New Year's Eve

I am eating leftover pizza (no, I should not have it because of all of the sodium, but that's what's for dinner), there's a ballgame on the TV, the cats are all sprawled around sleeping, and I'm planning to sit and knit.  On and off until the end of the last night of the sane years for a while.

Wishing everyone well in the coming days........  

December 30, 2024. New Year's Eve Eve

One evening last week the sunset set the neighbors' windows on fire.  I love catching that with the camera.

I haven't heard yet when my neck surgery will be.  I probably won't hear anything until next week, if then.  My nervousness keeps increasing.
 

These In-Between Days December 28, 2024

 Today is 3 years since my sister left us in such a sudden tragic way.  She has been on my mind on and off all day.  Well, honestly, she is every day, but today is so piercing still with the grief of her not physically being here and with missing her.  

I have unwelcome adventures coming up for me in the new year.  I have just been diagnosed with my spinal cord being compressed in my neck, and I have no choice but to have surgery as soon as possible.  I have asked for a referral to Duke in Raleigh, NC, but haven't heard anything from that yet.  

I was so ready to be as healed from the open heart procedures last year as possible, and was making really good progess in so many ways, with the exception of still being short of breath and fluid retention (which cardiology couldn't explain).  I've been told those are a result of the spinal cord compression.  I am afraid of having the procedure----and yet I want it over as soon as possible so that I can try to move forward with my life----again.

December 25, 2024. Merry Christmas

December 24, 2024 Christmas Eve

 

Happy Winter Solstice

December 20/21, 2024

The Shortest Day

by Susan Cooper

So the shortest day came, and the year died,

And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world

Came people singing, dancing,

To drive the dark away.

They lighted candles in the winter trees;

They hung their homes with evergreen;

They burned beseeching fires all night long

To keep the year alive,

And when the new year's sunshine blazed awake

They shouted, reveling.

Through all the frosty ages you can hear them

Echoing behind us--Listen!!

All the long echoes sing the same delight,

This shortest day,

As promise wakens in the sleeping land;

They carol, feast, give thanks,

And dearly love their friends,

And hope for peace.

And so do we, here, now,

This year and every year.

Welcome Yule!

TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE YULETIDE

Twas the night before Yuletide and all through the glen

Not a creature was stirring, not a fox, not a hen.

A mantle of snow shone brightly that night

As it lay on the ground, reflecting moonlight.

The faeries were nestled all snug in their trees,

Unmindful of flurries and a chilly north breeze.

The elves and the gnomes were down in their burrows,

Sleeping like babes in their soft earthen furrows.

When low! The earth moved with a thunderous quake,

Causing chairs to fall over and dishes to break.

The Little Folk scrambled to get on their feet

Then raced to the river where they usually meet.

“What happened?” they wondered, they questioned, they probed,

As they shivered in night clothes, some bare-armed, some robed.

“What caused the earth’s shudder? What caused her to shiver?”

They all spoke at once as they stood by the river.

Then what to their wondering eyes should appear

But a shining gold light in the shape of a sphere.

It blinked and it twinkled, it winked like an eye,

Then it flew straight up and was lost in the sky.

Before they could murmur, before they could bustle,

There emerged from the crowd, with a swish and a rustle,

A stately old crone with her hand on a cane,

Resplendent in green with a flowing white mane.

As she passed by them the old crone’s perfume,

Smelling of meadows and flowers abloom,

Made each of the fey folk think of the spring

When the earth wakes from slumber and the birds start to sing.

“My name is Gaia,” the old crone proclaimed

in a voice that at once was both wild and tamed,

“I’ve come to remind you, for you seem to forget,

that Yule is the time of re-birth, and yet…”

“I see no hearth fires, hear no music, no bells,

The air isn’t filled with rich fragrant smells

Of baking and roasting, and simmering stews,

Of cider that’s mulled or other hot brews.”

“There aren’t any children at play in the snow,

Or houses lit up by candles’ glow.

Have you forgotten, my children, the fun

Of celebrating the rebirth of the sun?”

She looked at the fey folk, her eyes going round,

As they shuffled their feet and stared at the ground.

Then she smiled the smile that brings light to the day,

“Come, my children,” she said, “Let’s play.”

They gathered the mistletoe, gathered the holly,

Threw off the drab and drew on the jolly.

They lit a big bonfire, and they danced and they sang.

They brought out the bells and clapped when they rang.

They strung lights on the trees, and bows, oh so merry,

In colors of cranberry, bayberry, cherry.

They built giant snowmen and adorned them with hats,

Then surrounded them with snow birds, and snow cats and bats.

Then just before dawn, at the end of their fest,

Before they went homeward to seek out their rest,

The fey folk they gathered ‘round their favorite oak tree

And welcomed the sun ‘neath the tree’s finery.

They were just reaching home when it suddenly came,

The gold light returned like an arrow-shot flame.

It lit on the tree top where they could see from afar

The golden-like sphere turned into a star.

The old crone just smiled at the beautiful sight,

“Happy Yuletide, my children,” she whispered. “Good night.”

