The Flower Lady

One of my mother's very best friends from her Falls Village days passed away on Tuesday. Growing up, we always politely referred to her as Mrs. Fitch to her face. But behind her back we always called her "Auntie Ella" because it felt like she was part of our family. She was my mother's best friend. She was the sister my mother never had.

I think that she and my mother were drawn to each other because they shared so much similarity in their lives. They were each mother to five really active children. My brother and one of her daughter's were in school together. Another daughter was best friends with my sister. My mother and Auntie Ella both lived in houses with continuous unfinished projects; Auntie Ella's front door led to a long drop to nowhere because it was years before the front steps were in place and we had closets in the house that were studded out but no dry wall was ever put up. Both homes showed the chaos that comes to a home with five children where loving is more important than organizing. There wasn't much money in either home but that didn't seem to matter.

My mother always felt comfortable with Auntie Ella. She was unpretentious. She was down-to-earth, practical and fun to be with. When I think of Auntie Ella the visual is always of her sitting in the kitchen with my mother. There they talked together, laughed together and sometimes even cried together. They were each other's moral support. It was a happy time. Lately, when I would make trips to Falls Village she would always grab me, shake her finger in my face and say "Now Midge, you tell your mother to get up here and visit me"!

The inside of Auntie Ella's house may have shown the confusion that reigned with a big family to care for but her outside was like an Eden. Her passion was gardening. Every year she would plant more and more beds until her yard was an eye-popping delight to drive by. If you dropped by her house she would grab you and take you on a tour of her gardens, proudly pointing out all her plants and naming each one by name, a feat I still can't do with the few beds that I have. She was unable to contain her gardening passion to her lawns. If there was an empty spot in town that needed sprucing up, she was there with her trowel and flowers. The evidence was everywhere. The ground at the base of stop signs would be dug up and planted with her plants. She even received a special citation from the governor as the "Flower Lady of Falls Village". No matter where Paul and I would travel, if we came across a little group of flowers popping up where you would least expect it we would point and say, "Oh, Ella's been here".

She made the world a more beautiful place both spiritually and visually. When we come across a little crop of flowers waving their heads in the breeze we will still say "Oh, Ella's been here". And we will have to wonder if someone actually planted them or was "Ella here".

First word.

Our little grandson, Elliot, says his first word. Click here to listen! The perfect word for the grandson of a veterinarin to utter!

Rain on the roof

Vacation is over, it's back to work and all is well in my world. My mother is home from the hospital and happy to be home. Little Chloe is home from the hospital. I went to the dentist today to have the impressions (gag gag) made for my final tooth for my implant. In two and a half weeks the crown jewel will go in and I will be free from the dental chair, for a while.

It's been a rainy, misty day. Driving back from the dentist tonight in the dark was like driving through swirls of clouds in black velvet. When I got home I took a little glass of sherry into the porch and snuggled down into one of our new chairs in front of the fire and listened to the rain on the roof. A simple pleasure. Paul once told me that, because of the amount of insulation in the roof, we would not be able to hear the rain. He was WRONG (a rarity). It makes such a wonderful sound. Reminds me of that old song "You and me and the rain on the roof" (by the Lovin' Spoonful) from my dating days. If I remember right there were great sound effects of rain and thunder. We used to love those sound effects on records. I can remember albums that I would buy that would be nothing but one big thunderstorm. In college my friends and I would gather in one dorm room, turn out the lights and lie there listening to the thunderstorm. Having a significant other whose image you could conjure up while listening only increased the thrill of listening to recorded thunder.

I started a new book, "Black and Blue" by Anna Quindlen. So far it is really good. I can tell that it is going to be one of those books that I have to read while I am stirring pots on the stove because I CANNOT put it down. And now I'm off to bed to read.

Smooth and bumpy.

The long holiday week-end is almost over and tomorrow it is back to work again. What began as a peaceful Thanksgiving holiday ended up on a bit of a chaotic note.

On Saturday morning mother woke up not feeling very well, a bit dizzy. She did the right thing and hit the "Lifeline" bracelet that she has. Help came right away and she was taken to the hospital. She seems to have recovered quickly from whatever was ailing her. We went to visit her today and she looks wonderful, sort of like she was relaxing at an unusual type of spa. If she looks this good tomorrow she will be going home.

