I admit it for all to see:  I’m a tree hugger.

Twenty-five years ago we bought a wooded lot, to build our home.  It was filled with mature trees and rough areas where trees had fallen.  The only place to situate the house was in an area of very old pear and apple trees.  It nearly killed me to have to give them up.  I managed to save two of each kind, and two of the pears and an apple tree are still with us after all these years.

We left the rough areas as passage for wildlife (and barrier from our neighbors).  Woodpeckers, dozens of other birds, raccoons, deer, coyotes, skunks and the neighbor’s cats and dogs all find the area interesting.

It became apparent that we were going to have to take down pods of trees at two corners of the house.  The trees had reached old age and died off and there was no doubt that  they would land on the house one day, so we hired a tree service to bring them down.  It was fascinating to watch, but I was very sad to see them go.  The shade around the house had changed, and the view out the sky lights showed a lot more sky.  Still, my favorite tree of all, a HUGE evergreen, was still there.  We communed every morning through the skylight, as I dressed.

That is, until last Thursday.  We were eating a late dinner when we heard a terrible thump.  It had been raining all day, one of those freakish warm days following six weeks of arctic cold.  The rains had given over to very high gusts of wind when the house shook.   We both went to see if we could tell what had happened.

At first there didn’t seem to be anything wrong.  Whew…missed the bullet again.  Then, I walked into the office and discovered bits and pieces of drywall on the floor.  I looked up and saw a branch about 3″ wide jutting 15″ into the room right where the ceiling and the wall meet.  At that point, I could hear Dear Husband above me in the attic, counting holes in the roof.  At least four branches from the upper part of the tree pierced the roof.

We have been very lucky.  The rain had stopped, and the temperature had dropped again, so we didn’t have water pouring or dripping in the holes.  The heavy part of the tree didn’t hit the house.  We have a tree service coming today to cut back the tree so the damage can be assessed.  They will have to bring in a crane to support the trunk so that it won’t swing into the side of the house once the branches are cut off.  Luckily, we have insurance that will cover the tree removal.

So, we have at least four holes in the roof.  We’ll need new shingles, and plywood cladding and whatever else went into making our roof.  We’ll need a new stretch of gutter and soffit.  It’s possible that we might need some bricks replaced.  And, we will need drywall and paint in the office.

Oddly, all that isn’t bothering me terribly.  It can all be fixed.  But, my favorite tree is gone, and when it came down, it took out my second favorite tree, a beautiful mature star magnolia.  The view out my skylight, and the view out my office window are both terribly bare and I won’t get to see the magnolia bloom this spring after a winter of anticipation.

I’m  tree hugger.  These trees were my friends and I feel their loss.

Dear Husband saw an ad for a sale on some of the Great Courses and decided to buy several of them.  He has very eclectic tastes.  He chose a class on the Hubble telescope, one on Math, two on gardening, one on cooking and a lengthy series on the Dead Sea Scrolls.  This evening we watched the first  4 lectures on the Dead Sea Scrolls.  It’s fascinating, but I think I need to watch the lessons during the morning, or earlier in the evening.  By the time it gets close to bedtime, I find it more difficult to follow some of the points.

I think we may watch the cooking series together.  I find these classes are promoting some discussion between us.  Occasionally, it’s a simple matter of not having heard something, or of having heard it wrong, but more often it’s discussion of a concept that is new to one of us.  I learned a lot of baking technique in my 20s, and then set it aside when a doctor told me to stop baking to make it easier to loose weight.  I tend to be a cook who follows recipes, while DH is more likely to take ingredients that please him and put something together.  He makes something we call “slumgullion,”  (beef chop suey), that is different each time he makes it, and usually very tasty.  I wish he could recreate some of the versions, but he doesn’t work from a recipe, and he doesn’t take notes on what he’s doing.  This course may help us blend our talents.  I may become a free spirit in the kitchen, and DH may be encouraged to keep track of his inventions!

