It’s been raining endlessly for three days (I know, we need it so I shouldn’t complain) and now it’s snowing. Big, fat, wet flakes. Sigh. I can step back and admire them from afar, but frankly, I’m not ready for snow. Tonight, the temps are going to go down into the low twenties, so all of the porch plants will be hauled in (I am incapable of letting them die when I know it will get warmer) and I expect that everything on the property that is still going strong will have disappeared tomorrow. Leaves will fall, the burning bush will be a memory, my roses that have another bloom in October will be gone, the catalpa and oak leaves will fall to the ground.
I realized this morning that yesterday was the fifth anniversary of my Dad’s death. How can it be five years already? That means that February will bring the fifth anniversary of Scout’s passing, as well. We lost Dad and Scout just a few months apart.
A bit of a melancholy morning as I contemplate the change of seasons, the upcoming time change, the loss of loved ones, the loss of my garden, and the slow, crawling, seemingly endless expanse of time until Tuesday and beyond.
I worked on the other window in the dollhouse yesterday. I texted for a few hours. I’m doing all I can for the Biden campaign until there’s nothing left that I can do.
Right before I went to bed last night, I put some of the furniture back in the dollhouse to see how things look. Is the paint I’m using on the trim the right color? What kind of baseboard should I use? What color should I use on the kitchen island? If only I had endless amounts of money, I could buy those pieces that I have marked as favorites on Etsy and eBay. What kind of wallpaper should I use in the bedroom? And on and on it goes. I think I’ll play dollhouse on this snowy day.
Stay safe.
Happy Friday.
Claudia, I really know how you feel. Raining and cold here in Michigan as well. Snow flurries yesterday. And the leaves won’t stop falling! We’ve been at the leaves for over a month. I love trees and nature dearly, but enough! 100 year old trees shed a lot! Dreading the coming winter season this year as well. Let’s hope after Tuesday, we will be able to take a deep cleansing breath and begin the healing process. Take care.
We have yet to do much raking and haven’t been able to this week as it’s been raining every day!
Soon!
Stay safe, Penny!
Feeling the cold and rainy weather here in central Michigan, too. Just grasped some hope for the spring after reading Margaret Roach’s A Way to Garden about the life cycle of bees. Knowing that they’re biding their time until the warmer weather in my messy garden is uplifting.
I read that book a few years ago and loved it.
Stay safe, Irene!
I like how you phrased what you plan on doing today….“play dollhouse on this snowy day.” Sounds quite perfect actually. Playing in an alternate world, where you control things. Sigh. It would be a terrific distraction until after Nov. 3rd. I am so nervous! I can’t seem to settle down.
Our leaves are falling like crazy again. And surprisingly, the plants on my front porch, and those close to the house are still blooming, while the temps have dipped near 28. So I have left them alone so far. I think next week…maybe…I will release them.
Enjoy your dollhouse day. Stay safe! ;)
That’s what is so great about dollhouses – they’re a perfect little world that I control!
Plants are coming in tonight for two days! Where to put them?
Stay safe, Donna!
That sounds like a lovely pastime today! We’ve had flurries and cold temperatures on and off since September, but next Tuesday is supposed to be suddenly and unexpectedly sunny and warm. I’m telling myself that it’s a sign of what will be a very good day (and all that implies).
I sure hope it’s a good sign, Barbara. In fact, I pray it’s a good sign!
Stay safe!
We had four days of pouring rain but yesterday late afternoon, the beautiful sun popped out. It was so good to see it. I know what you mean about remembering your losses. Next Thursdsy. John will be gone six years. Hard to believe. Some days it seems like it was yesterday and other days it was so very long ago. Precious memories we have tho. Have a grest weekend.
I can’t believe it’s been six years, Judy. It just doesn’t seem possible. Thinking of you always, but especially at this time.
Stay safe!
Surely not snow already, it feels too soon. I also feel melancholy at the moment, perhaps it’s something to do with the changing seasons, the awful things happening in the world and of course next week.
It’s also 5 years since my parents passed away, within 5 months of each other. I think of how much the world has changed since they were here and I miss their wisdom in helping me and my sisters make sense of the world.
I like your plan of playing dolls houses today. It’s evening here and I’ve been playing with sticks and yarn. If I keep my hands busy it helps to calm my mind and spirit.
Take care Claudia and Don
We almost always have at least one snowfall in October. This particular round has already melted.
So sorry that you lost both your parents in such a short span of time, Fiona. I wish mine were here, too. My dad was on to Trump well before he officially announced his run for President. I sure wish I could talk to him about all of this!
Stay safe!
Oh, Claudia; I so hope you feel better as the day grows long. I know it’s already late afternoon/early evening where you are. And of course when it’s this time in just two days, it’ll already be dark outside as winter closes in. Turn on all the lights; eat warm and comforting food. Cozy up with Don in the evenings and watch a good movie. You’ll be fine.
