Cabin Fever

It's been a long, cold winter here in the mountains!

Samuel the Chef.MOV

Samuel doing one of things he enjoys most....the quality of this video is not the best, but it's watchable....enjoy!

Anna and Samuel Dancing.MOV

This was taken in January, but I thought you would enjoy seeing one of the things we do to pass the time during these cold mountain winters.....

Happy Groundhog Day!

It was cloudy in our neck of the woods today, so I'm pretty sure the local groundhogs will have some good news for us, since there were no shadows to be seen. I'm wondering why Punxs....Phil gets all the credit, anyway? What, after all, are his credentials for predicting seasonal changes hundreds of miles away from his hole, or den, or whatever. Well, it seems that we Americans have once again commercialized this very old-fashioned, folksy, nature-oriented day. Here's the video: (Enjoy!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtjThNkAFLY

And a little bit of history:

…the European Celts believed that animals had certain supernatural powers on special days that were half-way between the Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox. Folklore from Germany and France indicated that when marmots and bears came out of their winter dens too early, they were frightened by their shadow and retreated back inside for four to six weeks*…

Another possible inspiration for Groundhog Day is the Roman celebration of Hedgehog Day. A day in which Romans believed a hedgehog seeing its shadow would also forecast 6 more weeks of winter.

Famous US groundhogs: Punxsutawney Phil, Staten Island Chuck, Wiarton Willie, Shubenacadie Sam and General Beauregard Lee

*source: wikipedia: Groundhog Day