Snow Again and St. Patrick's Day

It snowed all day today, although it did not turn out to be the Storm of the Century that was predicted (as always), and for which we were all counting on a Day Off.

As it turned out, only the little people in the house got a snow day, and for them only in that they had to go to daycare instead of school.

After dinner it was still light out, so I took a walk down to the river, having been stuck inside for far too long (why didn't I take a walk yesterday when the sun was shining? I do not know). 

The river is wide open now, but the ground looks like we're back in winter.

Saturday morning, there had only been a thin skin of snow on the ground. I grabbed my camera and went for a walk between putting muffins in the oven and taking them back out, going with my new mantra of "use the time you have." I knew I would be cooped up inside the rest of the day, doing school work, so I had to take my moment as it came.

The snow didn't last long, but the air felt like January had returned, and the wind had most definitely combed the hair of musk oxen before it came to us. Nevertheless, we had a little spring celebration on Sunday, with friends coming over to watch the syrup boil. (Oh, how strange to look at last year's St. Patrick's Day and see M riding his bike in shorts and a tank top!!)

Despite the cold, we created an illusion of springtime inside (and, looking out the window, I think I might have seen some green spears of daffodils poking up through the ground outside, but I didn't make it out to verify before they were covered with snow again).

I cooked up some vegetarian Guinness stew, green soup, Irish soda bread, green shamrock crackers (I substituted safflower oil for the Earth Balance and it seemed to work fine) and green hummus, with pickles and celery. And for dessert, peppermint patty bars, because for some reason St. Patrick's Day seems like a minty dessert holiday (because mint tastes green, perhaps?). In any case, they are dreamy and I will whip them up for many other holidays, too. Our friends brought eggrolls, which, while not Irish, were delicious, and an amazing tofu chocolate mousse (made with 1 package chocolate chips, melted with two ounces coconut milk, and blended with one package silken tofu, and chilled before serving...divine!).

After baseball practice (yet another sign of spring), M spent the afternoon redoing the research for a project (round one having gotten lost), and E cuddled up next to him on the couch, reading a book.

Hope you're either enjoying signs of spring or you get a day off if you're in the midst of this storm!