November is tough for me, too. My brother died a week before Thanksgiving when he was only in his early 30s. My dad got sick in November and never recovered; he died two months later. We were in the hospital at Christmas that year, too. I can remember spending Thanksgiving at the hospital with him, seeing people gather at their homes on the drive back and forth, knowing our own holiday as a family would never be the same again. But we have to adjust, we have to adapt and, a dozen years later, my husband and I will do our best for a nice Thanksgiving Day, just him and me and the dog, but it’s always all at the back of my mind.
I think we also just have, any of us, too much tension as Tuesday approaches. I was at my primary-care physician’s office yesterday and she basically said, who does NOT have stress and tension right now. It’s just an awful time. Frankly, I could feel her own tension, like she was wound tight, I guess only because I’ve known her for a few years now; I also thought her nurse was the same. The nurse was saying how she’s really worried about Halloween and the other two upcoming holidays, that people won’t be careful enough; that they just don’t ‘get it’ about the mask-wearing and gathering. How even a small-group gathering is not okay. How some people simply don’t know how to live by themselves (without the usual gathering and ‘communing’ [her words]; I think she meant a lack of discipline for temporary change, the unwillingness, perhaps tradition, culture, someone’s sense of self-preservation [like needing people to be in their company?], whatever is preventing some people from being sensible in an out-of-control epidemic).
One thing for sure, like what all the readers and you said here before, is just how EMPOWERING it was to vote! Dropped my ballot off yesterday in the official bin at City Hall and I’m signed up for notifications through my state as to exactly when my ballot is accepted and counted, so waiting on a bit of pins & needles for that notification. My husband already got his notification; I hadn’t meant to be so late in voting but I got thrown off by my hurt shoulder which, by the way, the doctor wants me to have physical therapy for, although I declined for now as I don’t want more Covid exposure than necessary and would prefer to stay home, so we’ll do more self-care indeed at home with ice packs four times a day and a return to the prescription ibuprofen regimen. If I’m no better in two weeks, then there’s no choice on the therapy.
Sadly, the doctor, whose patient load is almost exclusively ‘seniors’/elderly, said that in October, she finally had Covid diagnoses, both some of her patients and also those of the other four physicians in the medical group; heretofore when I saw her in Sept, she’d said that the older people (her patients) were the ones being the most careful, such that she’d miraculously had no Covid patients to that date; but, now, that’s no longer the story, not that they’re/we’re not still being safe, but simply that the virus is raging/spreading, so she told me to be very, very careful; to not let my guard down. That it was more important than ever to physically-distance, don’t gather, do the mask-wearing, disinfect/sanitize, etc. Don’t let down on the routine. (This doctor’s office is a half mile from my house. The virus is literally in my ‘backyard’.) Maybe early-morning grocery shopping will be easier with the time change; not so dark at 6am, which my husband (the shopper) has been resisting. I’m trying to stop him right now from going to the grocery store at 2:30pm; it’s too late on a Friday, with the working people getting their paychecks and going to the bank/store after work. My next-door neighbor leaves for work at 5:30am and he’s home by 2:30pm, so if there’s a choice for us to be at stores for ‘senior shopping’, it needs to be in the morning, not this time of the afternoon.
I look so forward to what you do with the doll house. I just ‘live’ for your doll house posts; you are an incredible artist. The houses are so real and absolutely charming, Claudia.
Our weather today in SoCalif has warmed up again although we broke out the blankets this week for the nights. Another Santa Ana event due Monday. It was a year ago tomorrow that we had a severe wildfire just 3 miles from our neighborhood, so it’s a nail-biter when the wind comes up at this time of year with our parched/dry landscape. Sunny right now in the low 70s, but it’ll change soon to much hotter. I wish I had your rain. I wish I could give you some of my sun for just a spot of rain!
I want you to have a nice weekend! And I say again, thank you for what you and Don are doing as volunteers to help get Joe Biden the win for President.
Vicki, a couple of potentially disastrous outbreaks have been controlled very quickly in my state in Australia. One of them was in my country town so I do know how scary it is. After testing several thousand people in my town, we ended up having only 3 infections and they were the ones initially affected. We have mandatory masks, mandatory isolation of those infected, as well as both contacts and contacts of contacts (hope that makes sense! Third ring, if you like). It CAN be done, don’t believe anyone who tries to tell you it can’t. It just takes determination, discipline and if you like, “community spirit”. People waited in line for hours to get tested before the state government sent in rapid-response testing crews (including from the Defence Forces), so I figure that’s community spirit in action! Rapid response testers will also go to people’s homes of they are unable to get out: age, disability or the like. Keep on taking care.
