I finished reading "Marley and Me" the other day. It was one of those books that you wish was longer. I wanted it to be the never-ending story. It made me laugh and it made me cry. This book will be an extra special read to anyone who has ever had a loopy, kooky, attention deficit disorder dog like Marley. We had a "special" dog like that once. Rusty. Rusty was not a Lab like Marley. He was a hodge-podge of who knows what, but after reading this book I know that part of his hodge-podge had to have been a Lab. He was a hyperkinetic pain in the butt, but such a lovable one. Everyone loved obnoxious Rusty. He was a great dog. He would make a good book.
So I have moved from one extreme to another with books. Now I am reading an old book I picked up at a used book sale a while ago, "Letters of Edna St. Vincent Millay". It was published in 1955. The pages are yellow and it has that "old book" smell. All the things that give a book a ghostly feel. It is such an excellent and fascinating read. Totally different from "Marley and Me" of course, but just as readable and engrossing. I'm picking up lots of interesting tidbits about life in the beginning of the 20th century. For instance, did you know that instead of saying you were going to vomit, you said you were going to "up-swallow"??? Hmmmm. That's a new one. Maybe I will try to bring back that phrase. I think it might catch on with the teen crowd.
It's snowing a little out.......a very little. It is leaving a light covering on the ground. It's that pretty kind of snow that sparkles even at night. More is coming on Thursday. Winter is back. Here comes global cooling.............
One of the sweetest treasures in life is to be able to peek in on a child's world as they frolic in their innocent make-believe world totally unaware that you are watching. How many times have you walked in on your child's play and stood silently by, not daring to breath for fear of interrupting that moment that will never come back again.
Today we stood on the outside of Elizabeth's little world as she tucked her dolly in the cradle and gave it a good night kiss. She must be picking up sweet mothering skills from someone. Smile, Kara!
The joys of living close to your grandchildren....
Kara and her family were invited to a birthday party today for the 3 year old daughter of a college friend of Kara's. The party was in Manchester. Since Manchester is close to Glastonbury Kara decided to stop in to visit with my mother, as long as they were in the area. And as long as Kara was in the area we decided to drive to Glastonbury to see everyone. I still have trouble getting used to the idea of being able to see my grandchildren more than twice a year.
I brought Eamon and Elizabeth each some stickers and a notebook and they went to town plastering stickers in the notebook and on their clothes. I also brought some grinders and we all had lunch before Kara went off to her party. To add to the happiness of the day Kara and Sean decided to drive to our house for the night instead of to Boston. It's nice to have Eamon and Elizabeth seem more at home in our house with each visit. It feels so natural to have them here. A year ago I never would have envisioned this.
They will be leaving for home tomorrow but it's nice to know that it won't be long before we'll see them again.
I woke up at 5:30 this morning when my clock radio alarm went off. The first words I heard were "We have one school closing so far this morning". I held my frosty breath in anticipation but knew I couldn't be so lucky. But there it was.........."Torrington public and parochial schools, including Oliver Wolcott". YES YES YES! A wonderful gift in the middle of a bleak and dreary winter. I clicked off the alarm and snuggled back under the covers for another 2 hours of slumber.
It was so very cold this morning. Below zero but with a nasty wind making it feel so much lower. Very cold but I'm sure all the adults would have made it to school without incident. It's the students waiting outside for the bus that are a problem. If only they would dress appropriately for the weather. But I see them come off the bus in bitter weather with, honest-to-God no-kidding, flip flops and t-shirts. No socks, no jacket, no sweater, no hat. What is wrong with them? I am bundled up with my long coat, ear-muffs, scarf, mittens, long johns and clunky boots and the cold still has me reduced to a quivering mass of icy jello.
Off to take a hot shower and snuggle down (and laugh) with "Marley and Me". I wish the book were longer because I would like it to go on and on. Some books are like that.