I was talking with her on the phone last night and as soon as I hung up the phone rang. It was the daughter of one of mother's long time friends to tell me that her mother had just suffered a ruptured cerebral aneurysm and was not expected to live. Although she was unable to respond they believed that she was still able to hear and she was calling to ask if mother could call and say a few words to her. Mother did call. I know it meant a lot to the family to know that she cared so much. My thoughts are with them at this very difficult time.

Just as I was gettiing ready to sign off my computer last night an email popped up from Liz telling me that her little Chloe had been taken to the Children's Hospital with an attack of appendicitis. The perpetrator was removed from her little body today and she is doing just fine. Ironically, the Children's Hospital is right next to the hospital where mother is. If their rooms were in the proper position they could wave to each other from their beds! We like to keep our famly close!

Today was a lovely day, weather-wise. When we came back from the hospital I managed to get leaves raked and put on my gardens but I "have miles to go before I sleep". I hope I can get the rest done before winter really sets in. The signs don't look too good. Tomorrow we are getting freezing rain and sleet.

It was a rather bumpy end to our holiday weekend but things seem to be smoothing out nicely tonight. And all my children are safely home from their holiday travels so I can sleep well.

What kind of Black Friday person are you?

I really don't understand all this excitement over "Black Friday". When did this craziness start? What is wrong with our society, lining up in the cold, dark dawn just to get a "deal". I saw a news clip today of a mad rush to the doors at 4am.........hordes of people squeezing,pushing, shoving and stepping over each other just to be one of the first ones in the door. One man said he was standing in line at Wal-mart to get his daughters an LCD tv for $200. Is that what kids get for Christmas these days? Their own tv?

While this shoving match was going on I was cozily curled up in my warm bed snoring away (yes, I sometimes snore). While shoppers yesterday were walking shoulder to shoulder through the mall, rubbing their aching backs as they stood in line, dodging the coughers and sneezers and hackers and listening to the same annoying Christmas songs over and over I was in my quiet home, listening to the wind roar outside as I cleaned and read and made lentil soup which we ate by the fire.

What is your preference for Black Friday, the pulsating mall or a quiet home?

So much to be thankful for.

Our Thanksgiving weather last year was dark, rainy, dreary and chilly. Some of our guests went outside to play Bocce and came in soaking wet and hugged the fireplace to get warm and dry themselves out. Today it was too warm to build a fire in the fireplace. Sunny and in the 60's, it was too warm to even wear a jacket. Of course, I would have preferred a raging blizzard but I'm in the minority on that thought.

Last year we hosted Thanksgiving and had 19 guests including two of my children. Liz hosted the day today. It was much smaller with only 10 guests and none of my children. Despite wishing my children could have joined us we had a wonderful day. Liz cooked a superb meal, as always. And I must say, it was rather nice to be able to sleep late this morning and not have to get up early to chuck a big turkey in the oven. Besides enjoying the bounty of good food, it is always good to sit around the table with your family and enjoy fun and interesting conversation and share some really good belly laughs. I enjoy that part of Thanksgiving even more than the food.



After dinner mother got that funny "auntie mary" look on her face and told us that she had an announcement to make. She always makes us play "Twenty Questions" with things like this. We also get very nervous when she does this. We peppered her with rapid-fire questions which finally led to the fact that it was actually Henry who the "announcement" was about.

So we started peppering Henry with a barrage of obnoxious questions. He was suddenly struck with that funny "auntie mary" look as we all questioned him en masse.

As you can tell by the look on Henry's face when we finally guessed, it was a rather happy announcement. But sorry, I'm going to leave you hanging! I don't know if it wants it "publicized" on the web yet so I'm not saying anything about it here. If you want to know, you'll just have to email me!

After dinner we moved into the living room for our usual free(Frueh) tag sale. I brought some clothes and Ellen brought some books for people to poke through.

Some people let the turkey tryptophan take over and collapsed for an old-fashioned nap.

While some people slept the rest of us joined in the Sundet Thanksgiving tradition of coloring their Advent calendar.



And no Thanksgiving is complete without a good walk to work off all the cholesterol and calories from that oh-so-good meal. I think a walk feels better on Thanksgiving day than any other day.

I hope everyone enjoyed their day as much as we did. And now I'm going to end it with a UCONN basketball game. How good can this day get?!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO YOU ALL!!!!

