Dropped the Ball... Snow ball that is!

The title says it all; I really hope to rally and be back with you soon!

Oh, and that 4 day stint of cancelled school-- became 12 consecutive days. I don't know if I have the heart to post any pix at this point. Perhaps a compare and contrast? After all, as far as I'm concerned, Spring is here! (Kiss my grits, calendar!) ;)

xo

BLIZZARD-- 30" with 10-20 More Expected over the Next 2 Days...

I have Internet, again, thank goodness...

I have photos, but am so over it at this point-- and so exhausted. Will try to upload some tomorrow. Before the next BIG WAVE comes! 2 Days of School missed, with 2more scheduled to be missed! Can you say cabin fever? I feel so fortunate to have power; we only lost power for a few hours on Saturday. There are over 90,000 people without power in my area, and with the next snowstorm due to hit tomorrow am, I fear for our family and others. We have some trees that are damaged, and some 30 foot evergreens that were bowed over to the ground, pinned down, which are still in danger even though we venture out hip deep several times a day to shake and sweep as much snow off them as we can.

Superbowl Party: was cancelled. School: cancelled. Major Roadways: open now after being officially closed for 1-2 days.

We have been shut in, but cozy, with plenty of food and fun. Friday and Saturday we cranked up the heat and I made lots of bread and kept the ovens going a little extra in the event we lost power. It helped when we did. But wouldn't have for long. The temps tonite will be in the teens, I believe.

I hope you and yours all are healthy safe warm and happy!

Hopefully I can fill in the blanks tomorrow and share some pics...

xo

it's... GROUNDHOG DAY!!! Is it any wonder?

It's Groundhog Day again... I have not kept up with the movings of our Southern Burrowing Counterpart, but is it any small wonder Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow today?

I mean, it's SNOWING AGAIN, here, people!

A perfect night to make a cozy meal, some corn muffins, and curl up with a good movie. There will probably be a delay for schools tomorrow...

I recommend, Groundhog Day with Bill Murray, and Andi McDowell, and lots of warm and RED. I seem to be craving reds, and plums, and cinnamons in all the grays and whites....

Wishing you all Warm & Cozy tonight!

My Lovely January... Until next year...

JOURNAL OF JANUARY

January rarely disappoints, to my mind. The stereotypical thoughts of this month, are brutal cold, ice, snow-- winter's hammer coming down hard after the warmth and sanguine nature of December has softened us up.

But deep in my memories, like a nut left by the squirrel of my mind, are different thoughts of January.

The days are just becoming noticeably longer. The pineal gland begins the turn towards spring. There are many more cold days to come. But somehow. Somehow. Hope has returned. I see it all round me. The buds are already beginning to swell on some of the leafless trees. The squirrels and birds, reminiscent of beach goers, are seen to be basking in the afternoon sun, as are cats such as the one with whom I share my life. My mother called this "going to Florida"-- when I would search high and low for my dear kitty as a child, I would often find her, just as my mother advised, prone on the wool carpet in the sun pouring in through the largest most south facing window of our house.


And then there are the thaws.

We have already had three snows this year: a moderate one of 8" or so, a big one over 2 feet, and a sugar dusting last week, where everything looked as though it were dusted in powdered sugar, and which was preserved so perfectly by the cold that even days later, even though sparse, the powder would still blow about. With highs of only about 16 many of those days, with wind chills around 9, and even more brutal temps at night, it's no wonder the sun could not bring a melt.

But now. Today.

Yesterday and the day before we reached temperatures over 50 degrees-- nearly 60! (I've been writing this in an ongoing manner-- as Journaling, almost...)And today we are in the 50's as well. The sky is deep warm blue today; clear- but not ice cold crystal that winter brings. A spring sky. Yesterday it was a robin's egg French blue with dusky lilac clouds. An oasis of spring in winter's wilds. A cruel trick perhaps to prevent those who inhabit this area from becoming acclimated to winter and it's temperatures, or lack thereof. And yet. This is what I've always known.

And perhaps this is why I garden in January. The air is relatively warm when warm-- but still refreshing- refreshingly warm and yet cool enough to cause one to not feel the exertion. And I can pretend. So easily pretend that winter has vamoosed, feign my escape for a day or two.

February doesn't afford me such opportunity, nor such inspiration. No matter the weather, it feels like the heart of winter, as though we are lost in it, never to find our way out. Valentine's Dinners, Cozy-Hot Romance, Red Flowers, and CHOCOLATE insert themselves here- is there any wonder why? Even though, really there is just over one month remaining. Before the waters of March return, the Lion and then the Lamb...

My beautiful January is now over, the 60 degree days have already ended. But it was just enough. For now. To have been able to warm my bones, see the light the color that temperature and humidity bring to my ambient life. Before the sun's light as reflected through the crystal clear and steely gray of colder weather are no longer "sparkling" and "moody" but rather lose their novelty somehow becoming "empty" and "dark". Stark. Still there is beauty there. In Winter's wilds. We had one last January snow; last night, we went out with a whoosh!

Thankyou, January, for this transition, this brief respite.

Welcome, February!

I hope you are all well and finding enjoyment in whatever Winter has for you!

WINTER GARDENING CHECKLIST:

http://realestate.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=13108186

Happy New Year!

New Year's Day Orchid opening... a good sign...!



The New Year, here, entered gently... with skies not quite completely overcast, in shades of shell blue and tarnished silver... and breaking light softly gilding the tops of everything, enhancing the previously absent greens...