When I was little my mother gave us a well worn hand-me-down book from her childhood. It was called "At The Back Of The North Wind" and I really loved that book. I loved that book but I don't think I ever read a page. What turned me on so much in that book was this picture of a little boy kneeling on his bed in the barn, listening to the north wind through the wall. There were several other lovely illustrations in the book but I don't think I looked at any of them. This is the one that captivated me. I would gaze at this picture and wish I could transport myself there. I wanted to sleep in that cozy bed in the barn, under the skylight, surrounded by the hay and listen to the north wind roaring outside. Oh, the wind the wind. If it weren't for the wind the picture would have lost it's appeal.
How I love to go to sleep listening to the wind. The contrast between the wild and windy weather outside and the sheltering warmth and quiet inside is so very comforting and cozy and fills you with one of those life-loving feelings. Tonight will be one of those nights. The temperature is dropping. Right now it is 7 degrees. The winds are forecast to be strong enough to bring the wind chill to a bitter 30 below. So tonight I will snuggle down with thoughts of that picture in the book that has stayed with me all those years. But at this stage in my life I think I prefer my soft bed, down comforter, insulated walls and wood-stove warmth to a hard bed in a barn surrounded by hay. But thoughts of the picture create a perfect ambiance.
Forty one years ago I was busily registering for the second semester of my sophomore year in college. I wrote to Paul that I was excited about finally getting into the real meat of nursing (bed baths!) but I was also appalled at the cost of my second semester. $959.60. "Isn't that awful?" I said. It was more than I expected because I had to take an extra hour at the high cost of $27.00. With both Lauri and I in college, our family would never have been able to afford the tuition for us. It was only because my grandparents had been thoughtful and insightful enough to set up a trust fund to help with the education of all their grandchildren that we were able to become college students. I have always always been grateful to them for that and have never forgotten it. It's hard to believe that a year of nursery school today costs more than a year of college did back then.
One of the teachers at school lent me "Marley and Me" to read. I have seen the book before but was really not interested in reading a "dog" book. But she told me I would love it. She was right. It is a very funny book. By the time I finished the first paragraph I was giggling.
Still very cold here and it is only going to get colder. But where is my snow??
Winter is back for real. It was really cold today. And there is the threat of snow at least twice in the coming week. But that is always subject to change in New England. Today was a good day for hugging the fire, which is what I did. I dashed outside to fill the bird feeders and to do an errand, but the rest of the day I was just plain lazy.
I lit the gas stove in the porch, found myself a spot in the sun, covered my legs with a lovely cozy shawl that Kara gave me for Christmas last year and read read read. I was reading one of Gladys Taber's Stillmeadow books. The perfect book to read on a day like today. I love the descriptions of her quiet country days and her appreciation for the little things that surrounded her. It makes me realize how chaotic and busy our lives are today. We spend so much time and energy striving for something better and/or bigger, that we forget to enjoy the ride.
I like that when she is describing each month she always leaves you with the feeling that it is her favorite month. Probably because she loves each month or season as it comes. They are all her favorites. That is how it should be. Enjoy it all! Each one is unique but special.
We ended the day with a simple spaghetti dinner in front of the warm wood stove. (It's nice to have so many stoves) By candle light, of course. Just a little slice of heaven.
Why do dogs seem to like to eat forbidden objects on a Friday afternoon?? It seems like it wasn't too long ago that I was called into action on a Saturday to help Paul retrieve a ball from a dog's stomach. This morning I got marching orders from Paul to help him extricate another foreign object from a canine stomach. This is NOT how I want to spend my Saturday.
Usually the client has no idea what the dog could possible have eaten so there is always an element of mystery and suspense to see what could be lurking deep inside. Today it was, oh yuck, a huge sock (or it might have been two rolled up together but who wants to inspect that closely). It gave new meaning to the term "stinky socks". The dog had chewed the sock in half so part of the sock was in the stomach and the other half was in the large intestine requiring a much longer retrieval time. By the time the dog was closed up and back in his cage I had annoyed Paul enough that he decided to send me home and clean up the office mess himself. Praise the Lord!
