The water drama ripped through the farmhouse, disrupting everything, testing our patience and resolve. And then, like a speeding train, it passed and left us in a world of quiet again.
You can be sure that New Year's Eve was spent by me clearing and cleaning the debris in its wake. Ed was asleep earlier than our usual early and though he tossed and mumble something about coming down for midnight, truth is I wasn't going to stay awake that late either. A few minutes after midnight a daughter texted asking if I had seen the ball drop in Times Square. That's when I knew we had flipped the page to 2015.
Happy New Year, people! Happy New Year, loved ones, friends, and all the rest of you whose faces I haven't seen and voices I haven't heard -- Happy New Year to you as well!
How ordinary this first day is for us this year! How magnificently fresh and quiet!
Initially, there was that promised sunshine and so we ate our first meal of the year in the sun room which, I think, is a good first step onto a different calendar page.
When the cheepers came a-knockin' I stepped out and at once felt so grateful that we had no more outdoor work for today. Our hands are still raw and cracked from yesterday. I am so happy that we can take or leave the cold air: aside from cheeper care, there is nothing that must be accomplished out there.
Oh, those blissful ordinary hours! I write, I tidy, I trim Ed's beard so that he looks more like baby new year rather than father time...
It is so good to move slowly today! So very good indeed!
Still, today is special and it surely calls for a meal that's a bit out of the ordinary. A Ocean comment exchange gave me the idea that I should make something for supper combining the American in us with the European in me.
I boil a chicken (not our chicken!) for the broth and for the meat and I make a classic American chicken salad.
And I make a raspberry-creme patisserie tart for dessert.
Funny to make these somewhat retro courses -- both used to be standard fare for my table, slowly to be replaced by other standard fare. In cooking, there is always that great desire to try the new, even as on this new year's day, I go back to the familiar.
We pop a bottle of Cava to bubble away the evening and watch two episodes of Grand Designs on youtube. Happy New Year indeed!
You can be sure that New Year's Eve was spent by me clearing and cleaning the debris in its wake. Ed was asleep earlier than our usual early and though he tossed and mumble something about coming down for midnight, truth is I wasn't going to stay awake that late either. A few minutes after midnight a daughter texted asking if I had seen the ball drop in Times Square. That's when I knew we had flipped the page to 2015.
Happy New Year, people! Happy New Year, loved ones, friends, and all the rest of you whose faces I haven't seen and voices I haven't heard -- Happy New Year to you as well!
How ordinary this first day is for us this year! How magnificently fresh and quiet!
Initially, there was that promised sunshine and so we ate our first meal of the year in the sun room which, I think, is a good first step onto a different calendar page.
When the cheepers came a-knockin' I stepped out and at once felt so grateful that we had no more outdoor work for today. Our hands are still raw and cracked from yesterday. I am so happy that we can take or leave the cold air: aside from cheeper care, there is nothing that must be accomplished out there.
Oh, those blissful ordinary hours! I write, I tidy, I trim Ed's beard so that he looks more like baby new year rather than father time...
It is so good to move slowly today! So very good indeed!
Still, today is special and it surely calls for a meal that's a bit out of the ordinary. A Ocean comment exchange gave me the idea that I should make something for supper combining the American in us with the European in me.
I boil a chicken (not our chicken!) for the broth and for the meat and I make a classic American chicken salad.
And I make a raspberry-creme patisserie tart for dessert.
Funny to make these somewhat retro courses -- both used to be standard fare for my table, slowly to be replaced by other standard fare. In cooking, there is always that great desire to try the new, even as on this new year's day, I go back to the familiar.
We pop a bottle of Cava to bubble away the evening and watch two episodes of Grand Designs on youtube. Happy New Year indeed!
I haven't had chicken salad in a few years but suddenly that looks so good! I might have to try that, soon. Hello and Happy New Year, Nina! Teri ~ a lurker seeing if she can post with OpenID...
ReplyDeleteHi Teri and thanks for the note! I always feel rather embarrassed that people have to jump through hoops to write, but the world is what it is. Delighted to occasionally meet a lurker!
DeleteI spent a while wondering if I should modernize the chicken salad and then decided not to (though I'm sure I tone down the mayo and I put in a dab of creme fraiche just because I happen to have some). Yum indeed!
Happy New Year. I've just managed to catch up, having last read here mid-crisis with the pump. I'm not sure where I've been, mentally out-to-lunch I guess. I had hopes of starting a whole new ambitious regimen on New Year's Day, but Jean-Luc (the kitty, for your readers, not my French lover) cuddled with me in bed for two hours this morning while we "watched" (I say that advisedly, since I for one dozed a lot) the Rose Parade. It starts at 8 a.m. for those of us on the west coast, which is a little early after watching the New Year come in on TV. The Rose Parade is my tradition. I grew up in Pasadena and we went in person in my childhood, which was before TV. My day didn't get any busier. Tomorrow. Tomorrow I get ambition.
ReplyDeleteLee, two of our sons marched in the Rose Parade about 15 years ago, so I always enjoy the memories it brings back. Sunny California seems like a dream here in frigid Ohio.
DeleteYou, Lee I, may be the only one I know who moved north as you got older. (I speak from my Wisconsin experience where practically all my good friends have, by now, moved away!)
DeleteJoyD, we have got to maintain our positive attitude about the cold. It's only January 2nd and I hear next week our HIGH will hover around -4F!
The last pic! Ed, sans pants!! Oh, that's good. And with a bottle of bubbly. :)
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year!! I'll be along for the ride with your other faithful readers.
I was wondering if anyone would notice! When Ed works in the sheep shed, where there is radiant floor heat, he is always barefoot and often without jeans. When he hops over to the farmhouse, he throws on a jacket. Usually in my photos I "work around" that (he doesn't complain much about my picture taking but nor does he do anything to facilitate it!) but this night's photo could not avoid the obvious so there you have it! As for bubbly -- I so often wish I had a partner in crime, but aside from the occasional swig Ed stays away from wine. Calls it "ruined grape juice."
DeleteI have a roaster chicken in the oven right now to cut up and use in my big pot of veggie soup I made yesterday. Happy New Year!
ReplyDelete