Saturday’s sunset:
Another very, very cold morning! I turned the heat down a bit too low last night, so it’s taking a long time for our 131 year old house to heat up. Both Don and I were having a hard time this morning with winter and cold and snow and being stuck in the house. So, while drinking our second cup of coffee, we did a gratitude list.
It helps.
January is nearly over and then February. March is always wintry but a change is slowly occurring by then, so it doesn’t seem quite so bleak. I don’t mean to wish away time but I do think knowing we’re done with January helps.
The puzzle has entered the ‘pulling my hair out’ stage, where I have to examine pieces by shape – in different positions, different light – in order to try to fill in the empty spaces. It is such slow going! I limit my time there so I don’t start screaming and scare Don.
We taped an audition in the den yesterday, which took no time at all now that we’ve found a good spot. Afterwards, I realized that we had an audience.
Between the girls and the animals, there was quite a large group attending the performance. Appreciative, I think…one could say ‘rapt.’
I am going to force myself to read a chunk of The Missing Hours by Julia Dahl today. I’m having trouble getting into it and normally I love Julia Dahl’s writing. Maybe it’s because the main character hasn’t gone missing yet and right now the story is about 18 year olds and drugs and sex. Frankly, that bores me. I want to smack them. But the number of pages in this book is on the short side and I think this is one where I have to get some sort of rhythm going in order to ‘get’ it. At least, I hope that’s the case.
Okay, friends. Stay warm!
And stay safe.
I just finished “The Nickel Boys” by Colson Whitehead and it made me so sad. Terrific writer, tho.
We have more snow coming this week. Stay warm and safe!
Don read that book. He really loves Colson Whitehead’s writing.
We have snow and ice coming on Friday.
Stay safe!
I just finished Louise Erdrich’s new book- The Sentence. The first few pages were so odd, fortunately it by the second chapter ! I ended up reading the book all day and stayed up late to finish it. I’m telling myself it was too cold to do anything else but really L.E. hooks me in and I can’t stop!!
My husband told me it was -1F at 5AM. Now it’s 11F. Thankful we have a heated home and the sun is out!
Staying up late because you love a book so much is one of the great pleasures in life, Betsy.
Stay safe!
February always seems like the longest month to me. I did see a bluebird at our birdfeeder yesterday. We have a bluebird house that gets used every year but I hadn’t seen any bluebirds for months. I’m taking it as a sign of spring.
Best of luck to Don on his audition.
Take care
Oh wonderful! So glad you saw a bluebird, Marilyn!
Stay safe.
The sunset was so pretty and the girls are adorable. They really do look like they’re listening intently. I am almost finished reading “The Secret Garden.” I never read it when I was younger which was probably a good thing, It’s very wordy and not all likable, if that makes sense.
You know, it doesn’t make sense simply because I’ve never read it either! Why is that, I wonder?
Stay safe, Carol!
Love the audience for the audition! Cold today but finally working on a little mixed media art. I need something besides reading (which I love) and watching TV (which I do at night) but creative stuff has been missing. So happy my mojo is coming back! Hugs!
So happy to hear that, Linda! I go through a period every winter where it seems as if I’ve lost my creative mojo. I’m sort of in one now. But it will pass.
Stay safe!
Definitely in rapt attention! I hope they approved of the audition. More to the point, I hope the producer or director approves!
We’re waiting for snow midweek and meanwhile a good time to purge old computer files and photo files. I don’t know how many hundred thousand are on my computer but it’s time to bid farewell to many!
Gorgeous sunset. That’s a view to cherish. And I’m with you on January. Time to say goodbye!
I have so many photo files to purge! I do it year by year, and I think I’m on 2018, but I have a long way to go.
Stay safe, Jeanie.
dear Claudia/Don — pix of sunset is beautiful — seems like wintertime gives us vivid colors in the a.m. sunrises and p.m. sunsets — guess it is to give us hope!! I have never liked Jan–almost always cold, snowy — good hibernating weather!! I am working on a puzzle, have done parts
with easy distinguishable pieces–now mostly greens in many different shades UGH!! your girls are so special — each one lovely but all different–glad they found you. hope your weather is more snow than ice and that you stay safe/healthy
I hope it’s more snow than ice, too, Linda.
I commiserate with you on all the shades of green. It can drive you crazy!
Stay safe.
Hi Claudia,
I, too, live in a 130 year old house It is an old Victorian house in the foothills of northern Calif. We don’t get snow though.
Your Blythe dolls are so precious. I am very tempted to try and get one (but one would probably lead to two….). As a child I totally loved my dolls and spent hours, days, years playing with them. It makes me happy to see your girls.
Have a nice week.
They’re addicting, Linda, as evidenced by my 8 dolls. I comfort myself by knowing they’re very collectible and resale is done all the time, so if I wanted to divest myself of some of the collection, I could.
But then again, you know how attached I get to my ‘stuff.’
Stay safe.
They really do look like an audience, and a well-behaved one too!
Winter does at least give us gorgeous winter sunsets—and your photo is equally gorgeous. I read The Underground Railroad first because I wanted to read them in order of when they were written…also sad but fantastic. The Nickel Boys is amazing, recently finished and passed it along to my husband. (If I get the book I get to read it first—-a good system haha.) One of the very few silver linings of this horrible pandemic—I actually read and finished books. Sigh. Stay warm up there! I hope you don’t get the ice this week.
I have to read both of those books – and they’re here in our library because Don bought them. I also want to read Harlem Shuffle, which is his most recent book. It’s a mystery.
Thanks so much, Naomi!
Stay safe.