I spent the rest of the day doing my Saturday cleaning and laundry and listening to the cozy wind roar about the house. It was late when I finished so I made a quick pot of home-made lentil soup which we ate on the porch while watching the gas fire and listening to the wind blow against the windows.
Tomorrow I think I might want to be just lazy! Oh, to have time to sit and read. That would be wonderful.
The weather forecast yesterday of 3-6 inches of snow has been woefully pared down to a dusting or an inch. Bah humbug. I am through listening to the weather people. It is too much of a downer to have my snow-hopes dashed so many times. My poor brand new snow shoes are gathering dust. Saturday is predicted to be VERY windy.......50 mph or so. I love windy weather. It should be cozy on our new porch, as long as we don't have any branches careening through those windows.
My "check engine" light came on yesterday. Paul took the car to our mechanic this morning. The culprit.......my gas cap wasn't on tight. Did you know that could cause your check engine light to come on? I never knew that. Neither did Paul. You're never too old or too smart to learn something new.
The jet stream has finally slipped to the south of Connecticut which is where it should be at this time of the year. It is still very chilly. The temperature has already dropped a degree in the short time that I have been on the computer. It is now 9 degrees. Brrrrrr. I went outside to start my car before I left for school this morning and the wind blew my cold pants against my cold pathetic little legs. If there is one thing I really hate about winter (besides a cold car) it is the feeling of cold pants on cold legs. I ran right back inside and put on my long johns. Much better. What a difference. I couldn't exist without those warm little cuddle-duds. Especially since the media center at school has the climate of Alaska.
As I was driving to work and listening to the weather report I heard the weather man say that we might have 3-6 inches of snow on Friday morning. Now, usually the dj's and anchor people on the radio are too cool to express any childish excitement over this event and always moan and groan and say "oh no......please don't say that s word". This morning, to my surprise, they almost leaped right into their microphones with excitement as they said, "Snow? Really? Oh yes! Oh wow. Finally". See. I knew it. People really do like the snow. They are just too cool to admit it.
Finally finally finally. Winter is here. And it feels so good. Was it really 72 degrees just over a week ago? Right now it's 18 degrees and the wind is banging against the house. Just like winter should be. It feels rather refreshing. And COLD!! We even saw a few snow flurries this afternoon. It's a start. The only thing I don't like in the cold weather is my cold car. I can't stamp my feet and run around and hug myself to keep warm like I can when I'm standing around outside. The only thing I can do is sit almost motionless on that cold seat and put my hands on that cold steering wheel until the old heater cranks out enough heat to warm things up. This is when I think a remote car starter would be great so by the time I got into my car everything would be warm and cozy.
Some people tell me that they have heard the "s" word in the extended forecast but I'm not checking out the long range forecast anymore. Too often they have promised snow and it hasn't materialized. I'm tired of being disappointed. I'd much rather be surprised.
Time to snuggle under my warm comforter, listen to the wind and read one of my "Stillmeadow" books. The joys of winter.
And we have suffered through yet ANOTHER gray and drizzly day. Where or where is winter? Or the sun? I have never seen such a long string of gray and dreary days. Even the people who usually tell you that they HATE the snow will get a sparkle in their eye when you tell them that the weather report hinted at snow.
The one saving grace in this strange and gloomy winter is our Belly Acres Room. It is the one bright spot in a dull world. The windows let in so much light that it picks up my spirit just to be out there. This morning I made some big, fluffy pancakes with homemade syrup from the Meade Farm in Canaan and Paul and I had a very looooooong prolonged breakfast on our porch. We lit a fire in the stove, put on some peaceful music and enjoyed the birds, the trees and even the gloom. We spent a long time just sitting and enjoying. It was a long time before we could drag ourselves away to the business of the day.
