Ever wonder what would happen if you left your sprinklers on all winter?

We picked the prettiest day of the month to go up to Midway, Utah to look at the Ice Castles at Zermatt Resort. The sky was perfectly blue. I don't think they would have been as impressive to look at on a cloudy day, but they were really surprisingly beautiful. The drive through Provo Canyon was also great -- saw lots of fly fishermen and a few people ice fishing on Deer Creek Resevoir.

From the parking lot the ice castles looked small and unimpressive, but when we were walking through them it felt like we were on the movie set for the Chronicles of Narnia or on some sort of small scale arctic expedition. Some of these pictures remind me of the red rock down in southern Utah (especially around Bryce), but all blue and white.

More pictures of Ice Castles in Midway, Utah

The Shoe Tree

A strange thing has happened to a tree not far from our home. Over Christmas break, someone started throwing shoes into its branches and now there are dozens of them -- everything from baby booties to men's dress shoes to women's pumps. I don't know how they stay up there through the snow and wind, or how they will be taken down or when.

At first glance they look like birds perched in the tree, a familiar sight. My neice and husband had not even noticed the shoes until I pointed them out to them. How could you not notice shoes dangling in a tree you pass every day? We really need to slow down and smell the roses a little more often.

These are a few of my favorite things…

I do not usually admit that I am at all materialistic. I’ve never thought of myself in that way. I don’t crave expensive jewelry or fancy cars, but I am often amazed by the sheer volume of STUFF! we have. Where did everything come from? Did we really buy all of this one item, one dollar at a time?

This is a bit of a sensitive subject for me because as a child I was the family ‘pack rat’ whose bedroom walls were covered with pictures and quotes and art work, etc. Also, my grandmother was a bit of a hoarder, notorious for her overstuffed “sewing room” and a lifetime collection of butter tubs.

Anyway, I’ve been cleaning out my ‘home office’ this week, which is really an ever-expanding corner of my bedroom. (We have an office downstairs, but I prefer to write here for some reason.) And I’ve observed that I have an attachment to odd things that symbolize (in my mind) something else, such as…

…a small faceless rag doll. When I look at it sitting on a shelf in my bookcase, I remember being 12 and riding my bicycle down a curvy, tree-lined street past lovely homes on a beautiful summer day to buy it at a gift shop in Prairie Village, Kansas. It’s a pleasant memory of early independence, I guess.

DOLL = PEACE, FREEDOM

…a cardboard puzzle/castle that was given away as the prize in a Wendy’s children’s meal several years ago. I liked it so much that when my daughter had assembled it and was ready to toss it, I decided to save it in my room, where it occupies a prominent place. It makes me think of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s famous quote, “If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost. Now put the foundations under them.”

CASTLE = DREAMS

…a hideously ugly troll doll I received as a gift from the Rotary Club of Gjol, Denmark, where the trolls are made. It has orange eyes, orange pants, and thick, wild black hair.

TROLL = DANISH FRIENDSHIP

…gnomes – don’t worry, I only have three, and one is just a resin garden gnome I bought for myself several years ago, unaware that my husband had already bought a Travelocity Gnome for me online. (I think he is adorable! Both Scott and the gnome.) Then I bought a small laughing gnome to help me remember to keep a sense of humor about things.

TRAVELOCITY GNOME = SEE THE WORLD
LAUGHING GNOME = LAUGH

…an extremely kitschy, gilded, rhinestone-studded porcelain cow. Scott brought it back from a business trip knowing that it was the most ridiculous thing he could find (also knowing that I love cows.)

KITSCHY COW = LOVE

…my Shakespeare bobble-head. No explanation necessary.

SHAKESPEARE BOBBLE-HEAD = WRITE!

…a toadstool fairy cottage. I felt silly buying it, though it was very inexpensive, because what am I going to DO with it? Where am I going to put it? I don’t know the answer to either question. I just fell in love with it and had to have it because it excited my imagination.

TOADSTOOL COTTAGE = IMAGINATION

If all of these things were to be destroyed or stolen (which is extremely difficult to imagine), I would not be very distressed, but I like having them around, so I guess things are more important to me than I thought.

