We woke up Saturday morning 04/18/20 to a snow storm on our 10 year fist date anniversary!

Ethan and his dad came over just after 8:30am to cut some tree limbs down for us, and help out with a couple of other things. He wants to wait on fixing the driveway stone wall as some of that ground is still frozen. And he didn't feel like doing it in the wet and cold snow! Don't blame him for that.

After they left, and I finished my coffee, I headed off to do one of my marvelous dump runs. Sue had stacked 5 big leaf bags of leaves, brush, and small winter-fall she had been collecting over the last couple of weeks. I stuffed them into The Tank along with a couple of weeks trash, paper, bottles, etc., and off I went.

By 3:00 pm the snow had melted, but the air was still really crisp. I had gotten a fire going in the wood stove to take the chill out of the air while Sue and I worked on getting the roast into the oven.

She made up a really great appetizer from a recipe Denise had sent that went so good with the bottle of 19 Crimes Red Wine Marissa had given us awhile back. We shuffled between playing backgammon and managing the roast and other ingredients for dinner, and kept the wood stove stoked for The Beau Dog.

The roast came out so good. It was a recipe Chef James Haller of the former Blue Strawberry Restaurant in Portsmouth, NH had shared with me back in the 1970s. Before putting it into a 425 degree oven to bake uncovered for 20 or so minutes, I had rubbed it down with melted butter and garlic and some herbs.

But the real fun came after that initial searing was done because you then cover it with Herbs de Provence and handfuls of chopped onion, carrots, and other vegetables. Because I didn't have the Provence, I had to make it up from what I did have on hand, and got just about everything except the lavender, which I think would really be interesting.

We're sort of on lock-down around here because of the COVID-19 pandemic and so no trip to the store for another 2 or 3 weeks. We make due with what we have, and just sort of have to wing it through some meals. But it's fun!

We ended the evening watching the wonderful 2018 movie A Star Is Born as the wood stove threw a nice warm glow over the living room, keeping things nice and comfortable with the cold that had settled in with the darkness outside.

Early morning snow!

Daffodils in Sue's garden struggling to stay above the snow.

Ethan in the snow cutting back some dead tree limbs.

By 3:00 pm most of the snow had been evaporated and Sue took Beau out in the yard to play with his ball — that he still refuses to bring back....

Getting the onions and other ingredients ready to put the pork roast into the oven.

Sue ready at the backgammon board with the bacon and date cream cheese dip she made from a recipe of Denise's, which came out super because we almost ate the whole thing. But... we saved enough to enjoy the next night. The bottle of wine is a 19 Crimes Red Wine that Marissa had given to us, and that was really good.

Sue made a really interesting dandelion greens salad to go with our meal.

A shot of Sue a couple of days later walking Beau at a nice waterfall off one of the Rail Trail paths.