December 4th

I wake up, glance at my phone to check the weather and let out a sigh. It's not that the temps are cold. I mean, they should be cold. It's December. The 4th to be exact. In Poland, they're celebrating St. Barbara's Day. So happy name day to all the Barbaras in my life and especially you, there in Warsaw! In my childhood, we referred to this day as Barbórka. St. Barbara  is the patron saint of miners and mining was a big deal in postwar Poland. So December 4th was Miners Day. If you dig deeper, you'll read that this association of St. Barbara with mining was widespread in all of Central Europe. The story behind St Barbara is rather grizzly: she lived at the turn of the 3rd and 4th century and she was beheaded by her father for who knows what reason -- something to do with chastity or her Christian faith (her father was a Pagan, so you could say it's one of those generational struggles of belief systems). Barbórka may be a miner's holiday, but it came to have customs associated with it that extended beyond mining communities and many of them centered around death, or rather the avoidance of death. For example women would not sew on this day because a prick of the finger would lead to certain and very painful death. Lovely, huh? Meantime the menfolk would traditionally gather in taverns and drink beer and ear pork knuckle.

But I digress.

When I look at my phone, I see nothing but clouds forecast for as long as my phone gives out a forecast. 

I walk out to feed the animals, taking in the moisture in the air. No frost today. Pungent smells of a damp earth.

This is when I need to ratchet up the hygge inside. Switch the coffee cup to one I never use because it's too "special." Take out the Cafe Varenne milk pitcher and open the Acacia Sauvage honey I had picked up at Famille Mary's honey shop.

And bake some muffins, for the girl who loves them and for the aroma they bring to the farmhouse.

Both Ed and I avoid the subject of The Walk. The one we're supposed to take each day because it's good for us, one neither of us feels like doing on this day. He's lost in his machining design project, I'm catching up with life. Groceries (purchasing), gifts (wrapping), cats (feeding the finicky eater), candles (returning). My December 4th in a nutshell. 

And in the afternoon I pick up Snowdrop, who stuns me in showing up dressed in a dress. Do kids outgrow clothing convictions? Did she?

Some things do not change. Read, eat, read some more. Less and less play. She saves that for her time with friends, though ask her if she's outgrown some (all?) of the toys in the play room and she'll give you a resounding "no!"

And in the evening Ed and I retreat into our routines! Supper, a show. We repeat it again and again and it never grows old!

with love...