A good snow means a good opportunity to clean rugs. I do not remember where I learned this trick but it certainly works for giving rugs a quick scrub in the winter. This time Larry did the honors.

It’s as simple as carrying your rugs outside, dumping snow on them and then scrubbing them with a broom. It is amazing how much dirt is removed in the process. I use this for rugs that can’t go in the washing machine and the results are very similar to using a rug cleaner.

There’s not been much snow here this winter, and the 3 inches this weekend was the most we’ve had at one time, so it was a good opportunity to get the rugs done. No snow ice cream this time, though–I just forgot to make it. So let’s hope for more snow so we can enjoy that simple treat.

“Sophie in the Snow”
by Lynnita Gregory of
Berea Gardens in Minnora, WV

I changed the red and green table to a winter green and white:

I really like this pale green Depression glass plate with the snowflake in the center:

My “winter green” table was done just in time:

This morning the snow is flying for the first time this year. Old weather lore says that the date of the first significant snowfall is the number we will have this winter. If the old-timers are correct, then we’ll only have two snows all winter? That seems unrealistic to me, but we’ll see.

Last January at this time, here is what we saw:

And this past weekend, this is what was going on:

Yes, those are honeybees, evidently after the sugar in the corn in the bird feeder.The bees were making the most of the warm weather! I hope they got snugged back in because the outlook certainly changed overnight.

It’s a good day to be inside by the fire, but we may have some outside work to do. So the day’s marching orders may be bundle up and work hard to stay warm.

For now, though, I have my coffee and a good book and the fire is quite inviting. I’m working on programs for this summer, searching for sun and moon and star stories.Warm work for a cold day.

What does a snowman like to put on his ice burgers? Chilly sauce!

THE  SNOWMAN VILLAGE

Down the road beneath the tall trees and under silvery skies, stand snowmen all in a row.
They live in a village where all good snowmen go when they are tattered and soiled.
Some have missing eyes, some have missing arms, some have missing noses, and some are so plump that they have missing buttons.
At night under the snowy skies, the animals gather to repair the tattered snowmen one by one.
They bring new buttons for their eyes. They bring new branches for their arms. They bring new carrots for their noses and they bring new buttons for their plump bellies.
The next morning the new snowmen are gone, leaving only bare spots on the ground where they once stood.
Where they go no one knows. But, I heard when snowflakes fall in snowman villages all over the world, a new snowman finds a home.

After playing out in the snow and making your own snowmen, enjoy these yummy cookies with a glass of milk or hot cocoa.

SNOWBALLS
1 cup butter, softened
½-cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup finely chopped pecans or walnuts
Confectioners’ sugar

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Cream butter, sugar and vanilla. Gradually add flour. Stir in chopped nuts. Shape the dough into rounded balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake at 325 degrees for 22-25 minutes or until set and bottoms are lightly browned. Let stand for 5 minutes and then dust with confectioners’ sugar. Makes 3 dozen cookies.

I hope you enjoyed my whimsical tale about a snowman village . . . and the cookies!

Janet Smart lives in Jackson County. Visit her blog at http://www.janetsmart.blogspot.com.

What do elves learn in school?

The elf-abet!

December brings the first day of winter and Christmas. Soon we will be watching for the first snowflakes of the season and getting together with our family and friends.

I love the smells and sounds of Christmas: Spicy and sweet pies in the oven,  pine trees and wood crackling in the fireplace, the smell of cookies baking in the oven and peppermint sticks stirring our hot cocoa, sleigh bells jingling and choirs singing and Santa calling, “Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.”

This is the time of year we make Christmas decorations and write poems about the season. Gather your pencils and paper and write down what you like and do not like about December. Write down rhyming words and words that start with the same letter. Here are some words that come to my mind: Icicles and shiny bicycles, white snow and warm cocoa, skates and skis, frozen ponds and frozen toes, slushy ice and Christmas mice, mittens and boots and Santa Claus suits, frigid winds and fat snowmen, sledding and sliding, red birds and red cheeks and sniffles and sneezes.

In the Winter

In the winter
Hear the roar
As blizzards blow
Outside your door.

We slip and slide
In the snow
With our red cheeks
All aglow.

Do you like my poem? Now you write a poem and send it to Two-Lane Livin’ and it might be published on The Reader’s Page.

Candy canes are a sweet treat to eat during the season and we can also make gift toppers with them. Tie a ribbon around one and attach a note that says:

The candy cane turned
upside down,
is the letter “J”
To remind us of baby Jesus
Born on Christmas Day.

Make the note by cutting a piece of cardstock paper 2 inches x 4 inches and print neatly with a pen or colored pencil.  Punch a hole in the corner of your card; slip a ribbon through the hole and tie it into a bow.

