It’s fun to ski and I just used to ski on hills around our house when I was a kid. Back then they didn’t have release bindings and my brother broke his ankle going over a jump and landing in deep snow one time.

The first time I skied on a mountain with a lift, I was in my 30’s. I had ski boots on that were my son’s boots that he had discarded that were like a size and a half too big for me and also his poles and skis which were nice ones. I went to the top of Suicide 6 with a friend that had skied on mountains since he was a very young kid. Well the trail was steep and I was not prepared with ski lessons or anything and my heart just about sank from what I had to choose from for trails to get down to the base of that Suicide 6. Thankfully my friend’s friend was a ski instructor and after being abandoned by my friend who wanted to have fun skiing, the ski instructor helped me get the hang of turning and pushing a ski in front to slow you down. Then he yelled at me to slow down because it was actually fun to go fast.

Looking back, it would have been much more safe and fun to start my mountain skiing with a less steep trail. They always have an “easy mile” that goes out and around and you can get the hang of controling your skis. Suicide 6 has short, steep trails made for speed. No easy trails.

Vermont is so pretty with it’s covered bridges and rural roads. Every season has it’s beauty and I just love all 4 seasons. Even winter if you don’t have to travel on the roads too much and you have studded snow tires as well as 4-wheel drive.

We are going to get more snow tonight and it’s a heavy wet snow that sticks to the trees. Sometimes the branches will fall onto the powerlines and put the power out in some areas if we have a blizzard. I think we are just going to get maybe 6 inches of snow at the most in the mountains. No blizzard. In the southern part of the state maybe 3 inches, at least in the valley areas. I love the above photo of the sun coming through the trees in the morning light. With the ground frozen and the air is warming up, sometimes we get freezing rain and that makes like a skating rink for the roads with snow on top of it. The plows hate to use much salt and it’s not an easy situation if you have to be on the roads. Some people will not slow down and there are fender benders accidents sometimes.

I don’t know how the winter birds survive in the winter as they are so little. The little Chickadees just seem to thrive in the weather and they love it.

When it’s cold and snowy outside, I like to look at garden seed catalogs. One of my favorites is John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds. The website online of John Scheepers has all kinds of colorful ideas for planting gardens.

It’s a good day for soup and I’m just going to use my Instant Pot pressure cooker and make some Lentil Soup. It’s perfect for a day like today.

And wishing you a sparkling day.