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!
