Today is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, one of the most beautiful Marian feasts of the year. Lovely chant, lovely music and so appropriate to Advent, which I think of as Mary's time.
We are having unusually cold weather here in California, the kind of weather that reminds us that our houses are shells--granted, shells with furnaces. This makes them difficult and expensive to heat. Still the photos on the various newscasts of snow in various parts of the Bay Area are beautiful.
I will be glad to see it warm a bit and to get ready for Christmas. Some more cooking and baking are scheduled. Some wrapping of presents, if I can remember where they are, and some general tidying of the house. I have a calendar full of visits planned with friends, so I am looking forward to the next few weeks.
The goodies which I posted Saturday were as good as they looked. I am so grateful to everyone who came to my Open House days over the weekend. It is good to see people and to have a positive cash flow!
I am grateful for the good furnace, for the good space heaters and for all the good knitted goodies that I wrap myself up in to keep warm. Will be even more grateful when the low is a little higher and the rain comes. Apparently, we are doing well for the snow pack in the mountains, forty-two inches already at one of the ski resorts. Hurray! With sufficient snow and rain, we will have a summer garden in due season.
Showing posts with label cold winter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cold winter. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
Catching up
I can't believe more than a week has gone by. Ah, how time can fly when one is having fun on Facebook! Among other things.
While the rest of the country has been freezing, it has been springlike here in California. The oldest of my daffodils already have buds. The flowers will bloom in succession this year, since all the new bulbs were planted in succession. It is fun to go outside and see the new little shoots poking up. January is a little too early, though, even here and I worry over them even as I admire them. Of course, with no rain, they have also needed to be watered.
I wish there were winter vegetables to accompany the flowers. If I live long enough...
Like everyone with in range of a newscast, I was amazed and heartened last week by the sight of people emerging from the plane on the Hudson. Is this a good omen for the year? I do hope so. Like over 200,000 other people I joined the pilot's fan club on Facebook.
The concert on the Capitol Mall yesterday was also amazing. It was touching and endearing to see and hear Pete Seeger and to sing along to "This Land". (We sang Climb Every Mountain and This Land is Your Land so many times in high school glee club concerts that I thought I would never want to hear either of them again. I had tears in my eyes yesterday as I sang along.)
It was wonderful, too, to see the Obama/Biden team journey to Washington by train, evoking images of earlier great Presidents, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt and I think, Theodore Roosevelt who journeyed to their inaugurations the same way. I like Obama's sense of history, I like his brilliance and I hope and pray for him as he becomes our President.
While there is so much fear and despair in the air about the economy there is also this magnificent feeling of hope and joy. I hope the hope and joy win. I am grateful for the promises for the future that these days hold and these celebrations hold. May God be with us all.
While the rest of the country has been freezing, it has been springlike here in California. The oldest of my daffodils already have buds. The flowers will bloom in succession this year, since all the new bulbs were planted in succession. It is fun to go outside and see the new little shoots poking up. January is a little too early, though, even here and I worry over them even as I admire them. Of course, with no rain, they have also needed to be watered.
I wish there were winter vegetables to accompany the flowers. If I live long enough...
Like everyone with in range of a newscast, I was amazed and heartened last week by the sight of people emerging from the plane on the Hudson. Is this a good omen for the year? I do hope so. Like over 200,000 other people I joined the pilot's fan club on Facebook.
The concert on the Capitol Mall yesterday was also amazing. It was touching and endearing to see and hear Pete Seeger and to sing along to "This Land". (We sang Climb Every Mountain and This Land is Your Land so many times in high school glee club concerts that I thought I would never want to hear either of them again. I had tears in my eyes yesterday as I sang along.)
It was wonderful, too, to see the Obama/Biden team journey to Washington by train, evoking images of earlier great Presidents, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt and I think, Theodore Roosevelt who journeyed to their inaugurations the same way. I like Obama's sense of history, I like his brilliance and I hope and pray for him as he becomes our President.
While there is so much fear and despair in the air about the economy there is also this magnificent feeling of hope and joy. I hope the hope and joy win. I am grateful for the promises for the future that these days hold and these celebrations hold. May God be with us all.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Epiphany 2009
Tonight my dear friend G, who is a nurse and is like another sister to me, came by with dinner and a piece of blessed chalk and the ritual for the Epiphany blessing of my house. This is a fine ritual and we delighted in saying the Magnificat and other prayers together. The inside top of my door now has the date and the crosses and the initials of the three wise men to bless my house.
