Winter will return after a few days of playing hide-and-go-seek.
We basked in four days of sunshine – did you know that here in Michigan we had not enjoyed four days in a row of sunshine since July 2019? Yep, it was a real travesty.
And, not only did we revel in the sun’s rays, but this past weekend, the temps shot to 50F (10C) which is certainly not your usual late February weather. Cars cruised by with windows down or sunroofs slid open, motorcyclists zoomed around and BBQs were christened for the 2020 grilling season. I walked ten miles over the weekend, hitting three parks and taking loads of photos.
It was all good, except now we have a Winter storm watch through Thursday with a projected sizable snowfall amount of 6-8 inches (if they are correct, that is).
What the heck happened? Maybe the Groundhog will not be so smart and smug after all!
No wonder Winter makes us want to hunker inside the house and eat heavy comfort foods like mac-n-cheese, bread pudding or fresh-baked cookies for the entire season. Winter weather causes us to lose all our sensibilities for goodness sake.
Of course, if we are not mindful of what we eat, we may just end up looking a little roly-poly, just sayin’.
One moment you are svelte and before you know it, you have a rotund, Buddha-like shape.
In a four-season state, it is easy to pack on a few pounds over the Winter months and though you may glance at those love handles in the mirror, you just put on a heavier sweater and tell yourself “I got lots of time before I need to wear shorts or a bathing suit.”
Of course the squirrels can get away with these extra fat rolls … people just smile and say they are cute and chonky … “chonky” is Twitterspeak for saying an animal is chunky looking.
Actually Dictionary.com does recognize this word. It sounds amusing and better than saying “fat” – in my opinion anyway.
This journey to Fat Tuesday began with Halloween – you had a nibble here or there, swiping mini candy bars from the bags of Halloween candy you stashed away. But you didn’t stash them far enough away – they were too handy and then after you downed a bar here or there, you helped yourself to a handful of candy corn or orange-and-brown M&Ms every time you passed the dish. Then there was that marathon 36-hour torrential rain and gusty wind event on Halloween night, no kids showed up, so you ended up with a ton of leftover candy – you didn’t want to let it get stale, right?
Soon it was the Thanksgiving table groaning with goodies and that festive event just transitioned into the holiday season. Well you had to be polite and sociable, right?
Oh, you said you’d atone for your non-stop eating sins on New Year’s Day … so how did that work out?
Did you eat all the bon bons in the heart-shaped box your significant other got you for Valentine’s Day?
Perhaps you indulged in a few pieces of fresh cherry pie for George Washington’s birthday this past weekend?
That translates to a lot of calories … and, as proud of myself as I was walking ten miles last weekend, I only walked off 1,000 calories (10,000 steps/5 miles burns just 500 calories).
That’s an OMG moment for sure!
In Michigan, paczkis will cause your diet to self-destruct.
Well, you can enjoy one final food fling today for Fat Tuesday. If you’re going to indulge in a food feast, having fat-laden jelly donuts known as paczki is the way to go.
Just inhaling the scent of those delightful jelly donuts packs on the pounds, no matter what the flavor.
There is something for everyone … glazed paczki with raspberry, custard, or even lemon filling.
But beware – you’re sure to end up with sticky fingers (or paws).
But, if you opt for the powdered sugar paczki like these …
… you’re sure to have a sprinkling of powdered sugar on your face (even on your forehead/fur).
While you might be scratching your head wondering how to spell or say the word “paczki” – well here’s a primer for you: if you’re only going to have one of these delicious donuts, you’ll ask for a “paczek” (pronounced “poon-check”) and more than one (if you dare), then that would be plural or “paczki” (pronounced “poonch-key”) and no “s” for more than one of these delectable donuts BTW. Though not easy to spell or pronounce, they are easy eating – just don’t look at the nutritional value (depending on whether jelly or custard, one donut can be 500 to 1,000 calories and anywhere from 24 to 48 grams of fat).
