garden shops,office, grocery

*A mid-winter visit to garden shops. By January, I lie in bed rearranging the garden, planning new plantings, considering how to nourish the soil, dreaming of the time I can jump out of bed early (in the daylight)to start digging and watering. So I begin to visit (should I say haunt?) garden shops. As soon as I walk through the Star Trek-like doors my glasses fog up and my nose fills with a woodsy, earthy smell. One shop has an indoor fish pond surrounded by lush plants.I usually begin to consider how I could saw a hole in the living room floor and dig a pond. This would not surprise my husband. Anyhow, a mid-winter visit to garden shops is a gem in my life today.

*The doctor's office we visited today has the largest waiting room that I have ever seen. It is never full and always clean. The attendants are cheerful. The scales is enormous. I begin to believe that I've landed on a space ship.

*I go out of my way to shop at a grocery not close to my house. I go there because the staff is cheerful, the produce is yummy looking, and I find items I have never seen before.

colors, clouds,lunch

Choosing colors of yarn for a hat--luscious, soft yarn in vibrant colors.

The dark snow clouds over the mountains are like a water color wash falling down into the ribbon of light blue dusk sky.

Lunch with a beautiful, intelligent woman--my daughter. She talks of the latest escapades of her children. And I know that the hours of reading to her were well spent.

back stoop,respite,C-Span

The back stoop is entirely free of snow (not ice) so I carry out buckets of hot water and slosh it down (and melt the ice). A few swipes with the broom and wow! a totally clean, free of elements stoop. (Tomorrow I'll sit out there in the sun.)

Joggers in shorts, families on bicycles, dogs (lots of dogs) walking -- the glories of a respite from winter.

On week-end C-Span authors are interviewed. I have a treat when I turn it on as a spur of the moment thing and find a favorite author lecturing and then being interviewed.

a gang, candles, feet up

A gang of people over to eat a special birthday cake.

Not caring how old I am when I blow out the candles.

Ready to put my feet up and remembering the clever things people have said, seeing the growth of the children marked on the wall and knowing everyone enjoyed themselves.

willows, rocks,house-to-be

The orangey-yellow twisty willow stems that I stuck into a goldfish bowl of rocks.

Everytime I drive back from getting the mail I notice a rock formation I've never seen before. Could it be the changing angle of the sun? Today a castle-fortressy formation popped into view--red and craggy.

The bare wooden skeleton of a new house "going up."

streets, chair,proprietress

A blog of pictures of people on streets includes not just young people but older women and men--wonderful.

A new chair. La Fuma. Comfort.

A lovely conversation with the proprietress of the Nepal store in town.

lake,hot,bob

The frozen lake has a pristine top except for a hole in the ice around which ducks have gathered to pal around.

A hot water bottle on a sub zero night.

Robert Lindsay.

dishes,lecture,movements

I stopped using the dishwasher a while ago. The hot water is especially cozy on my hands while I wash the dishes (they, the hands, never get chapped from the soap and hot water). An additional comfort came to me this morning as I washed the dishes: a hot blast of air came from the vent under the sink.

Listening to a lecture given by a expert and professional and feeling confident that what she is saying is true. When she doesn't know an answer she says, "I'll get back to you on that."

The lecturer uses lovely, huge body movements to emphasize what she is saying. "...insulin is the key that opens the cells for glucose to go in..."

blogs, blogs, chair back

Leaping from design blog to design blog wallowing in the colors and ideas.
then
Oozing from food blog to food blog salivating all the way.

Sitting so that my back touches the chair back--I realize that I usually slump over.

scissors,restaurant, fur

Sharp--I mean really sharp--scissors.

We sit in a booth at our favorite Tex-Mex restaurant sipping margaritas. We are early and can watch the Saturday lunchtime crowd slowly drift in: the noise level from chatter gradually rises, the family groups come in children in arm and held hand to hand, the bartender begins to bustle back and forth behind the bar.

Cool fur on a dog just come in from outside.

snow,nothing,quilt

Although the grey clouds and the weatherman had forecasted snow, I gasped in surprise when I left the bookstore and entered the storm. Full of warm coffee and fresh ideas I had not the "oh, no, more snow" feeling but instead saw only beauty. The line of snow in a crease of a blue car. White dots on my pink hat (when I glanced into a mirror). A blur where the mountains had been when I had entered the bookstore.

The stillness at the po when I get the mail--surrounded by red ridges and razor backs and hearing absolute nothing, a more absolute nothing I have never been a part of.

The tiny pieces of a quilt. I look at the quilt closely then pull back. It is like looking at a Seurat closely then pulling back.

path,movie, bookstore

A path has been carved diagonally by shortcut takers through a low (designed to catch the water run off) grassy open space. For weeks the snow has hidden it but today it is visable. I am warmed by the memory of taking the shortcut on my bike last summer with the sun in my eyes. The shortcut is so worn down that it is a trough and it takes effort to make my wheels escape from it when I want to go another direction.