Breaking away

In the 70's Paul and I happened to catch a "sleeper" movie called Breaking Away. By far one of the best movies I've seen, and I've seen it more than once. It is a coming-of-age movie about a young blue-collar boy who has just finished high school. While his friends are not sure what they want to do with their lives he knows that he just wants to become the worlds' best bicyclist. He knows that the leading bicycle racers are Italian. He also knows that he is not. In order to become more "Italian" he races his bicycle around his hometown singing opera, speaking with an Italian accent and befuddling his blue collar parents with newly-learned Italian words. When he meets an Italian exchange student he endearingly practices his new Italian vocabulary on her, trying to be oh so cool and nonchalant.

Fast forward to today. Damon calls tonight after flying from Germany to Seattle for the holidays. While he is talking to me I have a little bit of deja vu. He tells me he is having a good,(well...GREAT) time in Germany. I can only assume what he says is true because his speech is peppered with German phrases after only spending a week there. He has probably learned more German in one week than all the Spanish he tried to learn in a year in high school. I don't always understand what he is saying. I do understand that there are lots of blond, blue-eyed young women in Germany and they love to help the young American boys with their English. Paul IM's him tonight to tell him that he is downloading a program in my computer. The last thing Paul says to Damon is: "Ought to be a little faster for her now". Damon's answer: "Jah".

Ah Damon. You so immerse yourself in a culture. You must have stepped right out of that movie!

Twins Sunday

When Paul and I heard that Brett and Megan and the twins were going to be visiting my mother today we couldn't resist.........we just had to put down the rakes and garden-way carts and take a trip to Glastonbury. The last time we got together I had a cold and couldn't hold them so I have been waiting for a chance to make up for that.


Brett and little Albion met us at the door.

Not far behind were Megan and little Elliot. They are both oh so cute but oh so very different. They are "twins" in name only. Albion is so much like his father. A mass of quivering muscle, he wants to be on the go all the time. He's already cultivating a sense of humor. His binky is his most precious possession. Whenever you look at him he smiles.

Whenever you look at Elliot he senses stranger-danger. He gives you fair warning with a little down-turned lip and then lets out a wail. Like his mother, he is sweet and patient and has an endearing smile that lights up his huge blue eyes.

Megan has gotten very adept at feeding two boys at the same time. She moves that spoon back from twin to twin at lightening speed before they even have a chance to wonder when the next bite is coming.

While she was feeding the twins, great-grandma was in the kitchen giving Paul lessons on how to cook hot dogs.

It was such fun having two little ones to play with. Babies are such fascinating little munchkins, aren't they? All too soon it was nap time, which translates into "let"s get the twins in the car and get moving on home".

True to their personality differences, Albion sat in his car seat and contentedly sucked on his binky while Brett and Megan gathered all their stuff together.

Elliot, on the other hand, did that lip-trembling crying thing everytime I looked at him!

Brett and Megan should be very proud of the way they are bringing up these little guys. They are doing a great job.

Snoozing on a Friday night

Today felt like a day in January. It turned much colder with very strong winds. My only thought all day was of sitting by the fire. By early afternoon we had a little snow squall come through. The students in the library squealed with glee when they saw it and began chanting, "Early dismissal, early dismissal". We had to remind them that it was only a squall and in 10 minutes the sun would be out, which it was. The sight of snow, even if it's only flurries, always revs up their little engines.

When I got home today Paul had already lit a little fire in the gas stove for me. Or was it for him?? I started dinner and when I went back to the porch to set the table this is what I found.............................................


My little man was in lullaby land. That room is REALLY REALLY relaxing. I have to say that it is the best thing we have ever done (besides making 3 beautiful children, of course).

Cold cows and cozy cats

This morning was cold, the sky was gray but the trees and grass were white with frost. I looked out the window and saw two cows making their way through the lacy grass. A cold sight. On days like this when I was a little girl I liked to slip into the barn and feel the cozy warmth of the animal world. The rhythmic sound of the cows chewing their cud and the jiggling of the stanchions would lull me into the security of a quiet and peaceful world. As the cows puffed warm clouds of moisture from their noses I would settle on the steps of the feed room and watch my father mound sweet smelling hay in front of them and then go down the row with a bucket of molasses, pouring the sweet syrup on top of each mound of hay. The combination of hay and molasses smelled so sweet that I almost wanted to be a cow.

