The view from my chair this morning.
It’s rainy today. There was a chance of some snow as well, but I got up at 5:45 and there wasn’t a flake to be found. We sort of wanted to see a bit of snow this morning. Ah, well.
I worked outside for a few hours yesterday, emptying pots, stacking them near the shed, carting all of the outdoor chairs to the winter shelter of the porch. Then I did my best to stack everything in one of the dry areas of our roof-leaking shed. We have someone coming to look at it right after Christmas.
The Beacon Hill dollhouse is up next. I still have things to finish in the English cottage – the bedroom, specifically – so that is ongoing. Since I got busy with the film, I couldn’t really work on the Beacon Hill, and it smelled really musty. So, over the course of 3 months or so, I tried dishes of baking soda, lysol, and coffee grounds. Nothing worked until I used activated charcoal, and lo and behold, the smell has greatly decreased – it’s almost gone. While I start to put primer on the exterior of the dollhouse, I’ll keep some charcoal in the interior rooms. Hopefully, by the time the outside is primed, the smell will be gone. I’ve already removed the exterior shutters (in order to paint and reposition them in the correct place next to the window) and I’ve fixed the wonky porch as best I can – it will always be a bit wonky, but so is our real-life porch. I have to add some pieces near the base of the kitchen window and I’ll be good to go. Haven’t come up with an exterior color yet.
By the way, Don named his guitar “Spoiler” after the movie. Perfect, right?
Stay safe.
Happy Saturday.
oh, that snow will arrive sometime! hopefully at a convenient time and in just the right amount. :)
great name for the guitar … a reminder of your work on a film … and that love sometimes may feel like spoiling, but is instead truly deserved and the beautiful granting of another heart’s wish. hooray for love! and treats … and enough money to make them happen!
hope you can take it easy after all the getting-ready-for-winter work is done.
happy saturday to everyone.
i’m out the door soon to spend time with members of my family. happy saturday for me! :)
kathy
Enjoy your day with your family, Kathy.
Stay safe.
What a beautiful photograph, the tree light shining warmly, giving off that cozy and comforting glow, when awaking to a chilly morning.
We’ve had a tough few weeks with (seemingly-endless) fact-finding, procedures, biopsy to determine if my husband is suffering from cancer, but finally got a good report, for now. So, maybe I can put up our Christmas tree today (I’m afraid the ‘mood’ just hasn’t been there for it; there hasn’t been time for anything either). I want the next couple of weeks to be very quiet and very peaceful. The privilege of just staying home; being able to stay put. I did that yesterday for what felt like the first time in a long time, wrapped in a blanket, never getting off the sofa; just trying to wind down from the emotion and feel healed (my husband is my everything). We are filled with gratitude, and this is the time of year and the season for thanks.
hej, vicki …
so sorry for the troubles and losses you’ve been going through, but i am happy to hear that your husband got a good report from the doctor.
stay on the sofa as long as you need/ want. i’ll keep praying for you all. sending a hug, too, if you want. please let me know if there’s anything different that i can do for you.
from a friend who hopes to meet you if you ever move to/visit wisconsin,
kathy
…thank you, kathy, and I sure hope you can find the dream job of your life soon, because you deserve it!
Oh, Vicki, how frightening that must have been for you both. I’m glad the report was a good one. Now you must treat yourselves to a quiet and beautiful Christmas, on whatever level is comfortable for you. Bless you both. You’ve had more than your share of worries lately and my wish for you this Christmas is peace and love. xoxo
Stay safe.
Yeah, this drummed up in high gear after our kitchen fire from six weeks ago, which is still a clean-up job (the new range came last week [is definitely a new kind of stovetop with which I need some familiarity!]), so we are drained physically and emotionally as Nov-Dec has been fraught with details and issues; but God is on our side and I’m humbled. The budget is a bit strained (I’m glad I bought my Christmas gifts for everybody early [like MONTHS ago]; and they’re all delivered now except for one), but we can still put on a holiday ‘feast’ with our new oven on Dec 25!