The movie from the book The Kite Runner can stand on its own. Sometimes I am fearful of seeing a movie after having read the book--fearful that the scriptwriter and the whole production has made a mess of it. With trepidition I saw the movie and it was okay. Kabul as portrayed was well done, clothing accurate and thank heavens, there were subtitles--instead of everything in English. However, I would encourage everyone to read the book because there is much more depth, more tangents to the story as it was written. On our last trip to Paris a man who gave us directions at the airport was holding a copy of the book in French which helped connect us to his world.

Writing a list of interesting sounding books to take to the bookstore with me.

run away, smoke, statues

As we walk across the road to investigate an estate sale a horse with saddle askew clops (love the sound his hooves make), his path irratic, towards us and we are just able to leap aside as he careens by us. He impulsively zags left down an alley. A man rushes up, hand keeping his hat on his head, "That's okay. He's going in the general direction of home." I wasn't afraid for thecars or people just that this magnificent beast might come to harm in his freedom.

As we drive down a hill from the mail run the town and surrounding countryside are revealed and I can see from horizon to horizon. In three places white smoke puffs vertically. No wind today.

A group of horses stand as statues in a snowless beaten down pasture. All but one are on four legs and the hind leg of that one is crooked up.

movies, cross, furniture

Home alone, I sink into movies without anyone to interrupt me or judge what I am watching. Arranged is delightful.

Georgia's black cross with a sunrise and hills.

The predicted snow did not come so we could put the furniture for Habitat outside on the sidewalk.

donating, moving,desk

Donating a sofa, 3 chairs, a table and a bed to the Habitat store.

Moving my desk (from a dark corner) to a place underneath a window.

My desk location is now by the wall heater.

hair,sci-fi,trees

Today I saw a beautiful older woman with long flowing hair.

Caught up in a sci-fi series so that mealtimes are forgotten and the dog needs to scratch on the door several times before we open it.

Appreciating the shapes of tree limbs and trunks silhouetted against a cold blue winter sky. I am always a little sad at the time the leaves fall but when the trees are bare we can see their structure and strength.

facial,sheets,plastic

Coming in from the cold and wind; lying, covered by a flannel sheet, on a warm flotation device; listening to the sounds of surf and having a warmly wet towel draped over my face.

Wild, crazy, wake me up early-very early-dreams. By lunchtime I remember the new,violently pink sheets and begin to wonder if they are the reason for the dreams.

Going through the car wash and looking up in the rear view mirror to see the headlights of the car behind me through the ghostly plastic sheeting that divides us.

gone,wet,sun

The quiet and calm after physical pain is gone--it is like suddenly leaving the eye of a tornado that is tearing and ripping the body apart.

The smell of the dog wet from a bath.

Basking in the January sun--wondering why the July sun and the January sun can't be averaged out a bit and then murmuring, "Just be in this moment."

water bottle,DVD, puppy

He who fills my hot water bottle when my leg won't straighten.

A daughter who brings an interesting DVD when I must sit with my leg up on a hot water bottle.

A silly puppy whose internal timepiece is still not in tune with the time change so she wants dinner an hour before the clock says it is dinnertime.

to town and back

I drive downtown behind a small silver car. Halfway to town the large head of a black lab pokes out of the back side window, ears and pink tongue flap in the wind. Can a dog smile?

Passing the gas station, I see a very short little girl (on her tip toes) helping her mum by washing their car's front window with a squeegie.

On the way home I follow a car which has the top and a few dark green limbs of a Christmas tree peeking out of the back hatch. Is the tree trying to escape? "No, no don't take me to the landfill."

decision, hair, roses

Making a decision to drive a shorter trip and being okay about it because our objective was to escape bad weather and where we had intended to go is experiencing horrendous weather.

My hair is finally long enough to hold a bright red scrunchy.

Roses on sale at the store--I buy a pink dozen.

washing, pens, service

Washing all the black winter crud off of the car and marvel-ing at the brilliant blue that shine through apres washing.

Finding good everyday pens that I like.

Talking to someone in the service sector that has not sucumbed to the effects of her mind numbing job.

geraniums,packing,British

Geraniums brought inside before we went to Paris blooming on the shelf by the backdoor.

Packing for a trip to a beach.

Finding British movie that I did not know existed and based on an Wells novel.

talk,pooch,sesame chicken

This all began a while ago in the snow of last winter and hey! it is winter again so I'll have another go at a daily glimmers of gems in a craggy old world. Diamonds in the Ruff.
1. A delightful give and take conversation with our dog minder-the idiosyncrasies of her chickens, the trail of eccentric boarders.
2. The doggy smell of the beast beside me on the couch.
3. Getting a table at a favorite Vietnamese restaurant when we had been turned away a week ago.