Erumpent Buds

Buds! I saw tiny red buds on a brown stick whilst standing on the cold lawn watching train boards go up in flames! It could be American linden? The oak leaf behind it is there for backdrop purposes only, and is not attached.

The Merrian Webster dictionary defines erumpent as bursting forth or through a surface. I think this budburst qualifies, though it is more usually used to describe forceful growth through a host surface, as fungi and algae do.

Fiery Send-Off

Dale and Hein finished clearing the entire basement of his model train benchwork and I was tasked with burning the pieces that broke and shattered or were too big to pack (see Dale's rendering of the process here: Cabin layout.) The manner of deconstruction rendered most lumber unusable, but we salvaged as much reusable material and structure as we could.

It was very sad to see recognizable parts of his layout go up in flames

 I'm a raving  pyrotechnic at heart so loved the 2 days I spent giving his layout a good send-off.

Rapt about Wrapping

 Here is a piece of furniture, deconstructed and wrapped (not rapt) with other things packed inside.

This is actually Dale's Laz-y-boy chair, arms and back detached, and stuffed with Tupperware storage containers, small wooden bowls, saddle clamps, a high-vis vest, blankets and tablecloth clips! No space wasted. Now he doesn't have an excuse for lazing about!!! Well, the poor guy finally pulled a muscle on Hein's last day of shifting furniture with us, and now he doesn't have a recliner to rest up on. It had to happen, right?

Reverberating Ice

A celebration today! We saw our first waterfowl of the season - common mergansers in the open water—they, too have been waiting for this I guess.

Like splintering wood

The sound of lake ice breaking 

Reverberating