The Week After Christmas: 2020 Final Journal Entry

Christmas Day was bleak in terms of weather; sullen dark skies, the ground sodden with the scum of wet snow which began on Christmas Eve. 

We had a good day at the home of our daughter and son-in-law--a lovely meal to which we all contributed. Driving there on roads that were patched with wet, I looked up to see several ribbons of flying Canadian geese; watching them thread their way across the sky always lifts my heart.

I was in the kitchen when our grandson shouted from the dooryard that sandhill cranes were cruising overhead.  I'd not seen or heard any this autumn--but by the time I dashed down the hall and out onto the front steps--they were gone.

The sun struggled out on the 26th, melting the remnants of snow. 

Boots were needed outdoors. 

Jim 'turned' the garden with tractor and plows on a sunny day before Christmas and the heaved up soil gleams wetly brown.

Willis, the faithful cat, follows me to the spot where our drive meets the lane, waiting there until I return from the mailbox.

Willis is slower now, in his 11th winter, but he is always alert to my outdoor presence, trailing along behind me.

A week of fitful weather--glowing slow sunrise, pearly lavender skies at dusk.

Drizzles of chilly rain, late afternoon sun breaking through swift-moving billows of cloud.

The moon was brilliant on the night before full, but next night cloud cover was a thick blanket.

A soft grey dawn.

 One of the more colorful early mornings of the week.

A morning that promised sun--but didn't deliver.

A desultory run of days--out of sync from the holiday, a disruption of small errands, routine chores; the preparation of meals, pegging sheets on the line to billow and snap in a day of wind.  

I finished reading a thought-provoking biography, brought out the Brother Cadfael mysteries first read two decades or more ago. Prepared the notes to facilitate a Bible study via Zoom.

Now at nearly 10 P.M. on the first day of another year, the waning gibbous moon is climbing a wind-tossed bank of clouds. Wild rain last night and again through the morning, moderating to fitful sunshine, air heavy with damp. 

We don't really begin again--we continue.