Long Live the Queen

We recently had a break in our cold weather. We awoke Saturday morning to temps in the thirties. This time of the year, we aren't used to such balmy winds. We usually have to wait until the end of March or April to get warm enough for snow to stick together.

We decided to take advantage our good fortune by going to our favorite sledding hill. When we last visited our hill, it was coated with a nice thick layer of ice which Sweet Pea's airborne chin greeted abruptly. I assured her that this year the snow on the hill would be much softer. Currently, our hill is half snow and half mud. Which slowed us down just enough to ease last year's fear of flying down the hill. Hiking up the hill, of course, was just as laborious as last year.

When we were muddy enough, we went home to build our first snowman of the year. Sweet Pea did all of the rolling. Number One Son was too tired. SP informed me that she had built a snow queen. That gave me an idea. A snow queen needed special royal robes, so I found some teal colored Christmas lights and dressed her up. SP found a flat piece of ice for her crown. I added a lighted tree topper, inherited from my Grandma Peg, and our queen's crown was complete.

Since our warm weather was going to continue overnight into Sunday, I was doubtful that our queen's reign would make it through the night. Especially, since the Christmas lights were burning themselves into her as well.

And sure enough, by ten o'clock pm, she had toppled.

She was beautiful while she lasted. I'm sure she will rise to power again come March.

And just so Mother Nature could keep me on my toes, the temperature dipped to 8 degrees by three o'clock pm on Sunday. So I was standing out in the frigid wind, pulling tangled lights out of a block of ice, instead of something productive like an afternoon nap.