While DH is busy with courses that don’t interest me, I have several classes from Craftsey on how to machine quilt using a regular sewing machine.  I’ve finished one of the courses and started a second.  I plan to go back to the beginning of the second course and start over.  Too much time has passed since I first started it.

And, I have too many quilting projects underway.  I have two baby quilts to quilt for family members, and at least five large quilts cut out and calling to me to finish them.  It’s almost time for Scraps on a Mission to start, and I have two laps quilts underway for them.  I don’t have any difficulty at all finding ways to fill my time.  Don’t you feel sorry for people who are bored, or those who can’t find something that interests them?

Winter has been brutal in my neck of the woods, but not as brutal as places to the east of us.  We have been coping with horrible cold, and even worse wind chill.  Monday, when we had to go to the doctor’s office at 9:00 a.m., the weatherman hoped that we might hit a high of ZERO for the day.  There are two snow storms headed our way which might bring us six more inches of snow.

My youngest sister, Frankie, who lives in Indiana, has had her school closed a record TEN DAYS.  The school will have to go longer than the proposed school year to make up for the lost days. She posted a picture of a drift across their rural road in which a snow plow got stuck.  Another plow was called in to dig it out.

We are staying at home, burrowing in.  I finally tried my hand at sewing sashing on a quilt, and it seems that I can do simple straight sewing now.  Dear Husband is doing a couple of the Great Courses, one on cooking, and another on ten pictures from the Hubble telescope.   I have books, and books on disks to read, a Craftsey quilt class to finish, and I still need plenty of snooze time.  We’ll make a quick trip out on Thursday before the next round of snow comes.

I hope all our friends are safe, and finding ways to stay warm during this terrible weather.  Think “safety” if you must go out!

I’m yet living, but I’ve had a little surgery.  In October I discovered that I had a hernia and made arrangements for surgery last week.  Doc found there were actually TWO hernias during the surgery.  I’m five days into an expected four week recuperation.  Dear Husband is taking exceptional care of me.  I still have some pain, and spend a good portion of the day snoozing.  Today was the first day I felt clear enough to post.

I’ll visit more as I feel better.

Be forewarned, this post may have too much information for you.

I was good and went for a colonoscopy today.   This is my third.   Everything is fine.  My mother had colon cancer at 78.  With that in mind the doctor is now shifting me to an “every three years” schedule.  He said that as I got closer to the age when my mother had her cancer we would need to be more vigilant.  I protested that I have a lot of years to go to reach 78, and he said it didn’t matter.  So in three years, I’ll be doing this again.

I’m always glad when I get test results like this.  It puts my mind at ease.

My sister, Frankie, made a tower of grapevine for us two years ago.  She had made one for herself that I greatly admired, and she and her husband collaborated on one for us.  I took to calling it “Cousin It,” much to her dismay.  Her tower was graced with strings of lights that welcomed you to their front door, and, of course, I wanted mine to look just like hers.

Frankie found strings of Italian lights with wires that were brown, so that they blended in with the grapevines.  I plugged the lights in every night throughout the Christmas season, and into January, and then they died.

One of the chores on my to-do list was to find replacement lights for It.  We tried several places near our home with no luck until I struck it rich at Hobby Lobby.  I bought two sets, to be sure I had a back up.

I was ready to string the lights the other day, but couldn’t find them.  I asked Dear Husband if he had seen them.  No….neither of us could remember where they’d been put.  I checked every conceivable place they could have been tucked away, with no luck.

I was seriously considering going back to buy more lights, when Dear Husband announced that he had found them.  We had taken the SUV in for winterizing, and were using our second car to run errands that day.  The lights had been sitting in the back seat of that car, and I’d never thought to look there.

I could SEE myself tossing the lights into the back seat.  I just couldn’t see which car it had been.  When Mother was alive, I was always the finder of things.  No matter what she lost, I was likely to be able to find it.  I  think I may need someone to fill that role for me, now.