The weather warmed up to almost 60 today but by afternoon the sky turned gray, the winds picked up and things started to smell like rain. The cats scooted in the door at dinner time and promptly curled up on the sofa in front of the fire. They looked so warm and content and peaceful that for a moment I almost wished I were a cat!

As I was flipping channels tonight I came across Ken Burns' "War". It was the last installment and was so good that I wished I could have watched the whole thing but it doesn't end until after midnight and I can't do a late night in the middle of the week.

We saw a brief glimpse of a little boy watching a news reel in the movie theatre during World War II. Paul said, "Do you remember watching those at the movies?" I had almost forgotten about that. Do any of you remember the news reels they used to have before the movie started? And watching news reels in school? We used to all troop down to the cafeteria to watch the black and white news reel. Each showing would start with a count down from 10 - 1 and we all would have to count the numbers out loud, en masse. Our teachers always made us take notes. We would try to scribble as legibly as we could in the dark and then we would be quizzed when we got back to our rooms. I loved to watch those news reels but I was always frustrated by the fact that I had to take notes and couldn't simply sit back and watch what was happening on the screen.

Did the same man narrate them for all those years? It seems like the voice never changed.

Two Days..........Two Special People

A happy Veteran's Day to one of my very favorite veterans, my mom, Lieutenant Margaret Chapin. She entered the Army early in 1945 as a nurse. She first went to Fort Devins and was then transferred to Camp Edwards in Mass. Because she was prone to hay fever the army doctor told her that if she wheezed at times she would not have to go over-seas and THEN asked her if she wheezed. He was making it easy for her to get out of overseas duty but she couldn't tell a lie so was subject to an overseas call. She ultimately ended up in the psychiatric section at Cushing General Hospital in Framingham, Mass. (as a nurse, not a patient) There was no better person to raise the morale of those men suffering from the trauma of war. She has a picture of her on the lawn of the hospital surrounded by a group of smiling men in their army pj's and robes. I'm sure they never forgot that nurse with the big heart and even bigger smile who made them forget what they had just been through. She is listed in the Women In Service To America Memorial in Washington, DC; a very fitting tribute.



Today is also the birthday of my sister Lauri, my very first friend. It's hard to believe that we have been together for 60 years! Sixty years of happy shared memories. A Scorpio is listed as being loyal, generous, supportive, protective and humble. She is all that. When I read the negative traits of Scorpio she was NONE of them. I can't imagine growing up without her. Whatever I did and wherever I went, she was always there. She was my other half. Happy Birthday to my quirky little sister who had a color for every day of the week!

Sunday chores

Paul and I spent today each working in our own little world. I washed windows in the Belly Acres Room............all_fifteen_of_them. That's the one downside to a sun room. There are lots of windows to wash. It took me about 4 hours. The whole time I was washing windows I could hear the drone of Paul's chainsaw in the background, a noise that will forever remind me of my father. He was cutting up some especially hot-burning wood to be used for the coldest days this winter.


He brought it back to the house with his tractor and stacked in on the deck with SPECIFIC instructions that the wood on the right end of the bench is ONLY to be used during those really cold days in January. Woe is me if I forget which end he said and burn the wood on the right end on a "left-end" burning day.

Late this afternoon, after we had both finished with our chores, we decided to take a drive to Home Depot to look for lamps for the porch. Paul's idea was to go to the Connecticut Lighting Center. I checked out their prices on-line. Table lamps started at $250 and kept on going up to over $700. Yikes. With that plus the two floor lamps we needed we could easily spend over $1000 just for something to light up the porch. I don't think so.

Not really thrilled with what we saw at Home Depot we got back into the car and drove down the road to Target. There we found just what we were looking for.

A nice little Mission style lamp that matches our furniture perfectly. Just the right size and only $39.00. How could we say no. We found two floor lamps so now we can sit anywhere in the room and read read read. It's so nice to have a room that is a quiet space.

Damon is safely bedded down in Germany tonight and seems to be enjoying his stay so far. Tomorrow he will go to work. Today he did a little exploring and got a little lost but his built-in GPS got him back on track. He says that Nuremberg is a fascinating city, especially from a historical perspective.

Tomorrow I have an appointment to get my temporary tooth implant with the permanent one coming two weeks later. I am SO ready to get rid of this horrid flipper.