  Janet Smart lives in Jackson County. Visit her blog at http://www.janetsmart.blogspot.com.

This time of year you often hear the comment, “boy, I hate to see the winter come.” Most of us are guilty of that thought when December rolls around on the calendar.  We begin to reminisce about those shady summer days and evenings on the porch watching the sun go down. We regret the passing of those near perfect Indian summer days that we usually get in late October and early November.  There is no doubt that the summer and fall brings some high times to our lives.  But, I wonder, would we want the same weather year around?  Wouldn’t we miss winter a bit if it actually went away?

I spent three years on the planet without any winter.  Two years on the extreme southern tip of Japan and the following year in San Diego, California.  While it wasn’t warm year around in both of those locales, it did not get very cold either.  We saw some flurries every now and then in southern Japan but no accumulation of snow.  I never saw a flake during my southern California sojourn. A light jacket was all that was ever needed to keep the cold at bay.

Despite all of the inconveniences and hardships the winter months bring on, they still give us something to look forward to. Those winter winds motivate us to do some things we would not do otherwise.  If the blue northern didn’t blow we would not be inclined to build a roaring fire in the woodstove or fireplace and enjoy some fresh popped popcorn. For sure, we would not bundle up in our warmest hunting clothes and crash through some fresh snow trying to jump an elusive grouse (which we couldn’t hit anyway).  Without winter there would be no reason to climb aboard our tractor on a zero morning and plow out the driveway, or break out the snow shovels and clear the walkways around the house.  We might actually get lazy.

And what about the children?  What would they do without the snow?  How would they ever get a day off from school? What kind of life would they have if they had no memories of riding a sled down the hill and crashing into a snow bank at the bottom? Think how lazy mothers might get if they did not have to help kids struggle into their snowsuits and break their backs trying to pull boots on, only to have them return an hour later to mess up the kitchen floors.  Yes, we have to have winter!

The thing I missed during my winterless years was that there was no noticeable change in the seasons. The bluster of spring and the splendor of the autumn that I was used to just didn’t happen. Nothing much happened when the winter and summer solstice rolled around.

The seasons motivate us to do things that we would not do if the weather never changed.  They put some variety in our lives. I don’t know of anyone who would want to have Christmas on a sultry, humid, miserably July-like day.

        Mack Samples is a well-known writer and musician who lives in Clay County.  Visit online at http://www.macksamples.com or email him at macksamples@gmail.com.

January brings a brand new year.
I can’t believe 2009 is here.
Each and every day seems to go so fast.
Turning each month into the past.
Watching the babies grow into adults.
You can’t slow them down, it’s not your fault.
Just leave fond memories through the years.
You remember the laughter and all the tears.
Remember times, like reading a book.
Make fond memories with what you cook.
So make it yummy with each bite.
Making new memories every night.

Cherries in the Snow

Crust:

1-1/2 cups sticks melted butter
1-1/2 cups flour
2 tsp sugar
3/4 cup chopped pecans

Mix together and pat in 13 x 9″ pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

Filling:

Cream together:

11oz cream cheese
3 cups powdered sugar
13-1/2 oz. cool whip (large container)

Spread over cooled crust.

Top with one can cherry pie filling over pie filling. Refrigerate.

Recipes by Lisa Cooper, owner of Mom’s Place, Elizabeth, WV.

One of the biggest cues that winter is ending is the emergence of the Spring Peepers. When you have a lake in your back yard, sometimes they can be so loud they make it hard to fall asleep at night. Most folks, when they hear that first “peep,” they think that spring has sprung.

But I know — the peepers always freeze twice.

It’s been about a month since we heard the first peep around here, and two weeks ago, there was a spread of snow. Then, we had warm days with rain, hail, thunder — all a small taste of spring. I planted seeds, inside and out. The hens began laying again. Crocus bloomed, forsythia bloomed, daffodils bloomed.

But last night the peepers were silent, and this morning — there’s snow.

As much as I would like to think we’d be delivering the April issue along sunny roadways with the windows down, I realize that’s not the weather predicted for the upcoming week. And though the Vernal Equinox has passed, I know the loading docks at the printer in Parkersburg tomorrow will feel as windy and cold as pick up in January.

<sigh>

The new T-shirts I ordered for Frank and I to wear on delivery sport our logos and a new promotion arrived yesterday. Looks like they’ll be pulled on over thermal shirts and hidden beneath coats all week. Bummer.

The arrival of spring is a month filled with disappointments — because once we start seeing the signs, we have higher expectations of sunshine, warm breezes and open-toed shoes. But I have learned not to get my hopes too high, and to leave the electric blanket on the bed.

I may switch from snow boots to rubber boots for yard work, but I know to keep the wool socks handy.

I clip daffodil blossoms and forsythia branches, and bring them inside to put in water.

Because the peepers always freeze twice.