"It was imprudent of us, in the first place, to become authors. We could have become something regular, but we managed not to.
We were lucky, but we were also determined." Roy Blount Jr

"I don’t change the facts to enhance the drama. I think of it the other way round, the drama has got to fit the facts,
and it’s your job as a writer to find the shape in real life."
Hilary Mantel

Saturday, February 23, 2008

A Scenic Saturday

This morning I made a friend of this blue jay by tossing bread, cracked corn and seed onto the fresh snow.



He was quickly joined by at least a dozen others.

I guestimate a fresh coating of about five inches. I was pleased to find it very light and dry and had an easy time clearing paths and shovelling steps. This most definitely takes the Lodge above the new winter snowfall record set in Concord, as we get more of it here. We've received something over 90 inches...so over 7.5 feet, according to my trusty calculator.

The girls thoroughly enjoyed scaling the snow piles--

Jewel on the summit of No-name Mountain in the morning...



...and Ruth atop Wolf Mountain this afternoon.



I spent my day doing housecleaning so intense it practically qualifies as Spring Cleaning. The reasons are several. Mostly I think it's a defence mechanism against this long, long winter. Also, a tidy Lodge is an antidote to cabin fever (a malady from which I rarely suffer!) Scrubbing walls and hoovering carpets and dusting surfaces and heaving bed linens into the washer are such positive, healing activities. Not to mention being good exercise.

I baked cookies, too, because it makes the house smell so nice and is a good way to welcome the Chap home. Used my favourite oatmeal/dried cranberry/chocolate chip recipe but got so caught up in substitutions--demerara sugar instead of white granulated--that I forgot to add the cup of flour. Instead of the chewy cookie I expected, I got a batch of flat, crispy wafers. They taste great. How I love a forgiving recipe!

After all their snow-romping and mountain-climbing, the girls are very restful as I tap away here on the dining room table.

Jewel gets up to check on Ruth, napping under my rosemary bush.



Our Chap is homeward bound. We'll all be very happy to see him again.


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