Last night was a "blue moon", and though the cloud cover and icy rain prevented us from viewing it, when at last we made our way to bed, the blanketed sky glowed an odd blue... as if the moon were saying: "Here! I'm up here! Thanks for checking! I celebrate, too!"

We turned down several parties in favor of a family evening in town; the four of us. We got tickets to a show; Young Frankenstein, the Broadway musical production of a family cult favorite film, in the Opera House. The Kennedy Center offered all ticket holders an after party with Champagne, party horns, swing music, and little one's favorite moment of the evening-- a balloon drop.





>






On the way home, all agreed to my suggestion (yay!) to stop at a family owned diner in my old stomping ground, for breakfasts, providing the tiny place's ten booths held a vacancy for us, and that it wasn't too smokey. We scored a table right away, the new proprietors, the original owners' grandchildren, had turned it to a smoke free restaurant, and a very merry time was had by all; western omelettes for Mom and Dad, burgers and fries for the kids, with the patties cooked carefully on foil for us thus ensuring all food allergies for our two were safely avoided.

As I cooked our late breakfast ("second breakfast"- yes, at times we ARE hobbits in a hobbit hole!)at home this morning, or I should say, this afternoon, it struck me that I'd not even contemplated any New Years resolutions at all. But as I serenely puttered away in the kitchen, making everyone their favorites and requests, some came to me sincerely and easily.

They may seem too easy or too vague, and I won't attempt to add shading and detail for you-- not to be evasive. It's just that the details wouldn't mean much.

I resolve in 2010, to look at things in a different way, to try to see the other angle, from a position of peaceful determination, to allow myself to be enlightened, to in this way, hopefully, let go of the other types of determination. The one's that've had me stuck.

I resolve to look at and to SEE my family, my children, my marriage, my husband, my house, my work, my aspirations, my goals, my talents, my SELF-- DIFFERENTLY. It has already begun. And though I know resolutions are made to be broken, I am not holding myself under law, here. Am only deciding to live, even if only a little, differently. Things will happen. Our futures will change. Whether a little or a lot.

The entire month of December, the word EPIPHANY followed me, like an angel trying to ring a bell and get his wings. Now January is here. The bell has rung. There is no unringing it. This New Year. Ringing it in... is done.

Happy New Year, everyone.

xo

Merry Christmas, One and All!!!

Merry Christmas! No more morose me... A Very Merry Christmas has been had by one and all, with an even bigger turn-out expected (with sleepover guests) tomorrow!

MERRY CHRISTMOUSE....

;D

XO

November's Passing

We awoke the day after Halloween, to dark skies and rain, chilling us to the bone. After so many glorious fall days, it seemed only fitting that this transition time, the time between autumn's harvest and winter's solstice, this November should be ushered in in such a fashion. November and I have never been great friends; it has always been my least favorite month. And with acknowledging that really I should have celebrated allsouls, for my Father... Well. Why pick just one day, one month for that? And yet, it is another case where November has seen me fall. What else for it but to make a big pot of steaming soup... And that's where my strong certain singular memories of this November stop. Right where they started. New found struggles with my children in their health and schoolwork. And. So many days filled with worry over family members struggling 3000 miles away, one, my brother, with cancer, another, my brother-in-law, with threatened bankruptcy of a 40 year family business, and, my dear eldest sister, a wife mother grandmother rock of her family there and of our family of siblings (it is only us and our families left now in our childhood circle) with the collapse of her health and seeming sanity-- crushed by months long insomnia, weight loss, and near constant constantly increasing anxiety, depression, fear & exhaustion.

My brother sought to treat his cancer himself. Will not discuss it with any of us and though his wife promises that now, 10 months later, he will soon be seeking professional medical treatment, we have not heard, nor will our questions be answered. Only silly emails and cards, brief evasive phone conversations come our way.

My brother-in-law faces the loss of his business, and with it all their financial security, it would seem. But rather than be able to focus his full energy to save it, he is focused on saving something much more precious to him, to all of us.

My Sister. No doctor, after months of seeking, will with confidence advocate for her, treat her comprehensively or immediately. It is long and complicated and I don't understand how this can happen, but it has. She is crumbling before us. Each day we take turns trying to call, to offer love and support, to trade any news or hope. I know it is getting to be more than she can bear, and though originally sought to buck up for brief talks with us, and that in those stolid moments was able to rip herself away from terror and terrible thoughts and fears that plague her; now she is worn bare, will say again and again in a tearstrained reedy voice how she's not sure she can take any more. If she could just get more than 2 hours of sleep in a day, if she could tolerate the prescribed medications without nightmarish side effects that she is too fragile and fearful to tolerate, if she could find a way to brave it through, or if somehow someone could with certainty hold her securely through treatment, fearlessly though compassionately disallowing her refusal to follow certain hopeful though difficult treatment attempts, the hopes we have had could be fulfilled... please pray, if you are so inclined. Please.

And now, in this November, I have been stunned-- deeply saddened to learn, someone I know, that I care about,I would like to call a friend, who lives 4500 miles in the opposite direction, has lost their other half, their children have lost a parent, in a senseless act that (oh wishful heart) that cannot be undone. My heart reaches out to them, to their family, to their dear friends. It will continue to do so... across the miles and across time.

So my heart grieves. But it grieves not for November's passing. In November, my heart played only two songs: silence and pangs of a painful discord that come of helpless empathy.

Welcome, December. I have a lot resting on hopes that you will deliver us out of the miasma your older sibling left us in...

I pray that we should all be mended in due time. Time is due. We have only so much.

Heart's hoping for a benevolent December for us all.

xo