Sunday - 317th

This morning, while Ed was sleeping, I fed the animals, took care of the shed plants, shoveled the looooong driveway, cleaned the bathroom, fixed breakfast, and cut my hair.

Is it that Ed slept for a very long time, or was I especially efficient? Running at full speed ahead? Perhaps even enjoying a little bit the challenges of this day? 

It is, in fact, a pretty morning. We have several added inches of snow to freshen things up a bit. (Underneath it, the ice is thick, so we're in that uncomfortable moment where you are going to slip and slide no matter how much you shovel.) My morning walk, despite the gray clouds, is exceptionally pleasant!

(It's when you begin to photograph your landscape that you notice that your trees rarely grow straight up!)

We are just several degrees below freezing and the cats see that as an invitation to frolic. And I do too. Shoveling is just a little bit fun! (I do not know why Dance goes out of her way to pose next to the cat sign!)

And the hair cut? Well, I got tired of watching videos. Ed asks me later how many I'd seen and the answer is perhaps as many as two dozen, with none of them being especially good, but each one offering another clue as to how to proceed. So I carried the one mirror that we have to the living room and set up shop.

 

 

Before.

After.

Ed woke up, took one look and gave me a thumbs up. (I had him inspect the back and he took a couple of snips, but said that it all looked fine. Now, his idea of "fine" is not necessarily my idea of fine, hence my decision to go with DIY rather than have him do the cut, but still, I am satisfied.) 

Will I now always cut my own hair -- he asks. I have no answer for it, in the same way that I do not know if I'll stick with grocery deliveries (rather than in person shopping), or driving to see the Chicago young family (rather than taking the bus) after the pandemic. I can't think that far ahead. For 317 days I have taken one day at a time!

Breakfast. This morning, Dance joins us.

The afternoon is a little unusual in that I am not cooking for the young family. We moved Sunday dinner to Monday as they have family members passing through their place tonight. So I'll pretend tomorrow is Sunday and in the meantime I use this day to catch up on writing and, of course, to ski with Ed. I think there must be some football event this afternoon because there is absolutely no one on the trails in the park.

A winter without snow is always such a punishment! This year we have plenty of things to gripe about, but at least we've had a terrific snow cover.  We are soooo grateful for it!

Saturday - 316th

In normal times, a day like this one would be ho-hum. What did you do? Oh, not much, just ran a few errands. But in these unusual times, I feel like we just ran a marathon. True, we skirted social contact, never letting ourselves get too close to people, but still, we plunged into a denser world than the one we have been inhabiting now for 316 days.

It is again a cold day, so let's start there. Cold, but sunny. At least in these early hours.

 

(I feed the cats in the sheep shed. Nice and warm there! We're wintering over two of the big orchids on the sunny windowsills. They are blooming their heads off this year!)

I check the barn. No more possums in the trap. Cheepers safe. Cats fed. 

Breakfast served. (Note the regalia of flowers! Typically I get one bunch with each grocery order, which is about what you need to keep a fresh bouquet on your table all year. But somehow this week the old flowers had more than one life packed into them. Nothing is fading. So we have now not one, not two, but three bunches! It's a January miracle!)

Then we start in on our loop of errands. The best comes first -- a brief trip to my daughter's to drop off some books for the kids and some odd foods to nibble on. Then comes a stop at the Amazon drop off place, where we must deposit two microwaves. (Yes two. We have been trying to replace the one that failed now over a year ago and each time a new one comes, there is a problem. It doesn't work. It breaks. It's the wrong one. We have been buying and returning microwaves for over a year!) Next -- fill the car with gas. That's boring, until a guy drives up and barrels out of the car next to us mask-less. Grrr. I got out of there just in time, but in my hurry I slammed the door on my finger which is now threatening to fall off. Well, maybe not fall off, but it does look puffy and very purple. Still not done yet! Next comes a stop at the curbside pick-up of farmers market carrots. Yes! Lovely and delicious. And eggs, because our cheepers lay very few in the wintertime and those very few have been gobbled up by the family of possum this past week. And finally our last stop for a walk in the city park that is just by the market pickup site-- Olin Park, that abuts Lake Monona (the second largest lake in Madison). 

So! Errands accomplished, finger still hanging on, people remained at a distance, but more importantly, we had some beautiful moments sprinkled throughout. The highlight? Oh, unquestionably the trip to my daughter's. The sun was out, the kids were still in their pj's, the moods all around were brilliant!

And also at the top of the list? The walk in the park. Ed always suggests that we include it in our repertoire of park hikes and I always resist, claiming that it surely must have lots of people since it is smack at the edge of the downtown area. But in fact, it never has many people and moreover, it has a gorgeous view onto the lake and the Madison skyline and in the winter, you can avoid most anyone by simply walking on the lake! Which we do and after this last cold snap and even I'm not *too* worried about the strength of the ice cover! (In fact, you need the ice to be at least 4 inches thick to be safe for walking and I read later that Lake Monona of today's adventure has been that for all of January.) 

Photos from our walk:

(Always the awesome and frightening cracks in the ice! I do read later that Lake Monona has had an ice cover more than 4 inches thick, that is safe for walking, for all of January, but still...)

(Such a fine view of Madison's isthmus!)

(must do a selfie!)

No hair cut today! I'm not so ambitious as to fit even more into one day!

