Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Life in our little cottage in the country

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Books and the Change in Winter

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Another library walk yesterday. After we had finished, I ran in to return The Year of the Locust and checked out the New Books on the shelves. I knew of Olga Tokarczuk’s book, The Books of Jacob. It has been written about a great deal on my IG book feed, so I grabbed it. She wrote it in 2014, but it didn’t get translated into English until 2021. From Penguin Random House’s site: The Nobel Prize–winner’s richest, most sweeping and ambitious novel yet follows the comet-like rise and fall of a mysterious, messianic religious leader as he blazes his way across eighteenth-century Europe.

Sounds fascinating!

Also on the shelf: Everyone on this Train is a Suspect  by Benjamin Stevenson, an Australian author. The blurb said that fans of Anthony Horowitz and Richard Osman would love it. Sounds like a nice palate cleanser.

Our library is so small that I rarely check out a book there, anything I see there that I find interesting I’ve usually already read. I get books through the inter-library system instead. So it was refreshing to come up these books.

I’m reading Wolf Hall, of course, and caught up on my assigned reading yesterday. It’s fascinating, but at heart, I’m not a fan of historical fiction, so I’m never fully on board, if you know what I mean. I know a lot about the Tudors already, through my education and a lifetime of immersion in Shakespeare – they sort of go hand in hand. I’m on the fence as to whether I’ll read the other books in the trilogy. As I’m going to read more at a time (ignoring the schedule for the readalong) I might end up feeling differently.

Today is rainy so a walk might not be on the docket.

It’s very warm out there, unseasonably so. And it looks like it will continue, save for a couple days here and there. It’s rather eerie. Both Don and I have wondered if  “Winter” has changed forever. Yes, we still get snow, but not that much. It’s the end of February and my day lilies are emerging, as well as the daffodils. At the library, we saw new growth everywhere. Is this the new winter? On one hand, it’s nice not to have deal with so much snow and ice. On the other hand, we need winter and we miss it. We may still get some snow in March, but it will be short-lived.

What has this winter been like where you live?

Okay. Have to make our second cup of coffee.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

 

 

Lots of Snow

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We ending up getting more snow than was predicted – at least 12 inches, perhaps a bit more. We spent a few hours shoveling and snow blowing and we still have to shovel a bit more today. I’ve taken lots of photos. The skies were gray so I’ve had to edit the photos a bit. Today, on the other hand,  is sunny.

The problem with all of this is that we’re going to get lots of rain tomorrow – at least two inches – and with a foot of snow on the ground, flooding is going to be an issue. A huge snowstorm and then two days later, tons of rain. It’s frigging exhausting.

Anyway, some photos for you:

Thankfully, the snow was light and powdery so it was much easier to shovel than late winter’s heavy, wet snow. Very grateful for that!

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.

A Bleak Landscape, Puzzles, & Walking

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Gray, gray, gray.

This is the part of winter that can trigger mild depression or, at the very least, a case of the blues. Yes, it’s the lack of sunlight, but more importantly, it’s the bleakness of the landscape. That’s the way it’s been for four days now, coupled with rain. Don and I have started walking every day. Our local library is set way back from the road on a hill and the driveway is a great place to walk. No busy traffic, no muddy trails. I’ve walked it a couple of times in the past. We do 5 loops down and up. It’s a nice little walk. It’s much more pleasant with Don than it would be by myself. We only missed one day this week because it was pouring rain all day long. We want to lose weight and we want to stay fit and, let’s face it, winter is the time I tend to become a slug.

No snow in the forecast. It looks like we’re going into January with more of the same. There are two days I don’t want snow – the 16th and 17th. Those are the days I make the 5 hour drive to Rochester to watch a preview and then return home the next morning. Rochester is on the other side of the state, near Lake Ontario, so it’s in a snow belt. Fingers crossed!

By the way, we plan to keep the tree up as long as it’s safe to do so. We need the sparkle and the lights. So far, it’s over two weeks since we bought it and there has been no needle drop.

This is the Poirot puzzle I have been working on. Lots of lovely little details! I think I’ll finish it sometime over the weekend.

Don has a gig tomorrow and several more coming up over January and February. Hurrah! Tomorrow’s gig is in the late afternoon, so he won’t have a late night. It will be good for him. Not having any acting work for over four years has taken a toll on my sweetheart. I hope that changes this year.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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