Week 5
With warm temperatures, sunshine, and the smell of late winter flowers dominating the last days of January, I had given up hope of seeing any lowland snow this winter. Naturally, this meant that just a few days into February, temperatures plummeted and a snowy wonderland descended on the Seattle area! I couldn’t have been more surprised, or delighted, as fat, soggy flakes began to fall on Sunday afternoon. Andy and I were out for a late lunch at Bellevue Brewing when the snow arrived, and the few people not at home watching the Super Bowl all clustered at the windows, phones in hand to document the snow. Happily, we made it home early enough for me to dash out to the Powerline Trail, meeting a friend and her family for a slow ramble through the transformed landscape. After such a warm, sunny winter so far, it’s such a relief to finally get a little snow!
Read moreLife: Week 4
It’s always tough to leave behind the hush and relaxation of the snow-covered cabin to return to the real world, and after taking Monday off, I returned to a hectic four day work week. Typically, January is a fairly slow time for me at work, allowing me some much needed time to catch up on all the lower priority but still necessary tasks that pile up during the busy season leading up to the holidays. Not so this year! After a brief window of downtime between Christmas and New Year’s, work has been one scramble after another. Andy has continued to be even busier than me, working both late nights and weekends. This weekend, feeling a little under the weather (or possibly just completely worn down from all the overtime he’s been working) Andy actually took both Saturday and Sunday off and we enjoyed a much needed lazy weekend at home. We didn’t spend the entire weekend on the couch though - Saturday night, we had a luxuriously decadent dinner at Cafe Juanita for no special reason. We took our time over our several courses, and were amazed to find they even had a lactose-free dessert item in addition to their seasonal sorbet options. It was even lemon - Andy’s favorite! If you too are intolerant of lactose, I’m sure you’ll understand our amazement. In case you’re not, trust me when I say it was borderline miraculous!
Read moreLife: Week 3
It’s been a mild winter, but this weekend, headed to my parents cabin to prepare for the January Alpine Trails Book Club, we found plenty of snow! After getting a later start than we’d hoped, we wound up venturing off in the dark, armed with headlamps to light our way in the driving snow. By the time Andy, Ingunn, and I made it to the cabin, over an inch of wet snow had accumulated on all our gear. While it took several hours to warm the cabin, we had plenty of blankets along with soup for dinner to warm us. Saturday, the temperature climbed quickly, with snow slipping from the trees in soggy clumps as we hiked out to help Ashley and her family make their way to the cabin.
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