Snow berries...

Snow berries...

Yesterday was so beautiful - sunny, cold. About 3pm I put on my ski boots and walked down to the park and spent nearly an hour and a half down along the river.

In one of Wendell Berry's essays he talks about the wonder of exploring a locale in detail, over the seasons and over the years. I'm finding that in the little park across the mill race. I had intended to get across Plymouth and head for the dam, but there was so much to see and do in this little space that I never made it.

Being able to walk to the park instead of driving to it is part of the experience. Arriving on foot gives me a wholly different sense of the place and my relationship to it. I've also been surprised that the park itself is big enough and varied enough I don't tire of it.

On the way back I captured this photo.


These plump, juicy berries frozen in the woods reminded me of L's story of the ice wine grapes that they grow at the winery on Pelee Island. She says that the grapes ferment on the vine during repeated freezings and thawings in late fall. The biggest hazard to the crop at that point are the birds that come, strip the vines of fruit and get completely inebriated in the process. The idea of crows debauching themselves in a vineyard is almost too much to handle.

The only birds I saw were ducks and geese on the river, and they didn't act drunk - at least to my eye.

Lost and found...

Lost and found...

Look what I found when I downloaded a bunch of photos today:
I took this late last fall and left it neglected in my camera. That's my crop of raspberries just before the killer frost. Yum... can't wait until next season.

This is in contrast to the snow storm we Friday and Saturday. Today it cleared up and late in the afternoon I dug out my (x-country) skis, carried them across the street to the park and spent an hour or so breaking trails. We have six or eight inches of beautiful powder. Gorgeous conditions. Lots to see, like this ice sculpture down at the river.

This is the first time I've been out in years (took me a while to remember where I had left my boots and the wax.) Maybe three or four years ago I went out in very icy conditions and I thought "I hate this game." Today was different. I actually got some rhythm going: kick - glide - kick - glide... It felt great.

Except when I fell on my right knee - the same on I dented last Tuesday. Ouch.

Yesterday during the storm I made up a batch of homemade hand lotion. Sometimes in winter I get painful cracks in my thumbs, and my skin seems to react to most of the commercial lotions I've tried. Once upon a time I had some lanolin lotion that I liked, and I can't find anything like it now. When I found this recipe online for a lanolin and beeswax based cream I remembered that I had a chunk of beeswax sitting with my wood finishing supplies. I had purchased it years ago from a bee keeper at the Kitchener Farmer's Market to make furniture polish. I found the rest of the ingredients I needed locally. Here is the recipe.

3 Tbsp. lanolin
3 Tbsp. distilled water
3 Tbsp. grated beeswax
1/2 cup almond oil
3 Tbsp. witch hazel
1/8 tsp. borax powder

Mix the beeswax, lanolin and almond oil in an oven-safe dish and set the dish in a pan containing about an inch and a half of water. Place them in the oven and heat until the beeswax and lanolin have melted.

Mix the witch hazel, borax powder and distilled water in a saucepan. Heat the solution until just boiling and then slowly pour it into the melted beeswax/lanolin/almond oil mixture. Stir thoroughly and leave to cool.

When the mixture is completely cooled, you'll have a thick white cream to soften your skin.

Extra notes: I have everything I need now for several batches of this stuff. Actually I had to buy a 4 lb box of Borax (20 Mule Team), so I have enough of it for about a thousand batches. I made mine in a double boiler instead of the oven. The biggest trick is to stir it vigorously while it cools so that it doesn't separate out. I had to reheat mine because it didn't blend well the first time. This makes a great lotion, but it does feel oily when you apply it. Use it very sparingly.