A Heartbreakingly Beautiful Blue-Sky Winter Day

Saturday morning arrived with bright sunshine and heartbreakingly beautiful blue skies. We couldn't resist the call of the outdoors, so we packed our daysacks and went hiking up in the game lands above our house.

The parking lot was a sheet of ice. It was worse than bad. Only halting, careful step after halting, careful step allowed us to traverse it upright, as opposed to on our posteriors. One false move could result in a bad fall.

"I'd give them a zero," my husband said; "whoever cleared this lot."

"Nope, LESS than zero," I replied; "to earn a full ZERO would have taken quite a bit more effort."

The hill beyond the parking lot was slick in spots, and we made our way slowly and carefully up the hill until we reached unbroken snow. Which was wonderful, from an esthetic standpoint.

But with quite a few inches of snow in the past few weeks and a heavy frozen crust on top, each step took effort. Major effort, in fact. Step. Crunch. Break through. Step. Crunch. Break through. We hiked to the top of the hill and sat in the sun for several hours before heading back home, totally exhausted.

And then we capped our day's activities by baking a ham, with asparagus on the side. And then, oh, what the body craves on a winter day: soup! With the ham hock and some other ingredients, I made homemade ham and bean soup in the crockpot. And so we ate hot, delicious soup, and recovered from our winter exertions on this beautiful blue-sky winter day.

The song: ELO, Mr. Blue Sky.

Bonus recipe: ham and bean soup.
3 cans great northern beans, 1 ham hock, 1 cup diced ham, 2 cups chicken broth (dissolve 2 chicken bouillon cubes in 2 cups hot water), 1 cup onion diced and sauteed in butter, 3 small carrots diced, 3 potatoes peeled and cubed. If you have a few slices of cooked bacon, you might crumble those up as well. Put in crock pot on high for 5 to 6 hours, stirring every half-hour. When done, pull out hambone and remove additional meat. Cool a while before refrigerating. Enjoy!