Old Man Winter

He may not officially arrive until late December, but he's sent his calling card, letting us know he's on his way.  We woke this morning to a fine blanket of snow and have been treated to hail as we sit and enjoy our morning coffee.  It's hard to think that in another month or so we'll look out our window and see vast stretches of white rolling snow drifts, highlighted by blue vallies and sparkling crests.

Before that happens we have to deal with an autumn occurrence...the march of the mice.  We haven't had a repeat of Mr. Scritchy, but mice we do have.  (We're in the middle of the country, so I guess it's expected.) Ron has located their point of entry (hopefully) and we're working on getting it sealed off, but our pantry fell victim to one of the wretched little buggers, so we've gone out and dropped a couple hundred bucks on a pantry with doors and nice sturdy plastic (BPA free, of course) containers.  We also have a new resident squirrel.  I've named her Persephone, but Ron says she's likely more of a Jill.  She's smaller than Heathcliffe(tte) was and even more energetic.  (I wouldn't have thought it was possible, but she literally flies from branch to branch...we've watched her sail though the air from tree top to tree top.)  Needless to say the live trap has been deployed, but she seems to have no interest in peanut butter crackers as there is a wealth of apples to be had.  (We can't keep up with the windfall.)  Is it just me or does this sounds VERY similar to blogs written at the same time last year???

We've switched over to the snow tires and are looking for a good deal on snow shoes, to aid my trips up the driveway this winter.  We feel better prepared, as Ron has been spending his free days increasing the insulation and sealing off the foundation.  It's very messy dirty icky work, but it makes us feel like we're preparing more thoroughly for winter.  The green machine is also in for a tune up and to have the snow blower attached properly.  No more lawn mowing this year.

Sunrise at Leaning Poplars (I'm trying out a new name for the "estate".)

We've been enjoying some of the items we brought back from Vancouver, things like dried ancho chilies for fish tacos and toasted Lebanese couscous pearls.  Here's what we had for dinner last weekend:

Lobster Provencale on Lebanese couscous...yummy!

Ron seems to have mastered getting the claws out whole with the cartilage removed.  An impressive task for those of you unfamiliar with lobster "shucking"...I don't know if that's the official word for shelling lobster, but I like it!

We must now organize our new pantry and get the kitchen reordered, as we have plates on the counters and everything is in a state of upheaval.  Wish us luck in our quest against the nefarious mice & Moriarty like squirrel.  (Sorry!  We watched the entire Lord of the Rings movies last weekend as a wicked Nor'easter blew through, so I seem to be in that sort of mode.)