Closer to the finish.

I finished up the rivers and the shorelines, added Central Park and St. Patrick’s Cathedral  – now I have to fill in the neighborhoods, as well as Union Square and a couple of other parks. I find this kind of thing so absorbing and stimulating, while at the same time, very calming. There’s nothing I love more at the moment than working on this puzzle with Don playing music and singing at the other end of the room.

I’m about a hundred and twenty pages into Winter Solstice  and I’m really enjoying it. Pilcher is a master of describing time and place. Her characters are complex and beautifully written. Someone suggested in a comment here that this book was like a Hallmark movie. To me? With all due respect, not one bit. Hallmark movies are meant to be superficial and surface level, with impossibly pretty actors and shallow plot devices, because they’re a form of visual escape, just like Harlequin romances were a form of escape for me when I was younger. I get it. I’m not at all into those movies now, but I understand their appeal.

Pilcher, on the other hand, is an excellent writer and her books have far, far more depth. There’s no comparison. There are elements of romance of course, but they’re character driven and beautifully written. I hadn’t read one of her novels in several years and I forgot what a pleasure it is to be in her hands. All this is to say, I love her books. This is just what I need at the moment – interesting, complicated characters, beautiful descriptions of the English and Scottish countrysides, cottages, houses, the streets of London, and characters who are forced to face heartbreak and change and move on in the hopes of something better. Characters, I might add, who have weaknesses, regrets, and resilience in the face of the unknown.

The forecast for Monday and Tuesday keeps changing. Yesterday: 1-3 inches of snow with 1-3 inches overnight. This morning: 1-3 inches of snow with 3-5 inches overnight. Apparently, the forecast models keep changing. So, we won’t really know anything definite until sometime tomorrow.

We’ve been looking through a book of Jeff Bridges’ photographs, all taken on movie sets with his Widelux camera. Some of them are from Crazy Heart, which we saw when it first came out. Bridges won the Oscar for his role. So we rented it from Amazon Prime last night and I’m so glad we watched it again. He’s brilliant in his role; heartbreaking, touching, dissolute, sad and, in the end, inspiring. Also wonderful – Maggie Gyllenhaall, Colin Farrell, and Robert Duvall. It’s so damn good.

Don will pick up groceries today. I’m forcing myself to clean the bathroom. Then we’ll do all the disinfecting, etc. Then, I hope to hear some music from my husband. I sang to him last night. I don’t sing a lot these days but I sang onstage, in church, and professionally for years. When Don catches me singing while working in the kitchen, he asks for more. What a good guy he is!

Really, really cold out there. But sunny.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.