A Hint of Spring

I know it's a little early (February!) to be thinking "Spring!" but this morning as I drove my daughter to school I detected just a hint of spring in the atmosphere. Not a bud on a tree yet, snow still on the ground (our yard is always the last to melt), but when I rolled down my window (we don't really roll them anymore, do we?)I thought the air seemed almost warm and it smelled fresh and earthy, like the ground is ready for spring to begin. So am I!

If I were more than a theoretical gardener, I would be planting my peas about now. Peas thrive through snowstorms, and we probably have a few snowstorms left before it really is spring. One of my favorite memories of Denmark is of eating sugar snap peas in the garden - just popping them open and enjoying their goodness while standing in the furrows. I'd never enjoyed anything so fresh and sweet.

The Danes really know how to appreciate spring. As soon as the sun came out after the long, dark winter, my host family and I were dragging our eiderdowns out to the back yard where we lay under them on lounge chairs to sun our faces. We still needed the thick feather blankets to prevent frostbite, but we were soaking in the sun.

A Thought for Valentine's Day...

A myriad stars far-set in midnight blue;
The countless roses wet at dawn with dew;
Millions of little specks of human dust go gleaming
Through the light that's life -
But there is just one YOU! - James Foley

Ready for Anything, or Nothing

I am at my desk, my fingers poised over the keyboard. The telphone, my cell phone, the ceiling fan control, and the channel changer are all within my reach. My daily planner is at my right elbow clipped open to today. The printer/copier/scanner/fax is blinking at the ready within inches of my head. Sitting here at command control, I am ready for anything.

It's kind of ridiculous, really. Is it any wonder that I find it difficult to relax?

Over our traditional Saturday lunch, Scott noticed that my left hand was clinched into a fist for no apparent reason. Thoughts are flying through my head of things that need doing, errands that need running, dreams lying dormant that might be safely awakened on a bright, sunny, unscheduled Saturday in February. Do I have time to do this...or that? Everything seems possible and impossible at the same time. I'm like a computer revving, revving, revving just to keep the screensaver running. I feel like a marathon runner who is jogging in place.

These are my options:

do something
take a nap
sit here and keep checking things on the computer
clean out the pantry
process laundry (the ongoing struggle)
organize the disastrous coat closet
write
blog
cook something for tomorrow's Super Bowl extravaganza
bake something for tomorrow's Super Bowl extravaganza
read
go to a movie

I think the problem is that I have operated under so much stress over the last few weeks that having a free day actually freaks me out.

In not wanting to waste it, I am wasting it.

Some quotes found while substitute teaching...

I subbed for two days last week in Abby's geometry class and enjoyed reading the teacher's folder of quotes. They were all on the subject of education. Here are a few of my favorites:

Some people would rather die than think. -- Bertrand Russell

The human mind treats a new idea the way the human body treats a foreign object; it rejects it. -- Sir Peter Medawar

If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin wth doubts, he shall end in certainties. -- Sir Francis Bacon

To travel hopefully is better than to arrive. -- Robert Louis Stevenson

Comparison is the cardinal sin of modern life. It traps us in a game we cannot win. Once we define ourselves in terms of others, we lose the freedom to shape our own lives. -- Jim Collins

When Abraham Maslow asked a college class if any of them had expectations of greatness, no one responded. "What else then?" he asked.

Good teachers share one trait -- a strong sense of personal identity infuses their work. -- Parker Palmer

Each individual brain is like a unique and unimaginably dense rain forest, teeming with growth and decay. It is less like a programmed machine than an ecological habitat that mimics the evolution of life itself. -- Professor Edleman, Nobel Prize winner

Everything depends upon the quality of the experience. -- John Dewey

Orville Wright did not have a pilot's license. -- Richard Tait

Wherever you are, be there. -- Emerson

In any work of genius, we recognize our own rejected thoughts. -- Emerson

To attract joy and create success, try doing less but doing it with more enthusiasm. -- Phillip Humbert