warmish, Matthew, day

* A warmish day with no wind when I find myself outside in my favorite chair wrapped up in an old house coat, two hats plopped on my head. The dogs yarf at one another with no response from me as I find my eyelids much too heavy to continue reading........

* "Who is Matthew?"

* A contented birthday.

a letter

* A letter. A basket case. Breaths. Insomnia. Isolation. A list. A phone call. Relief. 

*"When it hurts we return to the banks of certain rivers."

*"I am made and remade continually."

*"First I drink the coffee, then I do the things."

*"Impossible goals are made up of a series a small possible goals."

birds, courage, red

* For 2 days birds have been chirping across the road.

* The courage of the squirrel caught up in the high branches of the tree.

* Red, I mean really red, lipstick.

van, slippers, book

* A white van with 9 tall men inside. Each man wears a tall white cowboy hat. The brim of each hat touches the brim of the hats next to it.

* Quilted thick house slippers that please the wearer.

* Sole Survivor

receipe, film, book

* Recipe for getting dressed on a winter's morn: 
   1. heap a pile of clothes# to wear for the day on an unmade bed    
   2. plop 2 fuzzy dogs on top
   3. take a steamy hot shower
   4. dry skin with a nubbly towel
   5. smear thick body lotion, warmed by above steamy shower
   6. dash to the bed/dogs/pile
   7. shoo dogs off clothes#
   8. dress
   # preferably corduroy or fleece

*  "Truly, Madly, Deeply"

*  Hebrides 

pain, couch, boxes

* A day of watching someone squirm in pain. Nothing helps. Nothing helps....And then as the room grows dim and snow begins to fall again the pain leaves and we both inhale relief.

* I moved a second couch into the great room because the dogs needed new places to sprawl. Still it is a challenge to find a space for me to sit. 

* The top of the big table is hidden by the flower boxes I am painting (blue) and I dream about the herbs and flowers that will grow in them.

oasis, listen, hyacinths

* To get up alone into a cool dark winter's morning and slip out of the house for coffee. The shop is an oasis of warmth and light.

* A group meeting where people appreciate me and actually listen to me.

* To inhale the sweetness of my hyacinths every time I enter my office.

dreams, series, lace

* I dream of this year's garden--it must be January.

* Ah, cold winter nights and movie/series marathons:"Hornblower" "Jewel in the Crown" "Jeeves and Wooster" "Rumple of the Bailey" "Cadfael" "#1 Ladies' Detective Agency"

* Winter sunlight through lace curtains.

ice, snow, thought

* The totally cathartic, satisfying  kicking of accumulated ice off of the wheel well.

* Dogs bounding through pristine snow.

* The process of remembering something joyful that happened today: a lightbulb moment, then knowing the day was not as wretched as first thought.

away, smells, nanny

* "I got away to a spa."
   "Oh, you should go every three months."
   "!!!"

* A magazine from England that smells oh so English.

* I watch him on the nanny cam while I sit in my meeting=reassurance.