When I start grumbling to myself about the cold, especially if there's no rain or snow outside, I just remind myself that it's better than the heat, which we'll have here soon enough...

I didn't know that the color was for Valentine's Day. It's still delicious.

Shiny objects are indeed very hard to photograph. Even worse when there's a light source around. That fixture pic shows you obviously are a few centuries ahead of me in 'that' expertise.

Probably because of the rain(ok the snow )-induced lighting conditions, I thought for a moment the house had a thick straw-like (stubble?) roof like I've seen on houses in eastern France in the Lower-Alps (Savoie region). The funny thing is that climate for climate, I wouldn't be surprised if that type of roof would work just fine in an area like Oregon.

I should change my background color too but I'm such a conservative in those matters...

Ice Dancing is not one my fav's either!

There is a trellis running along the eaves on the house across the street and those vines are making it look thatchy. I don't think a real thatch roof would do too well around here with the amount of rain we get. The color on my monitor is somewhat out of whack, so I really don't know what my background color looks like to others. To me it looks like a medium to dark shade of pink.