The CD we were playing is called The Elegance of Pachelbel. If you are looking for music to truly soothe your senses and massage your soul this is it. I can't listen to it enough. It is Pachelbel played differently than I have ever heard it. Soft, slow, serene. It will slow down a body that is running on overdrive. If you have had a frazzling day and want to lie down and slowly let your jangled nerves relax this is for you. If you can't get to sleep this is better than a sleeping pill. If you want to have some romantic music with your candlelight dinner this will do the trick. It is hypnotizingly beautiful. There is something about it that draws you back again and again. I wouldn't recommend it for driving, though. I'm afraid you would fall asleep at the wheel five minutes after revving your engine.
Finally, finally it's Friday. I'm tired and ready for the weekend. This week seemd so long. Maybe because it is the first full week that I have worked since just before Christmas. Last week was a short week due to New Year's. It always seems that the first full week just drags along.
I have a nice 3 day weekend to relax and finally regroup from all the Christmas fun. Listening to the weather report it looks like we may even be able to extend this to a 4 day weekend! Snow, sleet, freezing rain on Monday into Tuesday morning. Good-by global warming. It may just get me into the mood to get those Christmas cards done.
I think, I hope, that winter is starting to come back. It really felt like it today. It was cold and windy. We even had a few little snow showers that left a dusting of white on the ground. It's not a big deal but it is better than the spring-in-winter weather that we have been having. I enjoyed bundling up against the cold and wind. I liked looking out the window and seeing that the ground was FINALLY frozen and watching the trees toss their branches in the gray afternoon. The fire felt especially warm and cozy. I liked the feeling of Paul hustling out in the cold to gather wood from our (hardly-used) wood pile so that we could have a nice supply for the cold night ahead.
But we are still up and down. They tell us that Monday will be near 60 but Tuesday will be 30. But the trend seems to be turning towards longer periods of winter like weather. I'm still waiting for that first real snow. That's the only thing that will put me in the mood to get my Christmas cards out!
It arrived the day after Christmas, a rather mysterious looking parcel, smelling of the North Pole, mingled with my usual ordinary mail. Mysterious because in the box for the return address there were just four scrawly letters, SC NP. Anyone who has ever believed knows that those letters stand for Santa Claus, North Pole. I hurried down the driveway to the house, anticipation making me quicken my step. I love packages. Savoring the moment, I slowly opened the envelope. Inside, wrapped up in unusual Christmas tree tissue paper (that I KNOW I have seen somewhere before) was the dearest antiqued tin cow to hang on my Christmas tree, adorned with a bell and a green ribbon. Growing up on a farm, cows have great sentimental value to me. Someone who knew the real me sent this. The cow was accompanied with a plain piece of paper with the words "Have a Mooo-rey Christmas and a Happy New Year. From a friend". That was it. Quickly I checked the envelope to look for the post mark. But there was no post mark. How could that be? You have to have a post mark. Unless you are Santa Claus. I put my brain in hyper-thrust and went through a mental list of who could have sent this lovely little gift.Henry called shortly after it arrived to tell me that he was leaving Liz's and would be at my house soon. "Did you send me something in the mail?" I immediately asked him. He said he had no idea what I was talking about and assured me it wasn't him. Yeah. Right. It seemed just like something Henry would do. When he arrived I showed it to him. Either he is a very good actor or he really didn't send it, because there was nothing in his face to suggest that he was holding a secret. He didn't have what our family calls "the Auntie Mary look", our words for poker face. He said he hadn't gotten one but maybe when he got home it would be waiting there. Then he stopped and said, "Oh wait. I've seen that cow somewhere before. Where was it?? Oh yes, I just saw it at Liz's". Ah ha. So Liz had one too. That eliminated most of my friends as the secret Santa, because none of them would know Liz's address and would have no reason to send it to her.Well, when Henry got home he found a similiar package waiting for him. Before too long the email lines were buzzing because all five siblings and my mother were recipients of Santa's gift. But who sent it?? We all accused each other. We all denied sending it. We are all still wondering. Not one of the packages had a post mark. I have tried smelling it to see if it smells like anyone familiar. I think I know who sent it, but I could be wrong. I don't think I want to know. Somehow that would spoil the mystery and the fun. It would be like finding out the truth about Santa Claus, which is why I have always denied it when people say that there is no such person as Santa Claus. Having been an anonymous Santa Claus myself, once for many years, I can say that the excitement of doing something like this is in the anonymity of it. You do it because you want the spirit of Santa Claus to stay alive. You still have something in you that wants people to believe.I love my little cow. It did not get packed away with the other tree ornaments. It sits on the top of one of the windows in my Belly Acres room, right under a picture of our dear Misty Meadow farm.But I would LOVE to know how in the heck you can get something through the mail without a postmark. Whoever sent this really pulled a good one on us.
