Saturday - 267th

How much do you like holiday music? I have found that people have really strong feelings about this: negative or positive. Let's see if you can guess where I land...

You're right! I have always loved it: choral, instrumental, traditional, jazz and even occasionally the playful stuff (Muppets come to mind). It's all great. For 25 days I can't get enough of it. Since I don't like using ear plugs, I am so grateful to Ed for tolerating this. (His music engagement is... slight.) Yes, I keep the volume really low, but I do consider it an essential part of life on these very short days of winter.

And the days are indeed short (though not as short as in, say, Poland).

And they are cold. 

I notice that frosty crispness on my morning farmette walk. But then, I notice a lot on this short stroll!

 

 

Ed and I were listening today to a snippet on public radio about the concept of taking a forest bath, where you slowly absorb, with all your senses, all that a forest (or even a few trees) can offer. Deliberately, intensely. For me, the farmette pine grove offers this space where I can connect to all that grows around us. It's just magical to me, especially now: winter pairs well with pines!  

(A fragment of my morning forest bath...)

 

 

 

I do a bit of housecleaning before breakfast and so Ed and I get to our meal just before it's time for me to meet up with my Polish friends (always at noon my time).

The Zoom Polish call has become an anchor for all of us. Sure, we have our families, our friends and pals, but navigating this strange new world is hard and sharing our own personal sagas is important. We do it together, every few weeks.

Unfortunately one (absent) friend from our group has taken a turn for the worse with COVID, but it helps to talk this out with all the others. Who would doubt that sharing information that's not so great is important.

And it is true that I am the one who is especially grateful for these Zoom calls. I'm the outlier, the one who lives in that strange country where they can't seem to get the virus under control. Poland, too, has had a bad run of it lately, but it never had the initial surge that we did and even the second surge appears to be tapering off a bit, though accurate data are hard to come by. 

As we Zoom chat, we don't have to say out loud what we miss most -- we all miss our kids and grandkids terribly. And after that? Friends. (Though for me, seeing these people would require such a long trip! Right now I am not thinking that far ahead. At the moment I don't miss travel at all, because travel has been contaminated with transmission. How soon will it become the bedrock of my retirement again? I cannot tell. One month at a time.)

 

In the late afternoon, Ed and I drive out to the Brooklyn Wildlife Area. Deer hunting by rifle is over in Wisconsin, but hunters are still prowling around. They're allowed to go after squirrels, rabbit, pheasant, quail and grouse. Too, you can still kill deer with a bow and arrow or a muzzleloader whatever that is. (Yes, I could look it up, but do I want to?)  It is overall safer now especially if you wear blaze orange, and we do.

The views are familiar to us, but still very pretty! Against a beautiful Wisconsin sky.

The sun is setting by the time we come home.

Music on, candle lit, salmon panfried with a tart sauce and cheesie veggies to fill that ache for something comforting.

Be good, stay healthy.

With love...