Whew! Good thing Fat Tuesday only comes once a year!
[Images from Twitter and Pinterest and some of my favorite Park pals … Parker over-indulged in heart cookies, so he was not around. 🙂 ]
Linda Schaub
WALKIN', WRITIN', WIT & WHIMSY 
For a minute I thought you had a camera set up in our house and were spying on us – until you said cherry pie. We had blueberry Pie. LOL.
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Ha ha – well Ruth, I thought of you the other day when I saw my first robin and I pictured “your” robin sitting outside your bedroom on the apple tree, singing merrily and serenading you at the crack of dawn.
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and I thought of you when I saw a red winged black bird out at the farm. 🙂
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I was happy to see/hear one over the weekend at two different parks … a sign of Spring for sure. M-Live says we will get to 50 this Sunday … 30 degrees warmer than it will be over the next few days. The weather is just crazy. It is snowing pretty hard here … was surprised they closed all the schools this morning – probably closed tomorrow as well.
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The schools seemed to based their decisions on forecast only instead of waiting to see how it played out. I guess they could afford the day off because they haven’t had many, if any, snow days this year. Looking forward to the weekend!!! 🙂
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Yes, and I was reading the comments of people who had complained the schools were closed as they had to scramble to find child care or take the day off. People commented that the schools thought it would be snowing heavily when the kids got out for the day. I am looking forward to the mid-40s too! A couple of mild days around 50 will follow, but it will rain unfortunately, but at least warmer than today.
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Linda,
I love all the squirrels, especially the Chonky Smiley one – the first one of the lot I think. I also loved the ones with paws in different positions and the one with the powdered snow on his face, which looked like he had eaten 500 calories of the forbidden stuff. But squirrels are fussy eaters, I think- they don’t like much unlike humans who can eat anything.
The jellied doughnuts look delectable and you are right, I could not stop with one or even pronounce them- perhaps happily for me they are not available here- maybe they are a Polish or German origin thing?
Please share as many squirrel pictures as possible- no rain or snow as yet.
Susie
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Susie – I’m glad you loved those squirrels … I picked the cutest and fluffiest-looking ones for you. I had taken those pictures of them picking peanut shells and peanut redskin chaff off their fur and cleaning their paws and decided they would be perfect for a Fat Tuesday post so I put those pics aside. Are your squirrels coming around to eat the peanuts you bought for them yet?
The paczki are Polish treats and the best ones are from a town in Michigan called Hamtramck although now you can buy them in any grocery store.
I have more squirrel shots to share Susie – I think you’ll like them too. – Linda
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Oooh the squirrels look amazing especially the black one looks adorable
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They are adorable aren’t they? The black ones have fur that is so shiny and they look cute with their heavy Winter coats all roly-poly. 🙂
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We already bought and polished off our paczki. Maybe we need another box? And the pronunciation for a single one – has there ever been a less useful bit of information on the internet? A box of four is as close to a single one as we have ever considered. 😁
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You can now give up sweets for Lent having indulged today. Growing up in Canada it was just called Pancake Tuesday and we didn’t have any of these fun and fattening goodies. I think my store just started selling a four-pack which is a smart marketing effort on their behalf. 🙂
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I’m glad I’m not responsible for spelling or pronouncing your Fat Tuesday treat. I’m thinking of making hot cross buns tonight for tomorrow’s breakfast.
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They have the memes about pronunciation/spelling all over social media every year here in Detroit. I think hot cross buns sound lovely. I may have mentioned to you we always had them Good Friday morning and we had a really old toaster we kept just for toasting them – it had two sides that the door flipped down like a ramp, you loaded your item, then flipped the door back. You had to guess on how long to leave it … zero bells and whistles!
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Wow! 10 miles this weekend??? Good for you! We ran (of course) this weekend, but just around town. When we passed a trail that runs along the Susquehanna River, there were tons of people out enjoying the nice day. It hit 60 here! All this warm weather gives me spring fever but I know it’s too early to really think spring.
