snow — Page 19

Solitary

March 5, 2019 at 10:55 am by Claudia

In a desperate attempt to find something that is not the usual photo on the blog, Claudia wanders the kitchen and comes up with this. (Note that this wall has yet to be painted yellow.)

On top of the cabinet, which is what I was concentrating on: two Fiesta mixing bowls from my former collection (I saved my favorite pieces) and a Fiesta gravy boat. Sheep: salt and pepper shakers and another one given to me by a friend. A fisherman from our long ago Dept 56 collection that Don always thought looked like him. A McCoy vase. A McCoy pot planted with pothos. An old tin that I found at the Country Living Fair.

And for those of you who said I should use my great-grandmother’s china…

In addition to our everyday china, I have yet another set of “good” china that I fell in love with several years ago. After searching for the pattern, I happened upon a guy selling all of this on eBay. And he lived in New York State. I love this set.

But it’s on display. I use some pieces occasionally, but it basically lives here in the cabinet. As my great-grandma’s set will live in the cabinet in the den.

We eat our dinner on trays in the den. We rarely use the kitchen table. We got into the tray thing years ago and we like it. Since we spend great chunks of the day together, it’s not as if we have to meet up at the dinner table to discuss our day. We’re discussing throughout the day.

Also, I do not like to entertain. I didn’t inherit that gene. When I do entertain, I feel incredibly stressed. This house is small and it gets tight with just Don and me, let alone others.

But to be honest, I’ve never been comfortable entertaining. I’m solitary, remember? I like my quiet and my routine. It’s amazing that I somehow managed to let Don into my life. (Best thing I ever did!) Since he feels more or less the same way, though he’s definitely more social than I, we are fine the way we are.

I also don’t like to go to parties. I’ve had a lifetime of cast parties and opening night parties and closing night parties and I usually do my duty and make an appearance, but I can’t wait to leave and breathe fresh air and not have to make small talk or shout over the noise. I can’t wait to get out of my fancier duds and put on jeans and a t-shirt or, better yet, my flannel pajamas.

When I work as a coach, I’m surrounded by lots of people all of the time, lots of energy, and lots of noise. The same can be said of my years teaching. So when I get home, I crave quiet. I am capable of being social and charming and chatty, but I much prefer the opposite. I’m an introvert, I guess.

Though Don would certainly say I’m chatty at home and I suppose I am. “Solitary but chatty…” see blog sidebar.

You can better see the pattern of the dishes in this photo of a serving dish.

I’ve got china and pottery everywhere in this house, stashed on shelves, stashed in cabinets, on tables, on desks, on top of the kitchen cupboards.

A couple of days ago, we finally managed to shovel the far side of the parking area near the shed where Don usually keeps his car. He’s been having to park in the driveway. We were too sick at the time to shovel it out and then we kept getting those storms with ice and it became impossible to shovel. Too many layers of ice. After freeing my car last week, we cleared the other side and salted it on Saturday. Don was finally able to park his car normally. As for yesterday’s snow clean-up, Don ended up shoveling the driveway and I shoveled the parking area. More salt was put down knowing that we had a big freeze coming last night. All is clear!

It will be very cold for the next three days and then it will gradually start to warm up. Next week, temperatures will be in the forties, which seems positively balmy.

I’ve seen robins for the past few days and I heard the call of mourning doves both yesterday and today. Spring is coming.

Happy Tuesday.

Snow and Music

March 4, 2019 at 10:27 am by Claudia

Here we are this morning. Lots of heavy, wet snow – about 5 inches or so. But it’s absolutely beautiful out there, so there’s that. We’d love to think this is the last snow, but at this time of year, all bets are off. Don’s going to go outside soon and see if he should use the snowblower or if shoveling will do. I’m pretty sure he’ll choose the snowblower.

Since the original forecast was for 5-8 inches, we’re fortunate, I guess. (I’d would much rather have had less than 3 inches.) Oh well.

We had a lovely time at Rick and Doug’s yesterday. Doug’s daughters are beautiful, both inside and out, and it was such a pleasure getting to know them. I’ve spent time with one of his daughters before and adore her, but I hadn’t been able to spend time with the other two. The baby is simply beautiful! And I got to hold her for a long time, which made me enormously happy. She was absolutely fascinated by Don. No matter where he was in the room, she was tracking him. She’s six months old now and seems incredibly calm. An old soul.

Anyway, she’s a joy. I have lots of pictures, but I won’t share them here. In this era of social media, we have to be very careful and respectful about what we share publicly.

We’ve been watching some documentaries on Netflix of late and one of them was about the late, great saxophonist John Coltrane. Fascinating. He died much too young, but what an amazing person he was. In the course of watching it, I mentioned to Don that I used to have an album called John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman that I loved. Johnny Hartman was an incredible crooner, with one of the best voices I’ve ever heard. I told Don I suspected the album was out in the shed, which is where all warped and ruined albums seem to live. Anyway, I was raving about what a great record it was.

The mail came on Saturday – Don had a package from Amazon. He said I should open it, so I did.

That little sneak! I was so surprised and happy! And now he is, as well, because he’s heard it and understands why I couldn’t stop talking about it.

Two greats coming together – gorgeous, beautiful ballads.

Don just went outside to check out the snow. I’m watching him and I must say the snow looks heavy. If he snowblows, I don’t have to get too involved. If he shovels, I do.

Hmmmm.

Happy Monday.

Clearing

February 22, 2019 at 8:58 am by Claudia

On their last legs. Nevertheless, so beautiful.

Yesterday was spent chopping ice, hacking away at the un-shoveled parking area at the top of our driveway – I could only manage half of it. We were completely wiped out afterwards. We have a two day window in which to tackle this; the temps are in the forties, snow is melting a bit, so if we’re going to get things back to normal now is the time.

We’re both still under the weather, but what can you do?

Since I feel like I’ve been held captive in the cottage for a month, I have to get out of here today or I will lose my mind. Truly. So it will be back out there this morning to get rid of the remaining snow and put some salt down so I can make my escape.

I’ve heard nothing but raves about Andrew McCabe’s new book, so I’m going to buy it. Especially since the dictator-wannabe in the Oval Office fired him 48 hours before his pension was going to kick in out of sheer cruelty. The more sales the better for Mr. McCabe, and a nice thumb-your-nose at the Orange Man.

What else? It was warm enough yesterday to open a window and I did. I wanted to air the cottage out after all the coughs and sneezes and the smell of Vicks.

That’s it for today, simply because there isn’t anything else to chat with you about and I have to get moving on the shoveling.

Happy Friday.

Solitary

Snow and Music

Clearing

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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