Monday

Ed will say again and again that the more items you have to care for, the less free you are. This year he has the evidence for it: as he moves from fixing one car to the next, to the tractor, to the snow blower, to the chain saw, to the water heater, and so on, he does it without complaint, but I can just see the resolve sink in not to acquire a single other item. Every item has a life span of ten years, he'll tell me. We move from fixing one thing to the next, to the next...
I protest a little: Most people, unlike you, will pay someone to fix these things for them! But it's a poor argument this week when he has seen me spend hours trying to get someone to fix (under warranty!) a malfunctioning camera for me. Hiring someone to do the job doesn't necessarily mean that your burden is lifted.


So it doesn't feel that great to spend a second day now clicking away my credit card information at various websites. But, at least most of this is in pursuit of gifts for others. I'm burdening them, not us with stuff. Hopefully, most of it is indestructible. At least not readily so.

But I need a yoga class today and I am glad to have a Peaceful Flow one available early in the morning. I almost left you with photos of bleak landscapes, nothing more, but on one of my afternoon errand runs, I came across a family of cranes and pulling over to watch them stomp through the fields definitely counts as a highlight.





Later, Ed and Isis amused me with their games...





And still later, as we were returning from a quick run to Paul's and to the library, we caught against our backs the red beauty of the setting sun.






The temperatures are falling dramatically tonight. I'm not worried. The farmhouse is very very snug. Always. And that's a good thing.