A Day on the Lake

Family photo minus Molly & Costa, plus Deb Zwang,

who wanted to be in our family photo!
Alianza Zwang on skates for the first time!

Montana pole Dancing.

Nat and Silas on ice.

December 25th

The Christmas morning breakfast rising by the fire.

I am hoping they will hury so that I can cook them and the smell will wake Mike up....but, alas, he arose before they were ready!
We went for an afternoon skate and he found this nice, 4 on one side-five on the other, white-tail skull with the lower jaw intact.
Makes a romantic skating photos doesn't it?!

The table top tree with the romantic holiday blurr...

December 24th

AKA Christmas Eve.

Why don't other holidays have "Eve's"?

I worked most of the day and then made a stop at the grocery store on the way home...Oh MY! Everyone else in town was there too!

Madness!

Then I stopped at a small Lake that is on the way home to do an "ice check" and ended up skating for an hour the ice was SO good!

The formations shown above were in the ice, I think one looks like a snowflake, most of them did, but notice how the second one looks like a frog! The NW Montana version of crop circles!

When I got home, for some nutty reason, I made homemade marshmallows, they are really good and it was a very fun science project! We shall roast them over an open fire on New Years Eve!

Then I got Mike to go skating on Bull Lake with me.

It has a skiff of snow on it, but you can't tell with skates on!

Look how beautiful it is in the gloaming of the day!

Both shots are taken with the camera sitting right on the ice and the timer set. I didn't make it into this shot, but you can see my skate track!

And then on Saturday it snowed!

So far, still good beneath a light layer of super light powder.Love these skates!
The neighbors finally came out for a little skating action in the snow!

More "art" shots!

I can't help myself!

It is the budding artist within me trying to bloom!

(snort!)

Yes! There are snow angels and there are ice angels,

or perhaps they are "snow angels on ice", you know sort of like

"Barbie on Ice" or "Barney on Ice"?
This happens to be neighbor Barb, of the BarbErics, so it is

rather close to "Barbie on Ice".

(not that she'd be fond of me saying that!)

The Friday Sk8ers!

I had the camera right on the ice and was just pushing the button.

This illustrates how well you could see throught the ice!
It was better than this really, but this begins to show it.

More Alvord Lake

My attempt to illustrate some off the ooos and aaahhhhs of my day!

Just look at this ice! reflective!

They modeled glass after this stuff, I am sure!

Brrrrr!

Throops Lake.

My friend, Wanda, lives here.

It is a small Lake tucked up against the Kootenai River.

This is what it looks like when covered with a crystal clear, 4 inch

layer of ice in the gloaming of the day!

(it really was much lighter outside than the foto indicates.)

These are my skate tips framed by the fake fur on this lovely embroidered Russian looking overcoat that Molly gave me and by my insulated, hand-me-down carhardtt bib overalls....My skating uniform.

The white spots are frozen bubbles inbedded in the ice. I shall do my best to make certain they are more accurately represented when I skate in full daylight tomorrow!


This is what my living room looks like on a sub-zero Montana evening, post skating and after a hot shower!
Towel drying on the rack, sk8s warming by the fire, the fire blazing like a crazy inferno, gloves and hat and sk8 spikes resting on the chair, cat on the other chair and random shoes hanging out by a sketch pad....what you can't see is the unfolded laundry in the other chair!