A Day in Winter Wonderland

Today is the last day of our winter holidays. We all slept late, and after eating a quick breakfast and watching a bit of tv, we all decided that this is not how we wanted to spend our day.


So we split into teams: hubby packed the car, scraped windows, and put lots of wood into the fireplace so that the house would be warm when we came back. I dressed the kids in various layers of wool, as well as winter suits, made hot chocolate and quickly packed other necessities.


Like all 5-years my little princess had managed to get one of the many pairs of mittens we took with us soaking wet. At least we had a place where they would dry out over the hour long drive to get to our cabin.

After a peaceful drive we come where we spend most of our summers. Even though we have a four-wheel drive, we had decided even before arriving that we would NOT drive down the long hill to where our property lies, but instead to use the vast number of sleighs we've been collecting over the years.

Our children were supposed to help us, but before we even had a chance to unload what we had taken with us from town, they were off like a shot.

This was clearly a battle we were destined to lose.

When we finally made it down to our property, my husband decided to take a quick visit into the cabin to check for any mouse invasion, or potential water problems, while I took a short trip around our property and dreamed of harvesting ingredients for my soaps next summer.

Along the way I ran across some fox tracks. Not long after this I saw some hare tracks as well. I wonder if these two met for dinner or not.

One might notice how blue the pictures are. This is due to the angle of the earth against the sun... the low level of light. This day there was exactly 2 hours and 9 minutes of direct sunlight.

Onto my future summer plans - below is where I have my small garden. Here I have grown carrots, zucchini as well as potatoes. I have also been working on a contraption that will work like a greenhouse..... or really a greenhouse with lots of open windows. So it's really a question if my idea will work or not. I will have to blog more about it in a few months.

On the upper part of the property is where I find my juniper berries... though I admit it's hard to see the difference between the juniper bushes and the other surrounding vegitation.

In amongst all the wild raspberry plants that can be seen grows a horrendous amount of nettles, fireweed, or burning grass. This plant has been used as a medicinal plant for many centuries and I plan to cut it all down, take it through a quick parboil, and then store it for further use with my soap.

These are the wild roses where I have collected my rosehips to make my rosehip soap.

While my hubby and I were busy doing our business, my creative daughter was making ice-sculptures by breaking apart the frozen layers of snow. This one she has called 'Frozen Christmas Tree.'

Meanwhile my son was having fun playing in his own fantasy world.

We get the fire started......

And soon we're all roasting sausages.

It's not often that I get captured in photographs, but here I am with my two favorite kids in the whole, wide world.

All in all, it was a great way to spend the last day of Christmas Holidays.

A family day of sledding....

Today the entire family was home, it was frightening cold (well okay, not really) and there was lots and lots of snow (that part is true).

We have been horribly unlucky through the Christmas holidays with not enough family time, just us four, no one else, no responsibilities. Today was not going to be like that. We put everything on hold, invited some friends who we really like, took our biggest and fastest rocket sleds and went to find the best hill on the island.

Here it is - a hill on an old farm no longer in use.

Perfect.

Here is my son and his best friend way up on the top of the hill. They had said that they were not going to let anything stop them and come down the hill as fast they could.

Here comes my son, racing down full speed ahead!

And before my camea can allow me to take another picture, he's down at the bottom, hiding behind the sparse vegitation.

Lots of fun was had by all, and we all spent 3 hours getting great exercise climbing up the hill (myself included) and racing down, being blinded by flying snow and praying to the higher power of choice not to break any bones. And in between all of this fun, lots of hot chocolate and chocolate covered healthy granola bars.

A wonderful day.