I know that for a long time I will associate Wednesdays with no school days. Like French children only different! (Until very recently, schools in France used to be closed Wednesdays.)
All the sunshine streaks come early today. I get them for my morning walk, then they disappear.
And speaking of disappearance, where is Ed? He sleeps through breakfast and I don't have the heart to wake him.
He awakes (to a degree) just as the kids show up.
So, no school, all play! They offer no objection.
But as the sun disappears, so does the motivation to play outside. And I'm okay with that! I'm still living down pulling a sled load of trouble (she is 40 pounds, he is 30...) and, in the alternative, holding a boy whose snow pants are as slippery as the skin of an eel.
We do art instead. That's always fun and requires nothing more than taping together pages of the next Super Pig book. By Snowdrop. Sparrow sticks with drawing monsters. Eating spaghetti, he tells me. I can see it! A smiling monster!
Lunch, with Ed. Because there's an extra pizza slice.
And eventually they go home and I return just in time to squeeze in a loop of cross country skiing in our county forest. This time with Ed.
[Someone noted that I should be cautious skiing alone. Sure, though I cannot emphasize how tame these trails are and how many decades of skiing I have behind me. Though I don't much care for skiing after sunset. That wont happen again.]
On the way home, we pass a small herd of deer. Not unusual for around here. Deer visit the farmette every night. Still, when you see them against a snow covered field, they take your breath away.
Your eyes probably aren't drawn to the gray skies, but up there above them (can you see him?), a powered paraglider is doing his rather regular evening journey. We spot him almost as often as we see deer around here. But the animals are spooked by the noise of the motor and come running toward us. Yes, it's a beautiful gallop...
... but it's sad, too. They were disturbed and now they're coming closer to the road.
This is so dangerous for them! And of course, for drivers too. In Wisconsin, a car hits a deer several times each day of the year and our county has more road accidents involving deer than any other (it has the wrong combination of heavier traffic with a significant deer population). Indeed, you want to watch a hawk tear up the flesh of a deer? Just walk a quarter of a mile up our road. On full display. So I slow down now, much to the dismay of a pickup truck behind me. Honk away, buddy! It's dusk. I'm not speeding ahead!
Evening. Time to cook up those summer tomatoes and open up some good kidney beans and black beans. Yep, chili night! So appropriate for this cold December night. Ed says -- a real after-ski supper. Yes it is.