You earned your paczki, Linda. Have fun with those calories. Looks delicious. Here in PA Dutch country, they call them fassnachts.
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Oh, I was happy for 50 and now am jealous you hit 60 Laurie. It sure felt good and I hated to go inside. Thank you – I burned off those calories, in my mind anyway – who knew that a 5-mile walk only burned off 500 calories?
I listen to Accuweather for weather and they are based in Pennsylvania and our morning forecaster always talks about fassnachts and enjoying them every Fat Tuesday.
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Chonky is a new word for me, so thank you for adding it to my lexicon. I think. I’ve seen paczkis for sale around here but never have had one. They look too sweet for me. But you enjoy them all you want, especially if winter weather is to return soon.
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Ally – I follow a woman photographer on Twitter (Jocelyn Anderson) and she primarily photographs birds. The park where she goes is notorious for being able to hand feed the birds who land on your hand to take seeds. She uses her Apple iPhone 11 to take videos of them in slow motion. Jocelyn uses “chonky” to describe pudgy birds sitting on her hand. I thought it was her own created word – guess not. Another new word for me (maybe you too) is “floofy” which is how she describes some of the birds which are light and airy looking with tufts of feathers sticking up. It is also a real word. Who knew? My boss loves to collect oddball words – I’ll have to try these two on him.
I have actually not had paczki in many years. I got Nutter Butters for my Fat Tuesday treat … a treat but not super sweet. I figure I’ll work off those calories with the snow.
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Thank God I didn’t eat any paczki’s today!!!!! Now off for a bowl of ice cream. 😂🤣😂🤣😂
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Must have treats today – my grandmother had a big bowl of ice cream every night and in the Summer, she and her neighbors would go through one of those gallon pails of ice cream in no time flat. She had ice cream every night for years. I just heard today that the oldest man in the world died on Sunday – he ate cream puffs and custards every day and was skinny as a rake: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/02/25/worlds-oldest-man-dies-112/
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There’s hope for me yet!
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Yep – stick with me Diane and I’ll be sure to point out important items like that to you! And the bacon bits for salad too. 🙂
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Great post Linda, so many new things I learned and the photos were terrific, especially the squirrels with sticky fingers and powdered sugar. I never heard of the donuts, that would be a lot of walking to ware those off. I think I will have a piece of toast and jam instead. 🙂
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Thanks Sandra – I did not have any of them … in fact the last one I had was from a family friend who gave my mom a dozen for her birthday. Her birthday (Valentine’s Day) happened to be the same day as Fat Tuesday that year. We had two each and the rest were put into the freezer til Lent was over. Toast and jam would work for me too, though I am an “oatmeal girl” – been having that for breakfast for decades. I did not make that snowman – I saw it at the Park and someone made it the same day I made mine – there snowman was a lot bigger and had “leaf design” in it.
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Come to think of it, I did not see any snow men this past winter. Well, we did not get as much snow as usual. I just did not see any kids making them I guess. It was pretty cold though. I looked at the weather for up there, maybe spring has arrived early. That will be nice to come back to.
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No, we did not get the snow we usually do – right now we got 5 1/2 inches from Tuesday night to Thursday morning and it had some freezing rain in there too as it was crusty and had drifted all over this morning. Too bad since Sunday was just gorgeous. But … being practical, I know it is not even March yet! I hope you do return to Spring-y weather.
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Linda those photos were priceless! Perfect poses for the words. I like the occasional poochkey (my spelling) but having learned the calorie and fat content maybe not… A co-worker used to bring them in during Lent from a Polish bakery in Michigan – I suppose you could say she smuggled them into the country!
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Glad you liked the photos Joni. I almost didn’t put that snowman in since I had mostly squirrels, but thought he was a good example of roly-poly. I didn’t make that snowman – I came upon him/her in the Park. That is funny about the co-worker going across the border for paczki – I’ll bet she went to Hamtramck which has the big Polish bakeries (a city of mostly Polish persons). It used to be you could only buy them at the Polish bakeries – now all the grocery stores sell them. They are good, but yes, those paczkis pack a punch carlorie/fat gram wise!
