It'll Be a Winter to Remember...If We Get Through It

We were dealing most of the week with great piles of snow.  However, the rain that started during Thursday night and  washed a lot of it away by mid Friday.

We had an exciting end to a wonderful evening with friends. Natasha is an excellent cook and the company was delightful. I asked Stephanie and Natasha to have dinner for us and another couple we all like very much at a very early time.  I saw that after drizzling all evening, there would be a fast freeze around 9 or a little later.  The other couple and we left just a couple of minutes before 9.  When we got in the car, it was 37.  By the time we got home and Woody drove up our hill, it was 33.  I had climbed the steps to the house and Woody was unlocking the door as I got to the top step.  It flash froze at once.  It took me five minutes to negotiate the 5 feet to the door. Now there’s a thin coating of snow over sheer ice.

We have all adjusted to losing Mingus.  The remaining two cats have become closer.  Each adored Mingus in their own way.  We are planning to look for a shelter kitten this late winter and spring.  kittens are hard to come by these days.  We want a male kitten, any color, preferably not black like Schwartzie so we can tell them apart.  When we had a grey mother and son, we often mistook one for the other.  A male because we don’t want Willow to feel displaced.  Schwartzie has stopped playing much since Mingus died.  He needs a playmate.

I can’t sew.  My efforts are embarrassing.  The only time I had no trouble shortening or otherwise altering clothes was when I lived in Brooklyn in an old brownstone.  On the first floor a woman who became my close friend, Susan, lived with her then husband.  She could sew.  We cooked together, shared meals, shared laundry, gardening in the tiny back yard, political involvement, and dancing.  She would see me trying to sew and she’d take the dress or skirt  away from me and do it perfectly. 

 ’ve done one order of perennials and one order of summer bulbs;.  I’m waiting to order anything else until in late March, early April, I can see what perennials I planted last year survived the harsh winter. I hope I don’t have to replace many.

These are mostly for the pollinator garden, the three long narrow raised beds on the east side of the main garden, just outside the wire fence.  I’ll also put a few in the raised bed in front of the house.  I’ll replace missing herbs later on. Some will go in the herb garden on the other side of the walkway from the pollinator garden and some will go in pots that will sit on either side of the steps beside the house. Our house is dug into the hill. I garden in raised beds because of my knee replacements.  They don’t tell you before the operations that you’ll never be able to kneel again for more than a minute without sharp pain and possible damage.

I will watch some of the Olympics.I like the ski and snowboard competitions, the speed and the figure skating.. I’m not a hockey fan.I can’t imagine sitting through a curling match.I’ve always found the ski and shoot competition weird