Poem author C.C. Williford 

December 16, 2024

 

December 13, 2024

Sunday, December 8, 2024

A whole lot of the above goes on around here 😁

Will the tunnel around the tree keep them from eating the flocking off of the tree??? 🤪 Not placing any bets on it. 😁

What Could Go Wrong 😑

Not to mention yet the other 'brilliant' thinkers headed our way.......

November 14, 2024

 

November 4, 2024

 

Tomorrow is Election Day.  I am planning to go to the lake house and stay a few days. It just feels like after so many years and so many election days there, that's where I should be tomorrow.  I also have FINALLY found a family-owned window company that will put in the windows that I've desperately needed for a number of years now.  They will meet me there tomorrow around noon.  :)  As Liz A just said to me, I bid you PEACE.

November 1, 2024

Random pictures

It's a grey, drizzly day and I'm lazy.  Lots of housework that I should be doing but only want to laze around drinking coffee, reading online, thinking about it being November already, and wishing for things and places that I haven't figured out how to make happen yet.  *sigh* 

I admit I did nothing all day-- but ride ---5 miles---for 50 minutes on the bike trainer (50 minutes)! 

Happy Halloween

Beautiful Mid-October Day

 

                                                                        Harvest Moon

Time around here is on super-speed at times, and at other times, it moves as slow as molasses.  I continue to heal and improve from the surgeries last year, with fluid retention and shortness of breath still being  issues that the doctors say I shouldn't be having since the echocardiograms show that my heart has healed beautifully.  Irregardless, I still have those problems.  I have been riding my bike on my Wahoo trainer most days.  I have done this for the last 2 months and I'm up to 43 minutes and 4 miles on it.  I rode my outside bike last Saturday and it was wonderful.  Rode 10 miles.  My friend, Joannie, came for a visit this past Monday, and we took a walk on the Greenbelt which is near my house.  We walked 2.81 miles, the longest walk I've been on since all of this heart stuff started last Spring.  I am making progress.  :)

I love October and am reveling in these beautiful days.  The skies are unbelievably blue and the leaves are slowly starting to turn. 
We had our first frost yesterday morning, and we had some this morning, but it's going to warm back up again.  I'm hoping that I will be able to get back outside on my bike while the weather is still warm.

September

These early days of September have been breathtaking.  There's an underlying nip to the air that says that Fall is on its way, and we will be moving from voicing how hot it is to how cold it is.  Such is life, right, for we human creatures.  :)

95 Deg. Today

 

I have been staying inside, which is hard for me (mentally), but this heart condition does not tolerate the heat very well.   I will be glad when it cools off some (which is supposed to happen soon) and can be outside some and not have the air conditioning running constantly.  I'm grateful to have the air conditioning but right now one of the meds that I'm on causes me to chill.  

It's Labor Day Weekend.  Like so many other holidays, it used to be a big one in my family.  Those days are mostly over.  I have no plans.  

The End of August

Spring faded into Summer and Summer is fading into Autumn (although 92 degrees argues makes one wonder).  I had no idea it had been so long since I visited my blog.  I  am continuing to heal from the heart surgery last August.

Good Friday/Easter Weekend

That little fur doll is Cassie.  My neighbor was pup sitting for a couple of days and we both just adore Cassie.  We brought her over to my house to check out these big cats.  :). 

I colored my Easter eggs.  Wouldn't be Easter without colored eggs.  Then my niece suggested finding some fabric to dye with the dye and look!!!  They are delightful!!  I may cut up some more men's hankies and use up some more of the egg dye.  They are luscious.

Hope everyone has a beautiful Easter weekend.

I Made It

 

I got up really early and did go to the lake.  That is about an hour's drive for me.  It was a glorious day!  And after I sat and had my initial cry as soon as I got there, I got on with thoroughly enjoying the beautiful day. My closest neighbors are wonderful, and treated me to lunch as well as an open door for drinks and the bathroom.  My water has been cut off for the winter months, and I can't stay at my house until that is turned back on-----and a whole lot of dust and bugs and dirt is gotten up.  As I said, it's been about 2 years since I was there last.  It was very emotional, and so strange without Marlee with me.  My world looks a whole lot different than it did just a couple of years ago.  I am totally exhausted.  I have only been home an hour, so I got in some driving in the dark which I haven't done in years either.  The trip was really good for me in so many ways.

Daydreaming

Our weather is so strange now.  Today is supposed to be 70 and sunny after the fog (which we rarely have and I love!) dissipates.  Tomorrow 74 and sunny.  These warm summer-like days are a delight but throw me off.  They tease me into thinking that it is going to stay this warm from now on without any chillier days/nights, which isn't how it will be.  My heart yearns to be back at the lake, and I may go there tomorrow just to dip my toes back into the life that Randy and I lived there.  There is so much work to be done there, and I have to go back for lengthy periods of time this summer to get some of that done, but for right now, I just need to BE there, even for a few hours.  

I have noticed that I am having more anxiety to deal with in the last month or two.  Is this a normal occurrence after the ordeal that was last year?  I don't know, but it does make it harder for me to spontaneously do things, go places, just get in the car and drive now without a lot of over-thinking.  I am hoping that the more I force myself to do the things that cause me anxiety, that it will lessen over time.  This last year changed me in so many ways, both outwardly and inwardly, that I hardly recognize myself right now.