I finished while Don was baking an apple pie yesterday at approximately 2 pm. As often happens, there was one piece missing and the two of us were looking everywhere for it. I lifted the wooden board off the table and peeked under it. Nothing. More searching. And then I lifted the board once again, this time entirely off the table, and there it was, tucked in the corner.
I left it in place overnight and after I finish this post, I’ll take it apart and start the next one.
We’re in for some pretty vile weather this week, starting off with freezing rain and “significant” icing overnight. We get a break on Wednesday and then Thursday brings us several inches of snow and some ice.
Lovely.
February, the shortest month, has been packed with constant large snowfalls, storms, ice, you name it. I’m over it. Please Spring – come a little early this year!
No vaccine appointments available and frankly, making one this week would be foolish. Even if it’s not icing or snowing, there is shoveling, snow blowing and salting to do. I just pray that everyone stays off the roads, stays safe, and that we don’t lose power.
One last thing, I panicked when I heard “Next week on the season finale” while watching All Creatures Great and Small last night. Oh no! My goodness, this series is excellent – beyond excellent. On every level. And it’s just what we need right now, isn’t it? Back to what truly matters; goodness, decency, kindness, compassion. I have loved every second of it. I find myself thinking, will filming of the next season be delayed because of COVID? How long will we have to wait? I’m hoping they already have the next season in the can, but who knows?
Dee Dee, one of the readers of this blog, lives fairly close to the town where the series was filmed. It’s extraordinarily beautiful country and we’d love to visit someday. And we long to go back to Paris.
Stay safe.
Happy Monday.
The puzzle looks great! Glad you found the missing piece. I am getting my second vaccine Wednesday, the only good day this week to drive to Boston. I was able to get the vaccine cause of my status as a lung transplant recipient, 8 months ago on Wednesday! I hope you are able to book appointments soon!
You absolutely deserve to get your vaccine now, Connie. Wednesday seems like a safe day to travel.
Stay safe!
You are the most amazing puzzle person (lol) I have seen in my long lifetime…you put me to shame. So glad you are enjoying them. Just read that one couple who had first vaccine…husband hospital with COVID…I don’t know what we need to do but it has been one year of isolation for me…I have no clue what a store looks like. Praying the move will be ok and safe…if we waited any longer logistics would not work…prayers for you and Don for the snow removal and for getting vaccinations…
One year for all of us, I think. Certainly for Don and me.
Stay safe, Brenda.
Your blog should have started with “TADA!!” – a good finish to a tricky puzzle!
I think there will be shoveling almost everyday this week but thank goodness for my live-in shoveling son!
I didn’t realize that All Creatures Great and Small was almost done already. That went quickly and I really enjoyed the episodes. Have you read the series? I remember reading it a while back and found it charming.
Stay warm and safe!
I haven’t read the books. Don has. And now I’m going to wait until the series is over because I don’t want to know the plots ahead of time!
Stay safe, Ellen!
that puzzle looks great and now you’re on to the next one. :) glad you have more puzzles, books and apple pie, given that awful-sounding forecast.
i hope you get to the u.k. and back to paris sooner than it might feel you will right now.
every day we get closer and closer to better things … actually getting vaccines, safer traveling, spring, gardening (for you), walking outdoors in nature (realistically i know it’s quite a ways off, but i aim to run again), flowers and birds singing …
funny you mentioned a much-wanted trip overseas. last night i had a dream that involved such a trip. the first part i had to listen to my boss talk on and on about someone having covid-19 and her own trip being delayed while i picked paper clips off the floor (i was in a hurry to clean and leave that place), then i was trying to leave what looked like a hospital by taking an elevator with some power but no lights. elsewhere in the dream i was in england and you showed up, pointing out things i hadn’t seen way up high and built into a very tall, ancient brick building and with a bookstore built into a window. then i was alone in a shopping area, lost and looking for presents for my family. it was a balmy place, crowded with people and i fell asleep, safe on a lounger outside, woke up to a family sitting by me. we spoke different languages, but a younger person conveyed they were worried i was homeless, offered food and money, helped me get to where i wanted and i found presents for my family. second part was lovely. that first part was weird, stressful and too much like art imitating life. dreams can be such odd and funny things!
well, it’s almost 10:30 here and i need to get something done.
hope you have a good day and stay safe in every way.
kathy in iowa
I like that I appeared in your dream, especially in relation to a bookshop!
We can’t wait until Spring. This has been a tough winter for so many of us.
Stay safe, Kathy!
I will add All Creatures Great and Small to my TBW list. I too wish we could travel. I’m anxious to go to Vancover and visit my daughter and see her new home. One of these days. No vaccine appts but fingers crossed soon. Very slow to roll out in GA. Until then stay safe and warm.
You definitely have to watch it, Linda. It’s the perfect series, especially in these times.
Stay safe!
This weather has been just crazy. The people in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, etc must be reeling. As much as we hate it, we at least are prepared and know how to handle it. What a mess it is.
We had -29* wind chills once again this morning. Schools delayed, or closed. Everyone is just over it. It truly is like Groundhog Day.
Sounds like your week ahead is a lot of work.Ice really is the hardest to deal with outside. I think 6-10 in of snow is a lot easier than 1/2 inch of ice. Have fun puzzling & reading. I am sure there is pie to finish!! Enjoy it as you stay warm. Take care.
Oh…I’m totally over it too, Chris! We have had…what…10-11 alert days in a row? It’s supposed to be 18 on Wednesday….shorts anyone? ;)
and 35* next Monday!! I am sure that on campus there will be shorts!!
I’d much rather have snow, but no, we’re getting ice. That always scares me.
Stay safe, Chris.