Today I took a lovely ride through lovely Eastern Connecticut to Rhode Island to attend a shower for Preggie Meggie. A very excited Brett led a very unsuspecting Megan into the shower room.
Megan had no idea that her friends had gathered to surprise her. She was truly surprised. She was in a state of shock and awe. It is so much fun to really and truly surprise someone, especially when they are as sweet as Megan.
Awwwww.....what cute little baby clothes. And two of each kind!
And some bigger clothes for when the little guys are older and starting to kick the soccer balls around.
We had a great time and great food. Megan and Brett are such a sweet couple. It was so much fun to shower them. One of the best parts of the day was being able to share it with Kara. Now that she is closer to home it is so nice to be able to attend family gatherings with her. I missed all that family stuff while she was so far away. Now everything feels right.
The weather today..........just plain weird. The high in the state was 71, a new record. It was so odd to drive along the highway and see men out on the golf courses..........very happy men! I saw people walking about with t-shirts and shorts. In early January?? It seems very unreal and is quite disorienting. Next week it will be time for our January thaw. I guess that means warmer weather??
I was listening to the extended forecase on the car radio while driving home from work this afternoon. This is what they said, "Sunny on Sunday but with much cooler conditions. Temperatures will only reach the mid 50's".
Would you ever think that in early January temperatures in the mid 50's would be considered "much cooler conditions"?? Everything is so relative. The ski areas aren't doing very well here but some of the golf courses have opened up! The only comforting thought is that mother nature usually evens things out so maybe next winter we will be back to snow and cold.
The weather this winter has been not at all to my liking. I would like to be in Denver. I feel like I am in North Carolina and I am not happy about it. I love the snow and wind and cold of winter with everything that is in my little New England body. Our ground isn't frozen. It's muddy and mucky. The temps are in the 40's and 50's every day. I expect to hear peepers any day. I am sweating under my down comforter at night. People say their daffodils and iris's are coming up. I don't want to check on mine. It would make me too depressed.
So tonight when I saw that one of my favorite movies, Ethan Frome, was on tv I couldn't wait to settle down with my remote. I love that movie. Maybe because there is so much winter in the movie. Maybe because Ethan reminds me a bit of my father. I took in the snow and the howling wind in the movie and drooled. I want all that! I remember the first time I watched it. It was an older version than what I watched tonight but I fell in love with it then. I was in high school. We were in the middle of a terrific snow storm, just perfect for watching Ethan Frome. Whenever there was a break for a commercial I would pop up and look out the window. The snow was drifting and blowing and piling up mightily. I felt comfortable in immersing myself in this wonderful movie instead of doing my homework because I KNEW that there would be no school the next day. Alas. At just about the instant I closed my eyes in sleep for the night the snow stopped. Instantly! By the time morning came the roads were clear and school wasn't even late. And I hadn't done any of my homework. I can still remember that awful unprepared feeling I had when I walked into each classroom. I tell this story to the students in school all the time when they see a few snowflakes and they say, "I can tell we're having a snow day tomorrow. I won't have to do any homework tonight". Don't be so quick to declare a snow day.
