Walking in Winter Sunshine

Looking east across the big meadow from the edge of the woods.

The week just past was one of slow days, grey skies,  frosty mornings, piddling rain.

J. has been working in the garage, getting a Ford tractor ready for painting.

I was in the kitchen when he hastened in one afternoon, dripping blood from one hand and demanding that I find gauze bandages and disinfectant.

The chisel he was using had slipped and taken a chunk out of his left thumb. 

I don't like looking at such things, but managed to help him get the gash bound up.

It left him with a clumsy hand which he was in danger of banging at every turn.

He enlisted D. to help for the rest of the day with the tractor refurbishment.

G. remembered that M. had bought some protective 'splints' when he did a similar number on his finger several months ago and the loan of these has helped to save the poor thumb from further insult.

This would seem to have been the excitement of the week, quite sufficient.

A weathered cedar stump.

I can't think that I accomplished much beyond the usual rounds of meal preparation, some desultory housework.

J.'s birthday on Thursday, so his favorite pineapple-upside-down cake baked and served with mounds of whipped cream. Matt, Gina, and Devin here to help consume that treat--and we had quite demolished it before I thought to record the event with photos.

Moss gleams on another ancient stump adrift in oak leaves.

We missed our monthly first Wednesday grocery shop in the neighboring county as J. was away that week. [This is the day when those over age 60 are honored with a 10% discount.]

J. decided on Friday that we should stock up without the discount.

I must say, that it was simpler to get through the store without the usual crowd of elderly shoppers, many taking advantage of the stores' riding carts to bumble about the aisles.

We like to wander through Peddlers Mall if we have time-- a large building filled with stalls of goods for sale.

There are some stalls which have only junk--tired objects which appear to have been culled from basements or attics, dreadfully unappealing.

Others feature tidy displays of vintage furniture, collectible china and kitchen goods, small tools, decorative wares old and new.

I can often spot items which would be lovely to bring home--if we had a bigger house!

This was one of the few times we've been there when even the best stalls seemed disorganized and lacking in appealing wares.

A stem of dried vervain leans over an old cistern near the meadow ditch.

Friday was G.'s birthday [a day after her father's] so I brought home a bouquet of wildly colored mums --the tag called them 'neon blooms' a product of South America. I do wonder how such perishables can be picked, packaged and shipped from a faraway country to appear with an expected 

shelf life' of at least a week.

G.'s special dessert was a chocolate pudding cake--again with lashings of whipped cream.

[We are a family who brings on the whipped cream at the slightest excuse!]

Seed pods clinging to the remnants of summer wildflowers.

Fuzzy heads of goldenrod silhouetted against a rare blue sky.

The old disc harrow waiting for another summer.

Sunset this evening after a mild day of sunshine.

There have been few such days thus far this winter, giving an overall sense of a long spell of cold and dreary weather.

The forecast is for plummeting temperatures and cloudy skies moving in tomorrow to stay for the remainder of the week.

The prospect isn't a joyful one, but we have wood for the fires, cupboards full of food.

We have work to do, I have books to read, and I'm feeling a renewed commitment to quilt-making.

The family may have no need for yet another quilt, but I have a need to drive the cold winter away!