A Day on the Road

The Cole's spent another day in the vehicle traveling south. We left Maryland this morning and headed south into Virginia to Staunton. From there we crossed the Blue Ridge mountains and stopped for a few hours in Charlottesville. We visited the campus of the University of Virginia and saw the buildings designed by Thomas Jefferson, walking along the campus in biting cold and snow. Somehow we thought of John Boy Walton going to his classes there. These Virginians don't handle snow the same way that New Englanders do. They don't shovel it off the walks and steps, just a little bit of it and they leave the rest. Notice the bicycles parked in the snow in the pictures. It was hard to believe that we were in Virginia as the temperature hovered in the 20s and the snow was deep. We saw snow all the way to Richmond. It is certainly a strange winter. Tonight we are staying in Smithfield, North Carolina, where there are outlet stores everywhere.

A night in Maryland

We have reached Hagerstown tonight, a rather pretty and impressive town. There are nice streets and lots of old brick buildings. We left Massachusetts early this morning, shortly after day light. We made much better time than we expected, and have chosen a nice hotel for the night. It was very blustery and cold today, in the teens with the wind blowing. It is a bit warmer here. We thought that crossing the Mason-Dixon Line would bring warmer weather, but not much, and there are snow piles everywhere from the snow they had last week. We have spent the day going up and down mountains in NY and Pennsylvania. The coal mines have been left behind for the cattle farms and silos. We have a couple of pictures of the scenery, including the approach to Hartford, but it is pretty gray and brown, except for the snow. Gary drove all day and is relaxing with a flat-screen TV. We are off to Virginia tomorrow. At least we encountered no snow or rain today.

We are on our way!

No pictures today, but an update on the trip. We left early this morning and are at Bob's in Massachusetts tonight. As we unwind a bit we put on the Weather Channel, and would you believe they are talking about freeze warnings and maybe snow early next week in Florida??? Tell us it can't be true. It's been a long day and tomorrow will be another one as we try to get to central or southern Pennsylvania.

Christmas!

The Coles have spent the past couple of days together celebrating family and friends, exchanging gifts, and eating good food. Jon and Erin arrived on Tuesday, Bob and Gina arrived on Wednesday, and Andy and Jess spent the night last night. It has been a wonderful holiday, one that will be remembered. Louise stressed out over the knitting, finishing Ryan's sweater late on Christmas Eve. Bob's sweater is still a work in progress. Today we all gathered to open gifts and share a Christmas dinner.

Tomorrow we begin the packing for the trip to Florida. That is where this blog began last year!

Busy Day

Winter is upon us again. The big storm was not really so big, but since it left 6 or 7 inches of snow, Gary spent much of his day clearing up the yard. He bought a new snow shovel, and fired up the snow blower. Another challenge will come tomorrow when the chill factor is supposed to be well below zero all day.

Louise is getting a bit stressed about Christmas, the lack of shopping that has been done, and the knitting yet to do. Here you can see her as she spent the afternoon knitting, and making some progress on one of the sweaters that are needed for Christmas. The Coles have a lot of work to do before Christmas company arrives.

Tiger Cub

Ryan is a Tiger Cub! How sharp does he look in his Tiger Cub shirt and hat? Hard to believe he is old enough to join the scouting program. He goes faithfully with his Dad, and they are preparing to go Christmas caroling next week. This week they made Christmas decorations. We love this picture!

'Tis the Season

We awoke this morning to a world of white. The feeders are full of birds from goldfinches to blue jays and chickadees. Gary has finished the outdoor decorations, and they look lovely in the snow. We are happy that the snow will only be with us for a month, as we will head south after Christmas.

Thanksgiving

This week has included a visit from Bob over the weekend, and a Thanksgiving celebration. Bob and Matthew went up to the camp for a day of work, cutting fallen trees and cleaning up for the winter. Here we have a couple of pictures of the sawing and the fire.

Today was Thanksgiving and we much to be thankful for. We had a lovely dinner today with Jessica and Andy. These pictures were taken at the end of a lovely turkey dinner.

