When I started counting the days of isolation back on March 14th (day 1), I had no idea how long it would last. That's a good thing! 296 and counting would not have felt especially happy. So maybe you shouldn't tell me that another X days will be added to my current tally!
It's a quiet day at the farmhouse. Still pretty outside, with frosted tree branches and restless cheepers in the barn.
But the skies remain gray. Come on, weather gods! Do us a favor and blow the dense cloud cover away for a while. Thank you, in advance.
Breakfast with the guy on his post-beard trim day.
I know we should be out skiing, but I'm hesitant. Sundays are busier days out on the trails and people don't always wear masks. I don't know why. So we pass on our sprint in the county park and go out for a short walk in the new development instead. It's a good compromise: after all, I have a cake to bake!
Snowdrop has requested a lemon chocolate cake for her birthday -- not a conventional combination. The one I find online allows me to bake it today and indeed, the recipe author encourages us bakers to freeze it overnight for easier trimming and frosting. In all my years of baking and pastry making, I have never ever baked and frozen a special occasion cake ahead of the event. I have very old fashioned ideas about foods being... fresh and honest! Still, I need the cake for Tuesday and these particular instructions couldn't be clearer: "I recommend you freeze the cakes overnight." Into the freezer go the three layers!
And I wrap presents. The next few days are going to be pretty tight, schedule wise. Pile it on for this day, when the going is easy.
Someone asked me -- what will you do when the kids stop coming next week? What projects do you have lined up for yourself?
Well now, I was a total failure project-wise when the kids stopped coming here at the end of August. I launched nothing new. [Did you? Are you a lockdown super hero? Are you even more creative, energetic and productive now that you have more time and fewer parties, contacts and travels in your schedule? I read about people like that! But more frequently, I read about people like me: half-hearted tidying, a few more books on the table next to me, an extra meal fixed and delivered to my daughter, and boom, another day passes .] So how will my winter months look?
I'll let you know.
In the meantime, I have a Sunday dinner to prepare. Same old seafood pasta. Same beautiful Sunday routines, about to be disrupted, but still here for today, still shining brightly for us as the young family comes over.
Small photos. I didn't take many and the ones I took deserve a small size. Sometimes the mind strays and the camera is sluggish.
Even as the warmth is always, always there.
