Wednesday

I'm up. Ed is already on a Zoom call. I shout down -- have you seen our old hen? He finishes his call and offers to go on a Peach hunt.

And he finds her. In the garage, huddled. We're sure she wasn't there last night. We had canvassed the place up and down, torch lights blazing. Who knows where she weathered the cold dark night, but she kept herself safe, even as we noticed more nocturnal animal activity around the coop.

Ed carries her back to the barn -- she'll stay there now that the opossum is gone, but it's hardly safe for her. She just doesn't move fast enough to escape any predators. Still, what are you going to do -- keep her in the garage? It would not take long for a raccoon to find her there.A sleeping chicken sees no danger. So, back she goes, into a barn corner where she at least stays out of the wintry weather.

The other chickens -- four Bresse girls, Unie the tiny one from a couple of years ago, and Henny -- almost but not quite as old as Peach -- they're active and undeterred by the cold outside. 

We will be vigilant about putting them away early today. 

Breakfast -- back to oatmeal!

Candle burning, tea steeping. My neck PT person reminded me to drink lots of water. I nodded in agreement and boasted that I make myself several cups of herbal tea each day and she said -- no no, I mean water. Not tea, not herbal tea. Water is water, so ... water!

I tell you, how fussy is that?! What makes water better than herbal tea? You can never satisfy these people! I make myself my tea and shrug off her insistent comments. Tea for the morning, water with dinner. Okay??

And blueberry muffins, baked later in the morning for the little girl who always eats three when she sees them resting, still warm, on the cake platter.

If you look at the calendar, you'll see us moving quickly toward Christmas and yet, I have paused in thinking about it. Somehow routine stuff has filled my mornings and those imagined leisure hours have completely fizzled into not much free time at all. I will recharge my holiday batteries today. Or tomorrow. As soon as I have enough time to make my way to the charging station! This weekend? The next week?

In the afternoon, Snowdrop is here. 

Happy and insistent that we click into our routines. As usual I am of two minds how much to indulge her great love for repetition. Same snack, same fruits, same spot on the orange couch. Rereading same books. She is always happiest if we stick with the tried and true.

In the evening, I drop her off, pick up spinach from my CSA, and return to the farmhouse. Chili tonight. And a salad. Talk about repetition! Might I be just a little like my granddaughter? Favorite suppers, favorite chocolate afterwards,  a glass of wine. A movie. And finally, a book upstairs. The set up rarely changes. And isn't that just grand!