Well, Denise, very nice of you to check in; thank you for the encouragement. There are so many small towns like mine, especially it seems right now in the Upper Midwest of the U.S., who are having such a hard time with the community spread (and, subsequently, overwhelmed small, rural hospitals). I hope indeed that my little Southern California town would indeed have good community spirit; unfortunately, I don’t see a lot of compliance in my own neighborhood, but I just have to hope that when these neighbors are in other settings, that they’re being careful; however, we see guests arrive with no masks on, going into the homes, although it’s not like we’re peering thru our curtains every minute of the day! I did notice yesterday that a new/additional testing site has gone up (under tents) in the parking lot of our “junior high school”/middle school, and we have another one in an empty parking lot of a now-closed car dealership just at the edge of town. I do wonder if the U.S. will have to go into the mandatory isolation which I’ve seen, via the “News”, enforced in Europe over the previous months. I think I just read that France is back to the thing where you can’t leave your house without an authorization; I feel like I recall that happening in Italy ‘way back in the Spring. (Time passes quickly!) Just so hard to know how this is all going to go. Gosh, where you live, your community really has it together! Again, thanks for the hopefulness!
Yay! I got my notification from the Elections office on Friday night that my ballot has been received and will be counted, “THANK YOU FOR VOTING”! Now, we wait … and I will be glued to the television for election returns on Tuesday from early in the afternoon; clear the decks, put on the comfy bedroom slippers, get out the “TV tray” for snacks, give me my cozy blanket throw, ’cause it’s gonna be a L.O.N.G. night …
Yay! It’s been counted!
xo
Don and I were just saying that. We have to be vigilant and never let down our gaurd. It’s worse than ever out there.
So glad you voted and feel that same satisfaction we did!
Stay safe, Vicki.
Just saw your post from yesterday about the window. Yikes!! Very complicated! It looks good, tho I know it’s not what you hoped for. It does feel satisfying when you eventually get it right. XO. Our snow is almost gone already, tho they had been warning people about power outages as we still have lots of leaves on the trees and the snow was very wet. It looked beautiful. I realized that I had no idea where my gloves were and I think I threw out my well-worn winter shoes without replacing them. It seems I’m always about a season behind this year. Anyway, I knew where my coat was because I never put it away since the last time I wore it, in April. Laziness prevails! Take care.
Same here. Where are my gloves? It’s time to move some of our lightweight coats back upstairs, as well as birkenstocks, etc. We have very little space and right now there is attire for both seasons taking up way too much space.
Stay safe, Nora.
hope you’ve had a good day full of dollhousery goodness where you were pleasantly surprised to find things in your stash that work well with your vision of th his new-old place, all the pieces fit, the glue is keeping everything in place and you had long stretches of time focused on a teeny tiny pretty world (or just relaxing in your full-size pretty world). whatever you did/do, i am sure it looks good … just hope it was an easy, fun day for you and don.
that photo of the snow is pretty! i know it’s too soon for snow and not fun to bring outdoor plants indoors, but you’re good about that and so can enjoy them a bit more.
well, my vacation is over. i slept in today (woke when my sister called me at 9:00!), but got some things done. mostly kind of annoying things … like getting a board cut to support a big stack of books stored on the slats of an old metal stool (went to look at one and found the bottom book was badly bent from the weight of all the other mostly-hardbound books on top of it bending it down in the center to fall through the slats) … but it feels good to have things like that done. then when i got home, i was starting to panic … couldn’t find my apartment/ car keys anywhere, looked and looked for about ten minutes, dumped out my purse and some early grocery shopping purchases, looked through them all three times …. finally found the keys in my coat pocket … haha and i was relieved. even though we’ve had three measurable snowfalls already this month, i hadn’t worn a coat yet so looking there hasn’t become a habit yet.
and tomorrow we turn clocks back an hour. definitely too soon for that! wish that we’d just, as a country, decide to move it in the fall and then leave it that way year-round.
for now though, going to wash the dishes, then maybe knit or read.
hope you have a nice night and stay safe!
kathy in iowa
oops … meant to add a very sincere virtual hug on a bittersweet day (but i clicked to post my comment too soon because it’s chilly, dark and i’m already in bed, close to falling asleep and it’s not yet 7:30). wishing and praying for peace …
kathy in iowa
Thank you.
I so dislike the time changes and wish we could finally make the decision to stop them. But here we go, another one tonight!
Stay safe, Kathy.
Look forward to every post from you……frequently, I believe we must be related, you are the nice one, I am the cranky ole lady who is really quite fed up with mr. trump…….faithful follower.
Ha! Cranky ole lady; that’s me, too; I curse Trump daily!
Oh, I can be a cranky one in private! I just try not to let my usual salty language take over the blog!
Stay safe, Marcy!