Lazy Saturday

I love having three day weekends. It feels like there is so much less pressure on Saturday to get things done. I remember reading a couple of years ago about a few school districts in the United States that were experimenting with 4 day work weeks. Everyone went to school an extra hour a day for 4 days of the week and then enjoyed a 3 day weekend. The students loved it. The teachers loved it. And I know I would love it.

Today I filled the bird feeders and hung them outside. I took off the screen doors and put on the storm doors. Just a few more signs that winter is coming. I'm hoping that it will be a bit warmer on Monday so that I can finish that darn yard work.

Damon is on his way to Germany. He left at 9am (Seattle time) and will get there tomorrow morning at 6am (our time). A very long trip, but I know he is planning on spending lots of sleep time on the plane. He'll be there for a week, fly back to spend Thanksgiving in Seattle, and then fly back again for 2 and a half weeks. That's a lot of back and forth. I hope he isn't bothered by jet lag.

Right now I feel like I'm jet-lagging so I'm going to bed and snuggle with a good book. I just started reading "Drowning Ruth". So far it is a great read.

Winter marches ever closer

Each day I'm feeling closer and closer to winter. I often think of Kara's high school friend who lives on the other side of the globe and who, with each passing day, is getting closer and closer to the warmth and lightness of summer. We have had several frosty mornings in a row. Temperatures are expected to drop into the twenties tonight with a little snow-spitting from the sky expected tomorrow night. I've been reluctant to get out my wool coat and scarf but I think the time is coming near.

I think Cathy's Cafe is sadly closed for the season. We did spend a lunch half-hour out there last week because nurse Cathy, the "owner" of the cafe, called us all before lunch to tell us that if was "quite nice" out. I think the "quite nice" was the brief moment when the sun coming out and sticking her head out the door to check the weather conditions happened to coincide. By the time we got out there the sun had disappeared and there was a pretty brisk breeze. We were a rather pathetic sight to anyone driving into the school, hunched over and shivering as we tried to eat and keep our napkins from blowing away at the same time. For the very brief intervals that the sun would come out we would throw back our heads and shout "ooooohhh aaaahhhhh the sun". As much as we wanted to enjoy the fresh air and time away from childish voices it was all too much and we had to scamper back inside and end our lunch respite early.

Tonight it was homemade soup by the fire. After dinner the couch in front of the warm, dancing fire was irresistible. I lay down for a second and the next thing I knew I was snoozing. One of life's sweet pleasures.

Looking forward to a nice three-day weekend. I am so ready.

November.......already!

Thanksgiving play at Lee Kellog school in the '50's. That's me, the little pilgrim, 5th from the left, standing next to little Joey Solgovic. I was not tall, trust me. Joey was VERY short. And we still have a connection. He's now the sanitation man in Torrington and picks up our sanitary garbage. I remember this play because my skirt fell off in the middle of it and I had to walk to the front of the stage so a teacher could do damage control with a safety pin.

Wow. October seemed to fly by as fast as the skittering leaves. Now gray November is here. When I flip my calendar and see the November page I think of:

1. Gray gray gray skies. I love the gray. It has a cozy feel and makes you want to stay inside and make chili (well, I used to but, oh dear, it's too full of cholesterol now) and apple crisp and apple sauce and ginger cookies.
2. The promise of snow. How I love a dark, windy day with the gray clouds spitting snow.
3. Drawing turkeys in grade school with our handprint....the fingers being the feathers.
4. The Pilgrims arrival in Plymouth. There is something about the wind moaning through the naked trees in the woods that makes me feel like a time traveler. I almost expect to see the natives peeking out from behind the trees.
5. Thanksgiving, of course. White tablecloths, good china, candles on the table, fire in the fireplace,family, the smell of dinner cooking, fogged-up kitchen windows, the chatter and laughter of several different conversations, feeling good.
6. Elections. Paul never votes. I always do.
7. The first basketball game of the season..........oh YES!
8. Lauri's birthday.
9. Putting the bird feeders out, usually in the cold and windy weather.
10. Putting on turtlenecks and sweaters and feeling oh-so-warm.
11. Freezing at football games in college.
12. Watching my kids play soccer in the snow, trying to stay warm wrapped up in a sleeping bag with a thermos of soup and another of cocoa and obsessing about running to the car and turning on the heater at the end of the game.
13. Christmas music. I_CAN'T_STAND Christmas music, or ads or anything else Christmasy, before Thanksgiving.
14. Cold, cold rain.
15. Taking the bus/train home from West Virginia for Thanksgiving and being held by my Paul after being apart for 3 months. That was the BEST.

