Winter Is Coming

I thought I'd gotten away with a mild Winter here in my new locale, just a bit cold at times, but no snow.  Until now.  Well, I haven't seen it yet, because it's only 7am, but the forecast says:

WINTER STORM WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM THIS MORNING TO 10 AM PST TUESDAY...Heavy snow expected. Total snow accumulations of 4 to 6 inches expected.

EEK!

Yesterday I went to the store and stocked up on groceries.  The dog food is shipped automatically every few weeks and that arrived recently, so we're good.  If the forecast holds, I'll have to miss my library gig, as the warning goes on to say we should stay off the roads.  And this could last a while, with temperatures in the high 20s/low 30s for the next two weeks.  

My plan is to read a lot, do needlepoint, and sketch stuff from photographs.  Drawing from photos is not my thing at all, but when needs must, the camera comes out.  I went to an antique mall this past week and took several pics of interesting displays to practice on at home, like this:

I even used some of the new art supplies I recently bought!  I also tried them out on a photo I took some summers ago of the Columbia River gorge area:

The resulting drawings look pretty much the same as the ones I typically produced using the old art supplies.  Hm.  If I want them to somehow look different, perhaps I should try radically different supplies, such as acrylic or gouache paint.  Hm.  Must ponder this more.

Anyway, that's the plan.  What about the Hounds, you ask?  Well, on Saturday I took them for a walk, which may be the last dog walk for some weeks.  We went to the Park at the Lakes, where there were lovely birch trees:

And a lake or two:

The waterfowl residents were quite lovely as well -- here is a wigeon eyeing a coot who has pulled up some tasty vegetation: 

And here is a Hooded Merganser being very reflective:

As for the needlepoint, I continue to make progress:

My plan for today is to go to the nearby hardware and sporting goods store as soon as it opens at 8am (before the predicted snowfall!) in a search for snow boots, while hoping that I never have to use them.

Finally, apparently there was a football game on yesterday, which I thoroughly ignored.  Instead, I had the Puppy Bowl on nonstop.  It was vastly superior to anything else on TV, and it kept Pippin entertained.  Pippin enjoys watching animals on TV -- he is especially fond of any nature documentaries that feature either big cats or rodents.  Here he is watching a wiener dog race:

He loved the Puppy Bowl.

Until next time, may you all stay dry and warm!