Tuttle says, "It is Spring!"

It doesn't look like it outside, what with all the new snow, but it must be spring. Our box turtle, Tuttle, woke up from his semi-hibernation, climbed on top of the turtle garage and sunned himself. He then threw himself off, but I'm sure he wasn't TRYING to end it all. He's very hungry now, so we stocked up on crickets, worms and strawberries. He also likes carrots and expensive lettuce.

Another sign of spring? The dog is shedding so much I could knit a puppy from the fur I comb off her.


We went up north for the weekend. We stayed at the cabin which belongs to Paul's relatives. This cabin is very rustic and has no electricity or water. It is heated by a wood stove. We really like to go there. Unfortunately, it was really cold this weekend. We put every quilt in the place on the beds.
We do have a generator, so we brought up the DVD player. We are watching the "John Adams" series that HBO did a while ago. It is very interesting, we're all learning a lot.


Here are Paul and Nick, wrapped up, watching the movie. Yeah, Paul's napping.












Here is the wood stove.Yes, those are antlers on the rafters.
Remember the Disney movie "Beauty and the Beast"? Gaston, the anti-hero, sings "I use antlers in all of my decorating....."
Trust me, it works at this place.














On Sunday we went skiing. Okay, the guys went skiing. Since I lost the ACL in my right knee, I don't ski much.Without the big ugly brace (which I forgot) I don't ski at all. So, sadly, I had to stay in the nice warm chalet, drink tea and read a book.



I read "Lavinia" by Ursula K. LeGuin. It is a retelling of the Aenid from the point of view of Aeneus' 2nd wife Lavinia. Pretty interesting and full of history from the pre-roman days.








Here are 2 handsome skiers prepared to tackle the slopes. They tried all the ski-lifts and all the intermediate hills. They slept really well that night. Despite my getting up twice to stoke the fire, it was 30 degrees INSIDE when we woke up on Monday. (Don't worry about Lucy-dog, I let her sleep in the bed with me.) We decided we'd had enough fun and went back to the land of gas furnaces and hot showers.





In honor of (my internal, mental) Spring, and Grandma Elly's birthday, I will give you her best recipe. Rhubarb is a spring item, it will come up as soon as all this stupid snow melts.

Rhubarb Pie

Pastry for 1 or 2 crust pie
rhubarb to fill crust (cut up)
Strawberries (optional)
1 cup sugar
2 rounded Tbls flour
1/2 cup cream (or half and half)
cinnamon

Fill pie shell with rhubarb.Mix sugar, flour and cream and pour over rhubarb. Elly always made this an open face pie, but I like to add cut-up strawberries and a top crust that is latticed. Sprinkle with cinnamon, bake at 350 degrees for an hour. Put this on a foil lined cookie sheet in case it bubbles over. You can use frozen rhubarb, but it takes much longer to cook.