More snow today. This angel stands in my front flower bed. She keeps watch over the kale and pansies I planted last fall, which reminds me that I still need to plant the spring bulbs taking up what may become permanent residence in my garage. Because our fall weather was so warm, I didn't want to plant them too soon, only to have them rot or heave out of the soil. We have a lot of leeway on bulb planting, but they should go in now. I waited for cooler weather, but snow every week is ridiculous. My goal is to plant them tomorrow. I'll let you know how I did. Santa was exceptionally good to me this year. I got my new camera for Christmas, a Nikon D40x with a second lens. I am so happy. Tell me if you think my pictures reflect my new camera's abilities. I...

The weather folks were surprised yet again. First, they thought the storm would dump an inch or two of snow. Then, they forecast only rain in the center of the state. This morning, as we helped my son, the Airsoft Warrior, finish his Christmas shopping, the rain ended, and snow began to accumulate. It seems the storm slowed down and decided to stay. Our little town looked very festive in the snowfall, and shoppers did rush home with their treasures, except that no one ever rushes in Guthrie, sometimes much to my dismay. I am a former city girl after all. Two snow events and an ice storm, and all before January? We may be in store for one of those winters like the one when I learned to drive (1978.) It snowed every Wednesday for six weeks or more. I remember because I drove a Mayan Red Firebird. Very...

Sometimes you can have it all. The Diva (my high school aged daughter) and I made these cupcakes this morning for our large family party tonight. We wanted the icing to be Tiffany Blue and the cupcake papers to be silver. We found a way for both. A very light application of Royal Blue food coloring by Wilton will turn icing the famous hue, which also resembles the color of French royalty. I made the gluten free vanilla and chocolate cake recipes from Cooking Free by Carol Fenster, a favorite cookbook of mine, and the dairy free icing came from a recipe I saw at Gluten Free Mom. It goes with her Christmas cookie recipe. I baked those cookies as well last week, and they were wonderful. The secret to the icing is almond milk. We ate these at the party, and no one knew they were created without dairy...

Debris lines the streets of the Oklahoma City metro area. Hit hard by the ice storm, we'll be cleaning up for a long time, and I've heard Tulsa is worse. We're part of an official seven county disaster area. I took these pictures near HH's office on the south side of the city. Because I have children in schools north and south, I get to see damage throughout. After studying which trees were most effected by their icy coating, these are my thoughts about the storm. Where I live (way, way north,) we had just as much ice. However, I lost few trees. My biggest casualties were my Redbuds (Cercis reniformis,) but the ones growing on our property are old and weak splitting at the slightest wind. Our native oaks lost some branches, but damage was minimal. My Southern magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora) and Loblolly pines (Pinus taeda) came through the...