{this moment] sous chef

{this moment} A single moment from the week. 

Vacation, day one.

It's Saturday and the long awaited first day of Thanksgiving vacation. The university is closed W-F of next week, but I took M-T as leave. We woke up at 9am. We ate muffins and cookies and leftover pecan pie. We tried to watch football but the networks disappointed. At least, at this point, Tennessee is winning.

I wrapped some of the first Christmas presents so we can take them home this coming week and stash them under the trees of others and out of our way. I worked a bit on my embroidery, which is so near to being finished that I am almost sad to see it come to an end. And we made taffy. Strawberry. Its kind of weird but oh, so very taffy-ish, so I take it as a success. All in all, a pretty lazy day and just what the doctor ordered.

(Psst... it's our little secret that Julian has officially declared that we have experienced a "dusting". I feel that by saying it loudly, I am jinxing the weather. I wish so hard it would be 6" of snow by the morning, hey,
a girl can dream.)

Remnants of a party.

I hosted a long awaited baby shower for a friend who is eagerly anticipating her long awaited baby boy. The party was a great motivator to get some of those tasks done around the house that always get neglected: dusting the ceiling fan, wiping down the baseboards, etc.

I had about 20 people on the list and I ended up very glad that not everyone came. The house was full. It was hot. I had the windows open. The food ran low. There weren't enough pens to go around. And it was perfectly lovely, nevertheless. But, it never occurred to me to snap one single photo to document the occasion for myself. Before I knew it, the dust had settled and I was left with the remnants. I was absolutely exhausted and I found myself wandering the house like a private investigator - "yes, this must have been a veggie tray at one point... there was, indeed, a party here... women - not men...oh, for a baby boy..."

{This Moment} On the current

{this moment} -  A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. 

Linking up with Soulemama. 

A bit chilly now.

It has gotten cold. This was the second real cold front that has blown in this fall that has made it feel like winter is just around the corner. We are expecting lows in the 20s, highs in the 30s this week. We've gone out twice to the lake to see if we could spot the tundra swans mid-migration. Twice, we've been rewarded with little-to-nothing. I'm so tired of seeing pied billed grebes, but I ought not be ungrateful, I suppose. We rushed out to the lake on Thursday to see the 500+ reported swans that were there at 1pm. By 5pm, when we arrived, there was not so much as an ugly ducking left on the water.

Anyhow, the chickadees have been our consolation this weekend. Our Kmart is going out of business so we bought an el cheapo feeder to take the place of our hummingbird feeder throughout the winter. It is nice because, so far, the chickadees are the only ones that can get to it because it is so close to the window that the other birds cannot fit. They are so gregarious, too, that they don't mind our company at all.

We attended our last WVU game of the season. It was a bit chilly to say the least and OH so long. We made the best of it though, can you tell? (WVU vs. Texas, and we lost in overtime)

I've tried so far not to get ahead of myself and start pinning winter themed things yet on Pinterest, but this past week, I just couldn't help myself. I started the third seasonal board, Winter Wonder, and it makes me oh so happy. It (wait for it!) melts away all the dread of the "grayness" that permeates this town from October to May each year. It sounds really cheesy but the seasonal board really help me focus on the present and not fret so much about what lies ahead. Its nice to be able to think about the hear and now (and maybe next week and next month) without getting carried away.

Time change

 'Tis the season for the migratory ducks to pass through Morgantown. 'Tis also the season for them to come in late at night and leave in the early morning so we never get to see them but only read the tales of their existence on eBird.org. Nevertheless, we try.

Saturday morning, we got up and went out. We were out of the house in the truck with the kayaks and our "expedition" bag (the backpack along with every little thingy we could possibly need while we're out). We left around 9am, stopped at two regular bird spotting places (I-68 bridge and the marina) before coming to the Cheat Lake Park and paddling around for a bit. It was quite the experience with the water being what we could only manage to describe as "jiggly."

No ducks wanted to be seen. It turns out that to watch ducks, you have to watch the weather. We were on the near side of a cold front that was blowing through, which is shown by the grayness of it all. Despite the clouds, the foliage was incredible to behold. 

Sunday afternoon, the cold front had passed but by the time we made it to the lake, with bicycles this time, so had the afternoon. We completely forgot about the sun setting sooner, and just beyond the point on the left, there was a raft of ducks that we couldn't get close enough to ID before the sun went down. The park closes at dusk and we've been chased out by the park manager before. When I got home and looked at the eBird.org logs, I saw that we had been right to go back out since the front had passed and the clouds had been replaced with a brilliant sun and crisp autumn air. It turns out that there were a great many ducks of all kinds (buffleheads, surf scoters, ring-neck ducks, etc) on the lake that day and they were seen by a great many people before continuing their southerly migration--while we were sitting in church.