Knitting

Louise is spending as much time as she can knitting these days. At last count she has six Christmas gifts on the needles,

in various degrees of completion. She can't post pictures of those as it would ruin Christmas surprises. She has also done some charity knitting these past three weeks. Completed are 3 hats for the troops in Afghanistan, and six pairs of

mittens for RSVP. In addition to the six she has made, two other members of the library knitting group pitched in, and 18 pairs have been completed in all. Some children will have colorful mittens keeping their hands warm this winter.

A Tribute to Steve

Steve is gone. This wonderful, beautiful, intelligent cat has been part of our lives for 13 years. As a kitten he was adopted by Bob, named Steve McQueen, and taken off to Massachusetts to become a city cat. He spent his kittenhood there, and then came home to join us. His brother Puff had been hit by a car and didn't survive very long. Steve filled the empty spot and added his personality to this family. Who could ever forget his head butting, and putting his head under your chin as he curled up to sleep? He never forgot his cuddling nature. When Louise had her knee surgery a couple of years ago, she slept down stairs for a a few weeks as the knee healed. Steve would curl up and purr by her pillow. He seemed to love yarn, and when we came home from school he would have balls of yarn lined up in the living room. Once he took a half-knit sock down cellar and hid it behind the wood pile. Even this morning as we came downstairs, Steve waited for us. He perched on the chair arm and purred his heart out. He has been sick for a while, and couldn't eat or drink anymore. He will be sorely missed. He was the most special cat we have ever met.

A November Ride in the County

The big news in town is the burning of the McCains freezer. The smoke smells bad,

and it is still smoking away down there. We offer you two pictures of what is left of the freezer building.

We decided to go for a ride today and went to Perham and

Woodland, out the Tangle Ridge Road. We spotted a couple of interesting spots, an old potato house and some old farming equipment.

Finally on our way home on the Woodland Center Road, traffic was stopped for a few minutes by two moose who took their time going from one side of the road to the other. They posed nicely!

That's it from the Cole Corner today. Gary worked in the garden beds and Louise is still knitting.

It's November

There is not much excitement here to write about right now. The outdoor work is about done, the gardening is done, the camp is closed for the winter, and we have settled into a routine. Gary is still having physical therapy for his heel three days a week. We swim most mornings. Louise is in a knitting frenzy as Christmas gifts are in every corner. This week she was visited by RSVP to set up volunteer work knitting. When told they needed 2,000 pairs of mittens by December 1, and had just 20 knitters working on it, Louise started knitting mittens for children in Head Start, local schools, and similar circumstances. On Halloween we were visited by some interesting creatures, and captured a picture of a pumpkin! We have a Christmas cactus that has become beautiful, even if it is confused about what month it is. The snow that hit southern Maine missed us today.

It is here!

Snow! This morning it started falling, and it is now covering the trees and lawns. They predict inches of it, and yet it is so wet it melts on the pavement instead of staying. Hopefully it will all be gone tomorrow. This would be a good day to hibernate! As evening nears the snowfall is harder and faster, the snow plows have been out, and it looks like Christmas. Too early!!

The Depths of Fall

The weather forecast is for snow tomorrow. Can it be that time of year already? Today we went to Portage and finished getting it ready for winter. The water and power have been turned off, and the Decon awaits our mousy visitors. It was with sadness that we say farewell for the season. We never did find a chance to go up there and spend a few days this fall. It is a lovely time of year.

This late fall weather also stirs up the knitting process. We have a lovely picture of Jessica winding the balls of yarn for Bob's winter sweater. This was purchased last week at Briggs & Little, and Jessica quickly put it into knitable balls.

Ryan visited this weekend, and had a lovely time with his Uncle Jon. Here he is upside down, laughing as usual. Jon and Erin spent a lovely weekend with us. It is great to have seen all of the boys over the past week and to have spent some quality time with them.

It's time to bank the house and curl up by the fire with the knitting needles.