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She lived in MIchigan, had married an American, so commuted over an hour to work everyday across the bridge, but was never ever late for work, I don’t know how she did it. I guess she had a Nexus card which gets you through faster. I seldom ever remember her cancelling a shift, maybe once or twice in a really bad snowstorm.
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My former co-worker Ilene, who lives in Kingsville and you helped her out with the AOL when they changed over, never missed any time either and did that commute for years. I asked Ilene if she wanted to stay at our house during bad Winter snowstorms, but she said she was fine with driving and it didn’t affect her. She had been making the commute most of her working life. It would not be for me though and I think this was before the Nexus card was available. A couple of other secretaries lived in Windsor but left their cars in Windsor and took the tunnel bus across 2X a day for their commute – not as rigorous as your co-worker or Ilene.
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I’m late to the comment section (I get your posts in a group on Monday) but I’m glad I didn’t miss it… too cute! I didn’t realize that we were supposed to take Fat Tuesday literally… and now I’ve missed it. Darn!
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Well I’m glad you enjoyed it Janis and since I saw your recent picture in your blogging get-together post, I know you can afford to still have a fat-laden jelly donut (or two). 🙂
Fat Tuesday was not a big deal growing up in Canada – as a kid, I was excited we could have a pancake dinner instead of meat/potatoes/veggies, which was the usual fare as my mom always made a hot meal for dinner every night. (I did not follow in her footsteps unfortunately as I’m no cook, or baker for that matter.)
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I love the squirrels… how was fat Tuesday? How was the storm? How’s lent?
Love, light and glitter
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We got five inches (12.7 cms) of snow Ellie … it drifted and some spots very high, others not so much, and then, to add insult to injury, we got freezing rain making it treacherous to walk. Too bad it was Lent as chocolate would have been in order! 🙂 Love, light and glitter back at you!
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You keep lent? I hate the unsafety of snow…. I need to get into pjs and bed now..
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I do – gave up sweets … I used to give up something each year and do it not only for Lent, but permanently.
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I feel like the world isn’t about giving up things but enjoying what we are gifted with.
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I like that thinking Ellie.
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That’s what we Judaism teaches…
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That is wise. Thank you for those thoughts Ellie.
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What a great combo of photos ahhhaha… Love the little black squirrel and all the cute expressions. Wondering whereabouts in Michigan you live? We often took weekends there and had many favorite places such as Travis City, Holland etc. I have great memories of wonderful sand dunes and fabulous food markets and friendly people. Because I still have family in Chicago I follow the weather closely and heard about that recent warm spell….
Peta
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Thank you Peta – I do love my little furry and feathered friends at the Park where I usually walk daily (weather permitting … I try to hit the bigger parks on the weekends when I have more time, but since I work from home, I can get to this Park most weekdays and often on weekends too). I live in SE Michigan, in Lincoln Park, which is Downriver and about 13 miles from Detroit. I have never been to the Tulip Festival in Holland but would like to go one day to see that sight. I was in Northern Michigan but many years ago and did see the sand dunes. Our weather will be very cold and blustery the next few days but 60 degrees on Sunday – it has been a very odd Winter for us, but not a lot of snow and for me, the Winter Weenie, that has been great!
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Buddha squirrels, Linda!
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Pam – Maybe even “soft and cuddly” to describe their shapes – depends on your point of view. 🙂
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😂🤣😂
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Oh bless them. They are nice and cuddly after a few good feeds 😁 you did really well walking 10 miles ❤
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It was beautiful that weekend – our weather has been like a rollercoaster. We have cold, then warm, back-and-forth all Winter, but so far, I’m happy to say I did not drive in snow all Winter (hate driving in snow as I took the bus so many years, and the car stayed in the garage). I hope we get through March with no more snow.
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