Are the three wise men saints? I don't think I have ever thought of that before, more like folk legends or folk heroes, but they would be, I think, in the same category as the people in the Old Testament. Saints.
Then I wrestled my garbage out to the can and got a quite refreshing blast of cold, winter, night air. At the same time, I saw the daffodils poking up in various places. It was daylight a bit longer today and I noticed that, so Spring will come.
Epiphany, new beginnings--blessings, peace and a new year. I am grateful and hopeful tonight. Grateful for food and warmth (a space heater is warming me up along with fleece blankets wrapped around me and wool mitts on my hands as I type--fingerless of course), friendship and that the garbage is out in the can. Grateful too for the service called, "backyard garbage pick-up", by which the garbage collectors come into my patio and take the can out, empty it and return it to its place.
A good night in January.
Are the three wise men saints? I don't think I have ever thought of that before, more like folk legends or folk heroes, but they would be, I think, in the same category as the people in the Old Testament. Saints.
Then I wrestled my garbage out to the can and got a quite refreshing blast of cold, winter, night air. At the same time, I saw the daffodils poking up in various places. It was daylight a bit longer today and I noticed that, so Spring will come.
Epiphany, new beginnings--blessings, peace and a new year. I am grateful and hopeful tonight. Grateful for food and warmth (a space heater is warming me up along with fleece blankets wrapped around me and wool mitts on my hands as I type--fingerless of course), friendship and that the garbage is out in the can. Grateful too for the service called, "backyard garbage pick-up", by which the garbage collectors come into my patio and take the can out, empty it and return it to its place.
A good night in January.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Cold Winter Blows my Way!
North winds are indeed blowing and we are even going to have snow in central California! I am so grateful for modern plumbing and heating. The furnace has just come on as I began to type this and I have cozy space heaters along with fleece throws wrapped all around me. The space heaters take the place of fireplaces, which our ancestors would have had in every room. The new electric blanket is a very good one and a cozy fleece blanket in itself. I have that to look forward to shortly.
I just finished watching an American Girl movie on Hallmark. I am always fascinated by period pieces, how everyone dressed, walked and talked in other times and the interior of houses. How they lived, warding off the elements in somewhat different ways, has intrigued me.
One thing that they don't show is the long underwear. I can remember my Mama's descriptions of that and think that we could save considerable energy if we would not save our "long John's" and "long Jane's" for outdoor recreational activity, but bring them in and wear them regularly. After all we don't have to break ice on the water barrel, boil water and squeeze the clothes through a wringer to have clean laundry. Those machines worked well today too and earned their keep in my house.
I am knitting hats for myself, so that I will have more than one and wearing a hat in the house saves a good bit of money for it allows me to turn the heat back substantially.
In my Chicago days I learned to wear two pairs of socks in winter. That may be some of the best knowledge that I took away from the experience. A warm head and warm feet help a great deal.
So while I do not cherish this cold spell, I am grateful for my blessings and trying to tell myself that it will be more like Christmas if it is cold.
I just finished watching an American Girl movie on Hallmark. I am always fascinated by period pieces, how everyone dressed, walked and talked in other times and the interior of houses. How they lived, warding off the elements in somewhat different ways, has intrigued me.
One thing that they don't show is the long underwear. I can remember my Mama's descriptions of that and think that we could save considerable energy if we would not save our "long John's" and "long Jane's" for outdoor recreational activity, but bring them in and wear them regularly. After all we don't have to break ice on the water barrel, boil water and squeeze the clothes through a wringer to have clean laundry. Those machines worked well today too and earned their keep in my house.
I am knitting hats for myself, so that I will have more than one and wearing a hat in the house saves a good bit of money for it allows me to turn the heat back substantially.
In my Chicago days I learned to wear two pairs of socks in winter. That may be some of the best knowledge that I took away from the experience. A warm head and warm feet help a great deal.
So while I do not cherish this cold spell, I am grateful for my blessings and trying to tell myself that it will be more like Christmas if it is cold.
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