Hello Claudia and Don,
We wish you a happy Valentine’s Day! I wanted to ask a favor. Could you please send the receipt for Don’s suger free apple pie? or a link to the recipe he uses. Thank you in advance. Stay safe and warm.
Thank you, Lottie.
I’ll have to ask Don for a link – if he knows where he found the recipe originally. If he doesn’t have a link, I don’t feel comfortable sharing it without credit going to the creator.
Stay safe!
Splendid work on the puzzle, Claudia. You are a jigsaw rock star! That’s fabulous and it looks terrific!
We’re due for five inches of snow before tomorrow morning — since my second shot is at 11, I’m hoping we don’t get that much and all will go well with getting it as planned. It’s cold, cold, cold here and I know that’s headed your way. Sorry you are getting more snow; you’ve had more than us. I’m feeling for those Texas folk. They don’t know what to do with it.
I will be so sad to see this story end. I’ve been crushing on Samuel West big time! I didn’t know if anyone but Robert Hardy could be Siegfried but I’m pleased I was wrong! Here’s the most on I have on season two — https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a35085384/all-creatures-great-and-small-season-2/ I think the originals are on Britbox, maybe Amazon and it’s almost enough to make me get prime. I haven’t felt so close to people in a series since the Durrells in Corfu. I might have to watch those online again with PBS Passport. They really are the perfect anti-Covid entertainment.
Keep cozy.
I hope you can get your second shot, Jeanie.
Did you know that Samuel West is the son of Prunella Scales (John Cleese’s wife in Fawlty Towers) and actor Timothy West? Amazing.
We love his work. Apparently he does a lot of narration in Britain and I can see why – he’s got a yummy voice!
Stay safe, Jeanie.
What a puzzle…and, I still don’t know how you do those with such speed? But, I’m glad you have another puzzle to tackle, considering the weather week that is predicted for your area l
I’m not ready for the series finale of All Creatures Great and Small either. I will miss this series. Masterpiece usually waits a year for subsequent seasons to air, so I’m guessing we will have to wait til next year, at the very least.
I cannot wait to travel again. And either London, to visit my son, or Scotland, to include his in-laws, will do quite nicely. Quite frankly though, a little tour around the state wouldn’t be so bad either. Stay safe! ;)
Dee Dee said that the script is written but they are unable to film because of COVID restrictions. So it might well be longer than a year until we see it.
Hey, I would be happy walking in a bookstore right now!
Stay safe, Donna.
Oh yes….a bookstore! Or a thrift store! ;)
xo
Great job with the gnarly puzzle! Quite the challenge. And apple pie to celebrate with. XO
Just had a piece. Yummy!
Stay safe, Nora.
Well done on your completion of the New Yorker jigsaw! The two new ones you recently bought look so nice.
I’ve been trying to find out about a second series of All Creatures Great and Small. There’s definitely going to be one as it’s already been written but I think they will have to wait until lockdown restrictions are lifted before filming. As you probably know Dame Diana Rigg has sadly passed away since filming so they can’t decide whether to replace her with another actress or to leave out her character.
There’s a new series of the detective drama Unforgotten starring Nicola Walker beginning here next week so hopefully not too long before you’re able to see it.
In fact, there’s been some really good series aired over the past few months. I really enjoyed the BBC true crime drama The Serpent about Charles Sobhraj, the criminal involved in the disappearance of tourists in South East Asia in the 1970s and his nemesis – a young man working at the Dutch Embassy in Thailand. It’s a gripping, edge of your seat series.
Happy Monday
I loved Unforgotten, so I’m happy to hear that’s continuing. Love Nicola Walker.
That means we’ll have to wait longer than we’d all like to see All Creatures! Darn it.
Stay safe, Dee Dee.
Would love to see that recipe that Don used for the apple pie!!
We have snow and rain and the garbage isn’t going to be picked up. News is boring as heck! Such a lovely year!
I’ll share it if he has the link or the creator’s name.
I doubt whether we’ll have mail delivery tomorrow if it’s icy. Thursday promises to be even worse!
Stay safe, Jan!
And it looks great, I can see where it would be quite a challenge! Glad you found the missing piece. I finished one today and it does have a missing piece. After searching high and low around the area where I put them together, I snapped a picture of it and then took it apart and put it in the trash can.
Enjoy a time of hibernation.
Take care,
Kelly
I will. I just don’t want to lose power, Kelly and we’re in for quite an ice storm.
Stay safe.
Thank you, Kelly.
Stay safe!
Sunday’s episode of All Creatures was so good!!! (Our guest room has the whole series for one’s reading pleasure.) I don’t mind the divergence from books and I completely approve of the way they’ve developed Mrs. Hall. She’s just excellent! We just love the views of the Dales, but can’t help laughing at the stone buildings since we live in earthquake country.
Spring is somewhere in our future, as always, but I feel for everyone who is digging out or shivering without power right now. Cold is just part of our winter lives, but I know temps that we think are relatively mild here are pipebreakers in other areas. All I can do is hope that people stay safe and know that lots of good neighbors are helping each other out. I won’t even mention our weather, especially since I know there are still snow shovels and storms in our future. I have no problem driving during the winter; it’s the spring storms that keep me off the roads!
Still no possbility of a vaccination here until our tier is approved. Alas! But I’m thrilled that my very old mom and soon-to-be DIL/healthcare provider have had theirs. Wonderful to hear how many of the Mockingbird Hill group have gotten the jab too. Each state is so different in their guidelines. I fervently hope that most of us are able to be vaccinated before there are more variants. Good news that the currently-approved shots provide protection. Meanwhile, I’m happy at home, warm, with a stash of cute masks and nowhere that I have to be. I’m lucky and I’m grateful.
Stay healthy!
Our tier has been approved for over a month, and still no vaccines are available.
Glad you’re safe at home, Roxie.