Mid-December
and the snow is coming down pretty steadily. Everything is covered with
pom-poms and ribbons of snow, and I’m guessing that the bears have finally
settled down for a long sleep. 
The new well cover, before the snow
A raven, yesterday, managed to figure out how to nab part of a suet cake from the wart railing yesterday. They’re used to swooping by and snagging the chunk without having to, barely even, slow down; but the roof over most of the wart that was put up this summer has made that maneuver impossible unless the raven’s coming from the north and I’ve helpfully put the suet chunk on the far north corner of the railing. Which I hadn’t; and it wasn’t; so it had to do a swoop around and crunch up with a lifted, half-closed wing to avoid the nearby post holding up the roof. Which was that much more entertaining to watch! As always, once the raven had the suet in its clutches, it flew off towards the pine tree, laughing all the way. I’m looking forward to this winter’s suet snags!
Looking out the window today, it’s almost a white-out when the wind blows, and the birds are having a hard time getting to the bird feeders, which are hung under the wart roof, so once they manage to get there they can eat comfortably. The seed and suet balls I put on the railing for the ground feeders this morning are covered up with snow already; squirrels and doves and woodpeckers will dig them out tomorrow when the snow stops falling. A few determined doves have shown up from time to time, doing their best to brush the snow off to get at the goodies. We have buckets of water stashed in the bathtub for toilet flushing, and pitchers of water on the kitchen counter for drinking, in case we lose power, and I’m keeping the tea kettle full, and the pot on the woodstove filled.
The cats gave up after trying a few brief forays out this morning, and are all curled up in various places doing their own imitation of hibernating, broken up from time to time by a rough and tumble. There’s an almost full pot of curried vegetable-tamarind soup in the frig, plenty of cheese, and a loaf of onion-dill sourdough bread on the counter, with more stashed in the large chest freezer down cellar. There are candles to hand; the Coleman lantern broke awhile back, but there’s an old-fashioned Aladdin lamp if it’s needed, and flashlights, and a battery-powered string of fairy lights that throws a surprising amount of light in the total darkness, if we lose electricity. I’m hoping we won’t, but it looks like one of those kinds of storms… good thing the Husband decided to bring in lots of wood for the woodstove, yesterday!
It feels
like a day for a nap, but I’m torn between that and going up to the cold
bedroom to finish the Christmas-wrapping chores, or down to the cold cellar to
fold the huge mound of laundry that came out of the dryer yesterday. Nope,
looks like I’m not hanging clothes
out on the line during the winter! My grandmother used to do so on her porch;
the water would freeze in the cloth and a sharp snap when she took it down
would send the ice flying, and the clothes would come in, mostly dry. But those
were the days when everything got ironed, including undies and sheets, which
would finish the drying process, and I’m sorry, but there’s no way that’s
happening in my world! I grew up in that world and it was the chore girls were
given, and I can’t think of a more mind-numbingly boring stupid activity to
waste time and energy on.
Yup: that was awhile ago!
I think I’m going to go curl up with Lynxie and read, which will turn into a nap. I deserve it – I’ve spent pretty much every spare moment for the last 2 months and more, doing research, writing explanations, redoing budgets, and calling service people, in preparation for moving my friend in Florida into assisted living, cleaning out her house and selling what she can’t take with her, and putting the house on the market this spring. Movers: check. Dumpster rental: check. Sale of non-working car: check. Real estate agent: check. Estate sale agent: check. Travel agent: check. Consignment shops: check. Cleaners: check. Law firm: HA! Medicaid sign-up: check. List of odd places not to forget to change address with: check. Legal papers sent to assisted living facility: check. Pre-paperwork filled out and sent to friend to finish: check. Thank-you call to residences she toured but rejected: check. Multiple consultations with cousin Paula, who’s dealing with where we’ll stay and car rental: check.
Yup. A nap. Move over, Lynxie!
For the blog: herondragonwrites.blogspot.com
December 15, 2022
All photos Deb Marshall
Old and wise