What do you think of when you think of November?

Lots'a leaves

I spent my first November Sunday raking leaves.......ALL _ DAY_ LONG. I raked until the early dark came. I really HATE raking leaves. But I guess it is the price I have to pay for having trees and I don't think I could live without my trees. But raking leaves is SO boring.

When I was little I loved leaves, probably because I didn't have to rake them. Leaves were something to play in. We would rake a big pile of leaves and jump into them, making that wonderful crackling sound, right off of the swing. Sometimes we would bury each other in leaves. Other times I would use the leaves to make a floor plan of a house and then spend hours in my little imaginative world, living the life of a princess in a castle or Mary in Little House in the Big Woods. When I was little, leaves were good.

Every fall my father would bank the house with leaves. He would rake them against the foundation of the house and lay boards over them to keep them from blowing away. He said it kept the drafts out of our old, drafty house. Once the house was banked he was through raking leaves for the year. He said it was better for the lawn to leave the leaves there. Now that I am older and hate to rake leaves I think maybe he said that to justify not raking leaves. After all the years of leaving the leaves unraked our lawn was still thin and sick looking.




When the kids were small I faithfully raked the leaves every fall because they loved jumping in the leaves as much as I used to. If I raked them up against the stone wall they could do a leap off the wall and into the pile. Great fun. When they were finished I would put the leaves on my flower beds for winter protection and my vegetable garden for food. Then I would take a couple of aspirin and go soak my aching muscles.

Several years ago we bought a lawn mower with a mulcher. It was great. No more leave raking. A few passes over the leaf-strewn lawn with my mower and the leaves disappeared like magic. It was a dusty, noisy job but so much easier and faster than the endless raking and lugging. There was a downside. I have noticed that the soil in my vegetable garden has been getting more and more anemic looking. It's looking quite hungry. I think it needs some nutritious leaves. So this year it was back to the raking and lugging and blisters. I have filled the garden with leaves. I hope it's happy.

I'm wondering if I transferred some earthworms into my vegetable garden if that would improve the soil or would the worms expire in the poorer soil? We have plenty of earthworms in some of the better soil areas of our property that I could move. Does anyone know if this has ever been tried? And does it work? How long does it take?

Living like a princess

When I was a little girl one of my favorite stories was A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It was the perfect story for a girl like me who secretly longed to live an exotic life filled with drama and intrigue. It was the story of a little girl who lived in a boarding school. She was treated like royalty because her father, who she adored, was very wealthy. When the boarding school received word that her father had died, the little girl's princess status suddenly changed. Because there was no more money the little girl was given maid duties instead of school lessons and was sent to stay in a cold, barren room in the attic. At the end of the story an acquaintance of her father's realizes what has been happening and intervenes. Every day while she is out of her room he secretly transforms her cold and drab attic room to a warm and cozy haven. He brings in rugs, wall hangings, furniture, food and even a warm fire. I couldn't get enough of the illustration of the transformed room. I wanted to be there. It was so inviting and warm and cozy. I wanted my father to transform our attic into a room just like that and couldn't understand when he said that was impossible to do.

Well, today our new furniture came for our Belly-Acres room. Conveniently,at the same time our carpet arrived two weeks early. After school I went to work. I vacuumed, shoved furniture about, moved old furniture out, unrolled the carpet pad and carpet. When I was through I felt like the Little Princess.



Our cold, barren and furnitureless room was transformed into something warm and comfy and cozy. It had lost it's empty echo. We still hav lamps to buy and painting to do and baseboards to attach but OMG.........I love it and I feel just like I'm living in the illustration in the book.

When the sun set I lit a fire in the stove and curled up with a glass of sherry. I looked around the room and smiled..........and smiled and smiled and smiled. We have never been this extravagant in our lives.

Paul has already claimed his favorite spot. I knew that's where he would land.

I think this will be my favorite spot. I love this chair and ottoman nestled between the two windows. I can't imagine any better place to curl up and read during a howling snow storm. And drifting off to sleep there will be quite nice, too.