Thank you for your well wishes; I’ve of course been reading you all along (except for the nine mostly-continuous days starting Dec 6 when we had no internet, no landline and hardly any channels on the television [another long story; ah, the timing of these things, a pox on the communications company who were working on lines between telephone poles and messed everything up {have felt like we were on a deserted island }; my husband only had limited wifi on his phone {I don’t understand any of this stuff as I’m technologically a dinosaur}]; but EVERYbody is challenged and has problems; ’tis LIFE). I’m so glad you’re home with Don, Claudia; you’ve had such an adventure with the film work and temporary relocation. You need that peace and quiet, too.
You know what else is totally wonderful? We, in drought-ridden Southern Calif, are getting some good rain! It’s here and there, but then we got three inches all at once, and there’s more to come over the Christmas holiday. For the first time in so, so, SO long, our mountains to the south have a little green; truly a sight for sore eyes. I think of all the little puddles for thirsty wildlife; the little green shoots forcing up from the parched, fire-stricken earth so that the animals and birds have something to eat. A couple of mornings ago at 8am, we were 39 degrees COLD and frosty (we haven’t had a hard frost in too many years to count; this was icy-white roof on the house and ‘white’ on the car exteriors, not a freeze-freeze; but SO startling because we’re just not accustomed to this here!).
Hope you get your snow. How lovely to have a white Christmas when you can be safe and warm in the cottage and not on the roads; be watching it softly fall beyond the windows and feel the wonder.
Can I share something from my husband’s surgeon? He looks to the whole body and mind, not just the science of medicine. He spoke to us of how important are three things:
Gratitude
Humor
Self-love (which includes forgiveness)
He thinks it’s beneficial to play table games such as chess or bridge; good for the aging brain.
Also, he’s big on blueberries and blackberries and raspberries for the diet. Tomatoes, too. And absolutely no sugar, no salt and no white flour.
Want to hear a sweet story about DOGS? Our local animal rescue wound up with a young but blind retriever (is thought to be blind from birth); a former neighbor of mine who is in her late 80s (zippy; you’d think she was 60; very big on yoga and pilates; she runs circles around me) said she’d foster the dog. First night home, the dog delivered eight puppies on the kitchen floor. (I have no idea how no one figured out the dog was pregnant!?!) One little one didn’t make it. But a former rescue worker at the facility took the momma-dog and seven pups home to her own house (she’s now a veterinarian, newly crowned) as she’s got more space (and some extra time before she starts her first new job as a vet). When the pups are weaned, they’ll go out for closely-monitored adoption and of course the momma will be spayed. She’ll then go back to my former neighbor’s house (who can handle the one adult dog a whole lot better than seven wiggly puppies [to say she was quickly overwhelmed is an understatement!]), who has now decided to move beyond fostering, and will permanently adopt this big blind girl.
I’m tell’in ya, it’s all I can do to ask if I can see and hold one of those little puppies! Talk about a Christmas Cuddle!
Oh, I love this story, Vicki! Thanks so much for sharing it.
Stay safe.
Vicki thank you for this story.
About three years ago my sister in law lost her beloved black lab “scout”
The pain for her was awful.
She said no more dogs she was getting older and just no more.
Well her daughter encouraged her to foster.( I had never heard of fostering a dog)
Well she fell in love and she now has another black Lab named (Finn)
Miracle!
She lives in southern ca and is so grateful for the rain
My elderly dog is nearing her end and we’ve sworn off getting another dog in the future due to our age and circumstances. But our one local rescue organization says, “Just foster. If you can’t do it anymore, nothing will happen to the dog; we’ll take the dog back; she won’t be orphaned per se; she’ll have a home here for the rest of her time.” Sometimes they have grants and such which also help a ‘fixed-income’, senior-aged (human) adult with veterinary expenses like immunizations and office visits (and I don’t know what else [except of one case of which I’m acquainted where I know there’s assistance with the cost of daily medicines]).
We can say we’re too old to take on a pet, as did my aforementioned former neighbor in her 80s, but as the rescue folks told her, “You will do fine. You’re giving the dog a life, when she really doesn’t have one without you.” (The shelter is caring, the dogs are walked and given individual attention whenever possible; but, after all, a lot of the dog’s day is in a pen/cage. Just can’t compare ‘institutionalized’ care with at-home care and a one-on-one ‘owner’.)