Friday - 315th

We wake up to seven. Seven Fahrenheit. Outside. Pretty cold! (That's -14C.) Ed would say we've seen worse and he is correct. Still, consider this to be a day blasted by Arctic air.

On the upside, so often Arctic air days come with brilliant sunshine. Today is no exception.

 

 

 

I am, however, surprised to see the cheepers on the path to the garage. They don't typically venture out on days like this. But as I approach the barn, I see the issue: there is a possum hanging out in their space. You know possums? Those animals that love chicken eggs, and, as a main course item -- chicken necks? 

 

 

We set up a trap and catch the intruder. You aren't allowed to randomly release possums into someone else's backyard, but we think we have permission to do it in one stretch of land not terribly far from here, so out he goes. 

Then, as we check the coop once more, we find a second possum, also hunting for eggs and/or cheeper necks. We set the trap out once again. In he goes. Then out, some distance from here to (one hopes) join his buddy.

 

 

 

My, what sharp teeth those guys have! 

So if you ask how we spent the morning, I'll say yes, we had a lovely breakfast, made especially pretty by the fact that groceries this morning came with not one but two flower bundles! Reminding us of the season just around the corner...

And then there came the hours spent/wasted on possum chasing. (By evening, we trap a third one, so clearly there was a family unit licking chops at the sight of the free food in the coop.)

I do still want to give myself a haircut. But I have chicken feet! (Sorry, my thoughts seem to drift to farm animals this morning!)

(Dance seems to love to pose by this sign...)

I watch a few more videos of self-trimmers and vow to get to it tomorrow.

Somewhere in those sunny and totally freezing hours, Ed and I take a walk. Super cold! Super beautiful.

I end the day with a Zoom chat with a friend, followed by some big time soup cooking. Lentil soup. 

 

 

 

If ever there was a day for hot soup (going down to 1 F tonight... that's -17 C), this surely is it!

Thursday - 314th

Oh, what a beautiful morning! 

Oh what a beautiful day!

Corny lyrics of an old fashioned song. When you get older, those kinds of things happen: songs pop into your head that speak to the moment. It's not always a good thing: for a while, I could not look up at a beautiful blue sky without singing to myself  -- everything's better with blue bonnet on it. A jingle from a TV commercial in the sixties.

So, a fine day! A warmish day. A one day pause from below freezing temperatures.

I'm up very early and so is Ed because I receive a notification in response to my many many inquiries about where to get a vaccination. So I need to respond and Ed needs to respond as well and so long as we're doing all this responding we may as well be up and eating breakfast.

You will notice perhaps that my hair is getting very long. Very long. At first I was amused and Ed said he liked it, but lately I've been thinking that it would be awfully nice not to care for such long hair. So I spend the morning watching youtubes on how to give yourself a haircut if you have a certain style in mind. And I do, and it's complicated. But hey, what can you lose -- all hair grows back!

I don't quite get to the act of cutting itself today, because shortly after noon, I have a Zoom meetup with my Polish friends. It was planned on the day after January 6, when we were all shell shocked by what had happened in D.C. We wanted to come together the day after the inauguration, with the hope of toasting to celebrate a safe and peaceful transfer of power.

Champagne corks popped!

And immediately after my meetup, Ed and I set out to fill our souls with the beautiful great outdoors. A longer hike is in order! 

We head out to a segment of the Ice Age Trail just north and west of Madison. True, clouds rolled in and the wind gusted fiercely, but it was grand!

Really grand!

Now, back to my Prosecco, opened with my Polish friends. Can't let all those bubbles fizz out.

With love...

January 20th

Teary and weary. That's how someone described his feelings today. I like that phrase. It describes one set of emotions. I could, of course, add so many more!

We wake up to happy, snappy cold and glorious sunshine! Good morning, new day!

Somewhere in there we eat breakfast. With the TV on.

It's a perfect day for baking (TV stays on!) and I reach for a recipe that makes use of one of the many squashes I'm keeping in the mudroom, leftover from my CSA deliveries. The recipe comes from pastry chef Nicole Rucker and has the lengthy name of "Kabocha, Olive Oil and Bittersweet Chocolate Cake."

First, you roast the kabocha squash:

Then you puree, sift, stir, mix and bake:

I''ll keep a small end for us and take the rest to the young family. Call it a January 20th cake!

But before I drive over with it, I have my weekly FaceTime meetup with Snowdrop.

Happy girl. I'm sure it's for all the reasons we are happy in life: warm house, caring people, good food, and sunshine pouring into your living space.

(A chance to also catch up with mom...)

Delivery time! I get a thumbs up for the cake. Or is it a sweet bread? A sweet loaf.

Very late in the day, I make myself a little lunch. I mention this because my cake people suggested that if you have extra squash pureed, set it aside for later: it's great spread on a piece of toast. And they are right. It is!

Later, toward evening, Ed and I go out to ski. One must! 

 

 

 

 

And we have the trail to ourselves. This is no surprise: the wind is absolutely fierce. Do I notice? Do I care? No!

When things begin to look hopeful, a cold wind slides into irrelevance. It just doesn't matter -- the day is that good!

(as the sun sets...)

 

 

 

Easy supper of eggs and smoked salmon. I have to admit it -- it's one of my favorite light meals. With asparagus maybe and also lots of sauteed mushrooms. And a salad. So simple, so good for the soul. On a day that also has, despite everything, many elements that are so very good for the soul.