Delightful December Days December 14, 2025

While visions of a wintry mountain town.....

.....dance in my head, I am enjoying what is close to home!

My paints, pallet and paper were put to use to create the above image.  I had completed a tutorial on how to paint a big city winter sight at Christmas time.  It was a pleasure to paint.  I decided to paint another picture putting my own spin on it.  I came up with a Wintry Christmas Mountain Town!  While that tree on the main street is gigantic.....

.....one of the trees in my home is petit! This is the seaglass tree my sister made for me!  

Yesterday morning this was how cold it was!  No, my hair is not grey! I needed to stretch my legs for a couple of hours before sitting for a couple of hours enjoying a live performance of "A Miracle on 34th Street" staring my friend's daughter. 

While "out & about" for those couple of hours, I checked in on the tiny sized two foot trees at the Birth Forest.  The majority of them are thriving!  

the trail behind me

it was mesmerizing to watch the water swirl below these hanging icicles

At day's end, I turned on the lights on my two foot tree, 

the one I will enjoy for a few days over Christmas.

The bootie slippers no longer sit under my big tree!  

They will be bringing warmth and comfort to others!

The two stuffed animals I knit earlier this year are with the booty slippers. 

They are worthy of being hugged by a little one rather than sitting on a shelf for me to look at.  

In a twenty-four hour period, the temperature rose roughly thirty degrees.  The weather went from forming frosty fringes on my hair to being concerned the newly purchased butter would melt in my car while I was "out & about" for another couple of hours.  Now it's time to monitor for flooding and burst pipes!  Before checking out that situation, I checked out the goings on at Carburn Park.  The Trumpeter Swans remain a beautiful sight to see, as is the case with this adult and child.  

The adult enjoying being solo settled on the ice!

Common Goldeneye

Male Bufflehead

Male Common Merganser

Male Mallard mating with the Female Mallad

a Muskrat sitting on ice

one of many Killdeer

As I was heading to were the Bald Eagles hang out, this one left that area and flew in my direction.  It actually came too fast and too low for me to react quick enough to get a good shot.  I did see where they are building a nest but did not stick around to wait and watch.

I did wait and watch while the deer roamed across the trail.

Before heading out this morning, I did the Trifle painting for Day 14 on my Advent Calendar.  I am becoming more comfortable painting the very small pictures with the tiny details.  I am so curious when I wake each morning as to what the picture will be for the day.  I like that I am learning about Christmas traditions that are new to me.  Day 12 is a Christmas Bell, a flower that blooms around Christmas time in Australia.  Day 9 is a bag of pepernoten which is a Dutch spiced cookie popular on December 6th in The Netherlands when they celebrate Sinterklass.  I was so intrigued by this sweet treat that I....... 

.....I made my own after being "out & about" this morning! Oh my goodness, how delicious they are! The recipe called for speculaaskruiden which is a Dutch spice.  I made my own using cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger and cardamom.  I know when I go to The Netherlands, I will be purchasing the real thing while there.    

I better get back to the kitchen and package up the pepernoten, 

out of sight out of mind, 

for now!