When did he begin to shuffle

 

When did he begin to shuffle and I began to creep? When did we get old?   While we lived at the farm, my husband   walked  everyday to the mailbox 1/2 mile away.  Every day I watched him from the kitchen window as he started out with his long purposeful stride while swinging his arms to some inner rhythm.

 One day I noticed he stopped swinging his arms and his stride had turned into a shuffle.

 My daily walk was through an adjacent forest where I maintained a mile-long trail. I enjoyed the smell of pine needles, the song of birds, and the varied wildlife.

 Ever fearful of falling, I have begun to creep along.  And when my feet hurt, I hobble.    Most of ny friends now discuss  such things as which walkers move easily over rough ground (ones with larger wheels).  911 vehicles are a common sight in our senior neighborhood

 Now I walk around and around he circle where we live.  I can't get lost and there are people who will notice     when I fall.

 As I walk, I listen to Lawrence Welk and remember the forest. I remember  the day an owl flew right by my head and landed just ahead of me.  We both stopped and stared at each other.   I remember the eagle in the tall pine snag, and the I remember the turkey that frightened my dog.   I'm so grateful to have all these mememories to recall while I creep and hobble along.

 I always enjoy the quiet that comes after all the frenetic Christmas activity is over. The first couple days I just want to  snuggle up with my dog.  That  only lasts a couple days, and then I'm bored.   I want to have a project besides cleaning closets or drawers. There are a few that are coming to mind. The days are getting longer now AND just thinking about it  lifts my spirits.

  I tried something new Christmas Day. I marinated the turkey in buttermilk.  But I can’t see that it made any difference. Since I had extra buttermilk, I made some delicious buttermilk yeast rolls, which was a new recipe.  

 The only thing I will do for a few days is rotate my amaryllis.   Last  year was the first time I bought amaryllis that were encased in a plastic wax.  You don't have to pot them for water; they just grow.  This year I specifically looked for the same kind of amaryllis.   I moved them from spot to spot.  They will last and bloom until Valentine's Day. 

A party to r remember

Recently we received an invitation to a Christmas party. DH has to read everything to me and get it on our  calendar.  He read me the date, the time, that we were supposed to bring a food item, and--last but not least--we were to bring a white elephant gift.

 Now, from my life experience, a white elephant gift is something that is inexpensive, insubstantial,    and part of a party game.  So I made a salmon spread,  dressed up in my Christmas finery, and thought about  a whitrf elephant  gift.

 I still had  three lovely  Honeynut squashes from my ganden.  Relunctantly  I would be willing to share one of them with someone.  So I polished it all up and put it in a fancy bag and we started off to the party.

 All went well until it was time to do the gift game.  As people begin opening the white elephant gifts, it was immediately evident that I was unaware of something very important.  All the gifts were neither insubstantial nor inexpensive.   I looked over at my  husband and he said “Oops. I forgot to tell you that the gift was supposed to be  $20.”  As I watched gift after gift being opened, I sank  lower into my chair.  Luckily, a friend  opened my squash and expressed great joy.    I immediately decided I was going to have to make it up to her. 

 I had the highest number and was the last person to pick a gift. There was only  only one gift left and it was a small red gift bag.  When opened, it was an Amazon gift card for for $50.  So, someone else had misread their invitation.  But it made me doubly embarrassed. I not only brought the cheapest gift. I went home with  the most expensive gift. But all’s well that ends well, because when we entered the gift card code it said it was invalid and had been already redeemed.  It turns out that my beautiful squash was the most prescious gift of all.

  

It's not that I mind winter.

 

The first thing I think of when I awaken is how many days until the days start getting longer.  It is SO close now.

 

It's not that I mind winter. Actually, I like quite a few things about winter.  I really wouldn't want to live  where there was no winter.  How boring to have the same climate year-round.  I think that nature intends for   living things to have a rest during some time of  the year...but not too long.

I lived in Alaska for many years, and the winters were much too long and too dark.    

 

By fall, I am tired of digging and I ache in all my joints. It feels good to listen to food shows   and try new recipes.   All year we always wake up at 6:30 and eat breakfast about 7. There is about a month in the winter where the sun comes up just at the time we eat breakfast. Life is good when watching a spectacular sunrise streaming through the kitchen windows.  If I want to see a sunrise in the summer, I have to get up at 4 o'clock.

In the winter there are also lovely foggy mornings that turn into glorious blue crisp skies.  In the winter I actually have fingernails and there's no dirt under them.  

 

Winter also has  advantages not often memtioned.  There are no yellow jackets and pesky flies.  And there is very little mud to track in the house,   And finallly it is much easier  to pick up dog poop in the snow.