Paul and I spent a weekend in the Lenox, Mass area (oh what a nice rare weekend that was) a few years ago and we came across Edith Wharton's (author of Ethan Frome) home. It had been abandoned for awhile and was in the process of being renovated. It was open and they were giving tours of the parts that had been completed. It's a gorgeous home on a piece of property that makes you wonder if that is where she got her inspiration for Ethan Frome. If you are ever in that area, it is a worthwhile trip.
And now I am going to do a snow dance.........again.
Paul rented a metal detector from Taylor Rental today. He said this is the best, most sensitive metal detector that he has ever used. If you ever need to rent one, he would suggest using Taylor Rental, if you have one in your area. For only $20.00 a day it was a good deal.
He brought it home this morning and scanned and scanned and scanned in all three places that were the most likely locations where he had lost the ring. Since all these sites are outside in the field or muck and mud, there was lots of scanning to do. The scanner was really sensitive and was picking up the metal that we have in our rocks in this area. Picking up the metal in the rocks but NO ring.
Realizing he was not going to be successful, he drove to the jewelry store where I bought the ring to talk to them about buying a new one. It's not the same as the old ring but the sentiment is the same. The jewelry store was closed for inventory. So he came back home and scanned one more time. Nothing. With his optimism fading he headed toward the house. As he was going over the bridge he caught sight of a large chunk of cement near the bank of the brook. He remembered that on Saturday he had lugged and rolled that chunk of cement up the bank. Hmmmmm. He wondered if he could have lost it there. Anything is possible. He fired up the metal detector and swirled it around the chunky cement.
Bing......it sensed something. Back and forth. Bing and bing. He looked carefully among the leaves and there it was........his little gold band! What good fortune! He remembers that his hands were really cold when he was lugging that cement block up the bank. The ring must have slipped right off his finger. Right now he has it on his third finger for safe keeping. He plans on taking it to the jeweler and having them make it one half size smaller. If it weren't for that metal detector the ring would have spent eternity on that bank. And Paul would have walked past it every day for many more years never knowing how close he was to it.
Happy New Year to everyone. I can remember, years ago when I was very young, I used to think ahead to the next century and think, "Wow, when the 21st century comes I will be in my 50's. That is just SO OLD!". Well, here we are at 2007, I'm 60 years old and suddenly that doesn't seem old at all. In fact, I feel quite young. Time certainly does change your perspective.
We had a quiet New Year's. We went to Gail and Charlie's and cooked some delicious lobster. It was by far the messiest lobster I have ever eaten! There was so much water in it. It was sliding all over my plate and by the time the meal was through I had lobster meat and juice on my sweater, my hair, the table, the floor and anyone sitting within firing range. But it was GOOD! We watched a movie and watched the ball drop and watched the sweetness of Dick Clark and his wife and then went home to bed. Thank goodness I am finished with those years when we used to party-hearty on New Year's Eve. It is much more enjoyable to be older!
I spent most of today getting rid of anything Christmas. It feels so "cleansing" to do that Christmas purge. Once the new year is here I want to get rid of anything that is Christmas.
Unfortunately, Paul did some unwanted "purging". He was standing in front of the stove talking to me today, looked down at his hands and, with a look of horror on his face said, "Where in the H _ _ _ is my wedding ring?" The last time he definitely remembers seeing it is on Friday. So somewhere between Friday and today it was lost. The only time he has ever taken it off in the 38 years we have been married is when he had to have it re-sized this fall. It was always a bit tight and lately it had been more so, to the point that it was causing his knuckle to be sore. So he had it cut off and made a bit larger. It seemed to be fine but on Friday he noticed that it seemed to be getting a bit looser, probably because his knuckle has been getting smaller since it has been re-sized. He thinks he may have lost it when he was getting wood yesterday when he took his gloves off to work on his chain saw. He was working in several spots and we tried to look around but the ground is so muddy because of the warm weather that he could have easily pushed it into the ground with his feet or the tractor. We had no luck. If only the ground were frozen like it is supposed to be......... The next step is to get a metal detector and see if he can find it that way. But he is not too optimistic.
Stay tuned to see if this has a happy ending!