So, I’m not sure what we’ll do when our own big girl passes on in this coming year (sadly, months). My husband says he can’t get along without a dog. We’ve never not had one in over 30 years of marriage. We both came from families who always had beloved dogs and cats.
I am so glad for your sister-in-law and Finn. We need these happy stories!
PS: We’re to get HAMMERED with rain on Weds-Thurs but all are hoping it will be lighter for those traveling on Fri-Sat. It’s a projected 5-day rain ‘event’ starting Tues, just day after tomorrow; unbelievable, as this is CALIFORNIA and the land of NO rain! My husband is at the grocery store right now (left at 7:15 am PST; this is in nearby larger cities; beating the crowds; being mindful now of the intensifying ‘winter’ virus surge and needing to be around fewer people when it’s earlier in the day); is a bit cold at 45 degrees, at least for us thinner-skinned Southern Californians, but we’ve decided to move up shopping and other errands so as not to be out in the wet later in the coming week if we can help it. (Except for the fact that my fully-retired husband now works 2-3 days a week at a permanent part-time paying job and it’s mostly outside, but he’ll figure it out!)
xoxo
We’re not going to have a white Christmas, unfortunately! Not a hint of it in the forecast.
Stay safe, Vicki.
Vicki thank God for the good news regarding your husband.
I too had a scare like that two years ago so I understand.
Linda, thank you for your kindness. It is indeed scary. We have another go’round in six months but that’s then and this is now. For now, we celebrate. And trust; keep the faith.
We had this same kind of December in 2018, when it was me who was having the tests and evaluations for what they feared was returning cancer. Really sweated out the ‘waiting’ with CT scan and all the rest. But then I, too, got an all-clear, so that Christmas was salvaged and we could finally breathe … and pray with thanks.
Both of my elderly parents’ health worsened in December and those were hard Christmases, with both of them passing just after a new year. So, not with desperation and fear, but with hope and joy, we go from here, marking each day with gratitude, hopefully some good productivity and maybe some fun (you betcha!) along the way.
All the best to you for the holidays!
How exciting to begin a big project like the Beacon Hill House. Once I had trouble removing an odor and someone suggested I use a small dish to hold a couple cotton balls which had vanilla dripped on them. I started with a few drops, added a bit more as it dried. I was completely surprised as I had tried all the remedies you mentioned, it was gone and smelled great.
Good to know, Sherry. I’ll file that away!
Stay safe.
Oh I love what Don named his guitar! Hugs!
Me too. And he said it immediately! He’s very proud of my work on the movie and is my biggest cheerleader, so being able to give him that guitar fills my heart with joy.
Stay safe, Linda.
Who knew I would be so happy to catch up with you?! I look forward to reading more about your movie adventures.
Well, I’m glad you are! I’m happy to be back and I’ll share what I can over the next few weeks. There are some things we’re not allowed to talk about…
Stay safe, Linda.
Hi Claudia,
I am so glad you are back! I love that picture of your tree. There is something to be said for simple! I can imagine how homey your cottage is. I bet you missed that when you were in New York. What an adventure though! The days are getting colder here, so I am loving every minute of it. Don must love the guitar. I am a big fan of guitar players, my favorite being Keith Urban! I have gone backstage twice to meet him. He is the nicest guy I have ever met!
His wife Nicole Kidman is also a doll. Love her acting too. That is my biggest thrill mixing with celebrities. They were so friendly and down to earth. Just like normal people…..but with a lot more money! Again, so glad you are home safe and sound!
Deb
Thank you so much, Deb! I’ve been home a week now and slowly I’m settling back in to the daily rhythms here.
Stay safe!
It is nice that you have the whole week now to get ready for Christmas and enjoy the peace of being home. I like that photo of your tree through the door. Lovely!
Thank you so much, Ellen!
Stay safe.
It sounds like a good Saturday. We had wind too — a tree down on my street, fortunately, no cars underneath. Whew!
Oh, wind! I get so tired of it and I get tired of worrying about it. Glad nothing was harmed, Jeanie.
Stay safe.