Winter in Hodgepodge, Wisconsin

Maple seeds, winter

Fence west of Anderson's

Finches at the feeder

It took them about a week to find it.

AND NOW...

Join Joyce and the Gang

for

She writes the questions;

we write the answers.

Plug them into your own blog

and join in!

1. Share a winter memory from your childhood.

I remember Mom taking this photo just

after unhitching the team of dinosaurs from our sleigh.

Snowbanks were huge, and that's not just because I was little. They were huge, a lot like the snowbanks of March, 2014. We spent a lot of time playing on the snowbanks, carving out houses, thrones, plates and bowls of snow. Wisconsin children had rosy cheeks.

Snowbanks near our house, March of 2014

Snow caves, January 2011

I realize that bloggers from the east coast are reeling from the huge, devastating storm of the weekend.  I heard one guy on the news say, 'We got all of winter at one time.' It will be no quick and easy task to dig out from all that snow.

2. What was on your blog this time last year? (Besides the Hodgepodge of course!) If you weren't blogging, what in the world were you doing with all that free time?

I looked back through my files and find that my blog is pretty much the same then as now: Barns, Fences, Grandkids, Snow, Churches, Quotations from favorite authors, Odds and Ends. I don't have as many recipe posts these days. That's probably because I've already posted nearly everything I know how to make.  I've been blogging for over six years! For a look back at the 28th of January last year, it was:

A Heart-melting Hodgepodge.

 From January 28, 2015 blog post
Waiting for Dad

3. Ellen Goodman is quoted as saying, 'We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives...not looking for flaws, but for potential.' 

Do you see more flaws or more potential in your life at the start of a new year? Have you done anything specific this month to address either one? Does the new year truly begin for you on January 1, or is there some other month of the year that feels like a fresh start and new beginning?

I guess I'm not as philosophical as Ellen. But in regard to when the new year begins, in Wisconsin, it feels like the new year begins on April 1. From December 26 through March 31, we're mostly waiting... April is full of expectation, the snow is usually gone, kids are once again playing baseball, and May with all its glorious greenness is just around the corner.

Grandsons visiting us in April of 2013

I take it all back. I just ran across the photo (above), taken in April of 2013. So let's make that May 1. We did get a blizzard in May of 2013, but that was an odd year.

 Deer in the alfalfa field,

May 5, 2013

4. Who's an athlete you admire or respect and why?

The amount of time I'm spending trying to even think of any athlete is an indication, I guess, that I'm not big into athletics. When I was younger, I could have told you the batting averages of all the important baseball players, but that was back when we had the Milwaukee Braves and I was also a fan of the New York Yankees and the San Francisco Giants. Today it seems much more about money and politics and scandal.

 No cream, thank you.

5. Do you like cream in your coffee? Whipped cream on your pumpkin pie? Cream cheese on a bagel? Sour cream on a baked potato? Cream of wheat for breakfast? Have you ever had a scone with clotted cream? Of all the creamy foods mentioned, which one sounds most appealing to you right this very minute?

I used to use cream in my coffee, but haven't for about four years. I have a friend who said that she simply stopped using it [and surprisingly, the earth did not stop turning]. So I decided to try that too. Cold turkey. I've survived. I only add a wee bit of cream if the coffee is bitter, but I try to avoid bitter coffee.  Of all the above-listed items, I would probably choose cream cheese on a toasted onion bagel, but I haven't had one of those for a long, long time, probably not since we lived in Pennsylvania where they really knew how to make bagels.

 Bagels, made by our SIL who also knows how to make bagels!

6. Where were you last kept waiting for 'hours on end'? Or for what felt like hours on end? How well did you cope?

I don't even remember the last time, but it would have been B.K. (Before Kindle.) I do remember the rare times that I forgot to take a book along and ended up waiting for you-know-who for what DID seem like hours. I would read everything, anything, I could get my hands on, like any bit of paper that happened to be in the glove compartment or in the side pockets of the vehicle or the labels on the inside of my gloves, or ANYTHING at all!  Now I take my Kindle and have so many options. I love it. If the grid ever goes down, I will miss my Kindle the most (well, maybe after running water.)


7. Believe it or not, when next week's Hodgepodge rolls around it will be February. Huh?!? Bid adieu here to January in seven words or less.

January: Kinder than usual. Such a relief!

January's also been filled with grandkids, which has been wonderful!

 Two weeks ago, his older brother spent the week with us.

This week, littlest brother is staying with us, and homeschooling.

We met this sweet little five year old and his dad in Hudson, not quite halfway between their home in Minnesota and ours in Wisconsin. As he was riding with us to our house, which was still about another hour and a half away, this was part of the conversation:

G:  'You guys live in the middle of nowhere!'

Grandpa:  'So do you.'

G:  'No, I live in a free country!'

I texted his mom today, warning her that he wants a hedgehog when he returns home. I made the mistake of showing him some YouTube videos of hedgehogs, after reading The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle. 

8.  Insert your own random thought here.

There's a lot of random in my life right now, and I don't know where to begin. I think I'll put in another photo I took recently.

Taken on that trip to 'the middle of nowhere'

***

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Also linked to:

Theresa's GOOD FENCES

Eileen's SATURDAY'S CRITTERS