Monday, January 25, 2016

SNOW!!!!

For those of you who live in the snowy north, you will think it's silly that we get so excited about snow, but around here it's a rare event - especially getting enough of the stuff to play in.  On Jan 22 we got about 5 inches, and a bit more snow and sleet over the next day.  Everything was pretty much shut down for a few days and thankfully we didn't lose power.  The great thing about being in community when something like this happens is that people are close enough to walk to the common house to eat together, play games, or just hang out.  And several of us took multiple hikes in the beautiful, snowy woods, enjoyed the hot tub together and went sledding on the Potluck Farm hill.  It's starting to melt today, but the sledding was wonderful this morning.  This evening, Meg, Kelly, Cathy and Mary met at 8pm to sled under the full moon.  The moon was a bit late in rising, but we had some great sledding anyway!  It will almost be sad when it melts........ almost.

Below are photos of sledding, woods walk and snowman....

 Michael, Mary, Jim, Cathy, Kate, Rosie, Riley and the other Michael hitting the slope!





 Woods walk





 Well, I had great photos of a Scrabble game (won by Joan) and building the snowman, but turns out the camera didn't have an SD card, so I lost them all!  Anyway, Dave, Mary and Jim each rolled a ball for the snowman, Mary found eyes and nose (common house pantry), Dave found a smiley mouth (old piece of electrical cable), Jim found buttons (also electrical stuff), Anne found the ears (rocks), Dave and Jim did the hair/hat (grass and cedar) and arms, and Jeff gave the snowman a shovel to hold (but it got taken back for use!).



Solstice (a little late!)

Every year, Vonda Frantz hosts a solstice celebration at her and Cecil's home.  She, with other planners, creates a huge, multi-course menu, buys all the ingredients, and invites everyone over to cook.  For the first time this year the event was held at the new Common House (which we call the Hive, for "beehive of activity").  Cooking starts around 7pm and dessert usually happens around 2am!  We used to try to stay up all night, but I think we're all getting too old for that!  Everyone is encouraged to bring activities to do throughout the evening and there is always a big bonfire.
 Lots of cooks in the kitchen!

Mary wiping beer off the ceiling - don't ask...
 Cecil - the fire tender
 Pam, Jan and Vonda fire-gazing
 Glaeshia and Jim
Jan, Phil and Marj