Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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Books, Puzzles, and Weather

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The Deborah Crombie arrived at my local library yesterday, so off I went to pick it up.

Current reading pile – and I am  reading all three at once.

Oooh, how lovely! Three excellent books and I get to read them. I’m close to finishing Underland  and I can’t say enough about how wonderful it is. Of course, three hours after I went to the library, I received an email saying that two books I had also reserved had arrived. I think I’ll wait to pick them up tomorrow, so the two weeks we get for ‘new’ books starts a day later – giving me some wiggle room.

Also, Galaxy Puzzles (based in my old neighborhood in Michigan) is the online company I used to order my very first jigsaw puzzle at the start of lockdown. The owner is closing down because it’s been so successful that it’s become too much for her to handle. So she’s going out on a positive note.  She’s discounting all the stock in her warehouse. I ordered 3 puzzles.  I think they were discounted at 20-30% off. She ships quickly. I ordered on the weekend and I received them yesterday.

Anyway, the discounts are even deeper now; most, I think, at 40% – just in case you’re interested. I saved some money and I have some on hand.

Sophie:

It’s a rainy morning here with another storm headed our way tomorrow night. There is some disagreement on the actual forecast and my favorite local weather guys say it’s too “fluid” at the moment. So, something’s coming, we just don’t know exactly how much. Unlike the pretty snow of earlier this week, this one will have some sleet and ice in the mix. Not good.

Stay safe.

Happy Thursday.

 

 

It’s Cold! Hunkering Down.

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Early morning egg cups.

It’s dark in here because we have the blinds drawn and it’s very cold outside. We ordered more heating oil a couple of days ago, but it’s the weekend and we won’t have a delivery until Monday or Tuesday. So we’ve got the heat turned down and we’re wearing layers. It’s rather cozy!

I just made a second cup of coffee for us and that’s warming us up, as well.

Chris, are you home? I assume you are. Hope you’re enjoying being surrounded by the people and things you love.

My former student, Christine, is keeping us all updated on her battle with cancer via Caring Bridge. We’ve been praying for her this week (and always) as she and her husband were to meet with her doctor yesterday to see if the chemo has had any impact on her tumor. We waited for her post yesterday and the good news is that it has. She will now have a hysterectomy during the first week of March and then another round of chemo to treat some stray cells in her lungs and liver. As Don said about Christine: she is all love and light. And she is. (She and Jim were in the same class.) We are very thankful for this latest news.

Adrian is hospitalized, awaiting the day when he gets a new heart.

There’s a lot of praying going on here on a daily basis.

I’m next up in the queue for the new Deborah Crombie. It should be arriving at my little library branch shortly; hopefully, today. Huzzah! In the meantime, I’m reading War and Peace  and Underland. I’ve urged Don to read Underland  after I’ve finished. I think he’d really like it. It is absolutely fascinating. Back to War and Peace. Tolstoy was an incredible writer and storyteller. I am continuously astounded by his detailed descriptions of people, of setting, of battles. His ability to create an entire world within a scene is extraordinary. Not that I ever questioned his status as one of our greatest novelists, but I now completely understand why he is.

I’m still feeling under the weather. Just trying to hang in there and read, work on the puzzle, and take it easy.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

 

 

 

Sun, Kitchen, and Books

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We just had the nicest day yesterday. Did we go anywhere? No. Did we give each other a gift? No. We just spent time together on a perfectly sunny day. We talked a lot, we cuddled, we repeatedly said how much we love each other.

Frankly, that’s all I need.

The kitchen yesterday. This photo, however, doesn’t really show how gloriously sunny it was. But it will have to do. I quickly took the photo while Don and I were sitting on the living room sofa. (Excuse the little bag of trash on the counter! Real life.)

This book is extraordinary. It’s nonfiction, which is always slower going for me, but, oh my, is it worth it. I never quote blurbs, but I will with this one, simply because I couldn’t write anything better:

In Underland, Robert Macfarlane delivers an epic exploration of the Earth’s underworlds as they exist in myth, literature, memory, and the land itself. Traveling through the dizzying expanse of geological time – from prehistoric art in Norwegian sea caves, to the blue depths of the Greenland ice cap, to a deep-sunk “hiding place” where nuclear waste will be stored for 100,000 years to come – Underland  takes on an extraordinary journey into our relationship with darkness, burial, and what lies beneath the surface of both heart and mind.

I hear a Carolina wren as I’m writing this. I’m wondering if the birds think Spring is coming soon? Ive certainly got spring fever, but the reality is we might get some snow next week and the unseasonably warm temperatures are going to plunge for a couple of days. (Thanks, Mother Nature. With all this warmth, I’m ready for Spring!)

We have to get out there and clean out the trailer bird house to get it prepped in case they want to nest there. Right now, I can see a wren on the branches of the big maple tree that is right next to the porch. And now he/she is on the porch. And back to the tree.

Okay, my friends.

Stay safe.

 

 

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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