Irene blew through here and we were without power and water for a couple of days.
We were lucky compared to many, but we did get a little swimming pool in the basement, so there’s been some throwing out of damaged things, and a lot of laying stuff out to dry.
Being without hot water for four days sure makes me grateful for my shower now that it’s back.
Mornings are the low point of my day. I have wisps of dreams and their strange worlds left in my mind and it takes me a while to get going. The best approach is to move slowly, and to “take the day gentle”. When I do, I notice things. Moments of light. Subtle, constant changes that bring me into the current moment.
Seems the shadows aren’t only in my head, but moving all around me.
There was a moment, walking in the sun, that I got a feeling reminiscent of early spring and I realized with a shock that this winter has been so deep and consuming that I had forgotten that spring will come again. But it will!
Most everyone has seen this already, but I was sent back to this wonderful talk and want to post it here, as a reminder to myself, and a signpost for the year.
I’m so busy in this run up to Thanksgiving weekend, and I’m very grateful for it. I’m hunkered down at the big table by the wood stove, with my beads and my order list, my cup of coffee, and War and Peace on CD. I kid you not. Forty-eight CDs, sixty-one hours!
My name is unusual so I get a kick out of seeing it out in the world. Seeing it knit makes it even better!
Found via yarnbombing, which I hadn’t heard of until my friend Liza sent me the link. Thanks!
My plan for a Year of the Cake petered out pitifully until last week, when I managed to get it back up and limping along by baking a Dark Chocolate Zucchini Bundt Cake for my friend Katherine’s belated birthday get together.
The recipe is from Serving up the Harvest by Andrea Chesman. You’d never know there was any form of vegetable in there, it’s the densest, darkest chocolate cake I’ve ever made. The leftovers were approved of and consumed by M, who is no fan of the green, but a dark chocolate aficionado.
Noola was considerably less approving, as you can see in this picture taken by Katherine.
“What the blank are you doing?! Where’s my cat food?!”
It’s raining.
Across the street, two men in bright yellow slickers are assembling a huge trampoline. Standing on the porch above them is a small red-headed boy in what looks like a superman t-shirt, shouting out his excitement.
In the spirit of “try something new”, M and I went for a bike ride on the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail yesterday. Yet again, I had fun. It would seem that my instincts for routine and the familiar have been serving me ill.
The weather was perfect, not too hot, and when pedaling along the breeze felt mighty fine.
The trail crosses an old steel bridge where there are now benches, and we took a break and sat and enjoyed the view and the passing characters.
By the time we got back to the car we’d covered just shy of 10 miles — I had a sore behind but lunch tasted fantastic!