They say there’s a time and season for everything…winter is a slow down season, a time to quietly live and reflect. Here in northern New Hampshire our yards lay blanketed with snow drifts and ice. The air feels frigid and tingles your skin as if you’ve walked into a freezer, yet this lady is thankful for it. Although I enjoy trudging through the snow riddled woods, I welcome entering the heat of our little home just as much. Our wood stove churns and creaks with an industrial strength, belting out waves of a warmth that makes any winter day cozy and celebratory.
During winter days we lug wood and shovel it into our wood closet. The wheelbarrow works great to fill with wood and deliver it out back. We park the vehicle next to the deck and lug by armful to the nearest window. Tom cleverly built our wood closet beside the window and so by lifting the sash you can thrust the pieces into storage.
On weekend mornings we indulge in candlelit breakfasts such as crepes and blueberries or eggs and bacon. Tom makes outstanding omelets!
I love to read books in our bedroom in the rocker by the electric fireplace, while our kitty Smokey contently lies on the bed. I have a kind friend at work who serves as my librarian and brings in books for me to read. It’s a joy to see which book she’ll bring in next and I’ve loved every one but one!
These are just a few activities we do in the winter. Many people up here complain about the cold weather and the snow but we love living here, welcoming the change of season.
Happy Valentine’s Day to you all! I hope you are all healthy and happy as the pandemic marches on. Although it does, it looks like a normalcy may be restored ( hopefully) with the vaccine rollout. In New Hampshire one has to live in a nursing home, be a healthcare worker, be 65 years and older or have dire health conditions to qualify for a shot right now. I may have access to one coming in March or April as I work in a school. My husband is 60 years old and should be allowed to have the vaccine about the same time as me.
Lately I’ve been teaching poetry to one of my reading groups. A few of the kids dislike poetry and I wanted to expose them to the fact that poetry doesn’t need rules nor should it rhyme. We read Love That Dog by Sharon Creech. It’s about a boy named Jack who hated poetry, had no thoughts or ideas about it. Until his teacher and a poet inspired him to write poems about his dog Sky.
I saw the kids embrace the character and start to accept and even embrace poetry. As long as it’s on their own terms then it works. The worse thing you can do for a student is to assign to write a poem about a certain subject. I believe he or she should choose their topic to write about. That way he or she is invested in the poem!
A few days ago I was playing around with magnetic poetry, a site that enables you to write short poems with random words that are given. It was fun to do and then later I went back to add my own words and shape my poems to fit my ideas.
One of the special things I look forward to on my days off is snuggling with my cat Smokey. I have a comfortable well- used recliner that I snuggle in with my blanket and cup of coffee. It doesn’t take long for Smokey to meow his morning greeting of love and then he eagerly jumps up to be with me. I’ve tried to get a photo of his adorable eye communication with me. Unfortunately the iPad camera ruins the moment and my cat looks away in protest! I pet him gently and whisper sweet things like “ we get to be together today buddy” or “ I love you Smokey boy!”. He purrs his motor in a fantastic melody and sports the squinty eyes at me. He doesn’t need to talk human…I know what he means to say. His eyes says it all!
I love my kitty so and my cat Katie who passed away about a year ago. She lives in my memory but most importantly in my heart.
Forgive me my friends…I meant to post this on Christmas Eve but family celebrations and excitement prevented me from doing so. I hope you all had a Merry Christmas with family and friends. Happy holidays to all! 🎄❤️🎁
As I rummaged happily in our boxes of Christmas of long ago, mementos from past Christmases appeared hidden in the depths of the box. One of them was my Merry Christmas stocking I had as a child. It’s really the only stocking I possessed growing up. It’s threadbare and simple but all red with holly and a font out of the sixties. Many little toys and candies were tucked in it through the years. Tom also has his old red stocking, one that saw many Christmases and always held a clementine in the toe.
When I see my stocking I think back to Court Street in Haverhill, where I grew up in a huge blue Victorian. Every Christmas at 3 am, my sister and I crept down the stairs to snatch our stockings. We tiptoed quietly with an overflowing anticipation of surprises and the magic only Santa Claus can provide. We would go back to our beds to look at our goodies and snoozed back to sleep until later.
One significant memory remains vivid. It was in a different town south of Haverhill, Lebanon, New Hampshire on Williams Street. I was eight years old and still believing in all the miracles of Christmas. But something changed that night, a drastic knowledge and understanding of how Santa Claus really worked.
In the depths of a late Christmas Eve night , I excitedly lay in my bed with bubbling up anticipation. Suddenly I heard a creek of the floorboards and rustling movements. As a curious young girl of 8, I had to sneak a peek at Santa. For what stories I could share and I could finally see what he looked like in person! Sadly that day, some of the magic dissipated, for I caught my dad filling the stockings. “ What the **** are you doing?” That was my dad’s surprise reaction, as he think he was just as disappointed as I was. Even though I knew the truth after that, I still believed in all of the wonders of Christmas.
Our stockings are hung on the stair railing and on the bureau knobs. It still gives me a tremendous joy filling them and seeing my family’s faces light up with surprise and gratitude. It’s a simple tradition, one that Tom and I practice with each other and covertly hide our goods in anticipation of the dark hours of Christmas Eve. A little globe of a clementine nestles in each toe while the rest of the stocking holds warm gloves, hats, toothpaste, deodorant, chap stick and candy.
It’s always been our tradition to open our filled stockings first in the wee hours of Christmas morning. This year Dylan and Lexy will be here celebrating the holiday on Christmas Eve. They will open their stockings then. The next morning Branden, Tom and myself will open ours.
We are blessed beyond belief not only with material goods but the incredible gifts of health ( my previous health scare has subsided and thankfully with God’s help I’m okay), friendship, family and most of all love. These beautiful presents carry us through the hard times.
My family’s Christmas photo
I wish you all a Happy New Year 2020 with health and love. Be looking for more posts in January as my health is better and I’m ready to write and share!
When the cat photo bombs your Christmas photo attempt!
Good morning friends! Summer mornings are my favorite times to relax with a great cup of coffee! ( Soon our new deck will be done and I’ll be sitting out there with it, see a future post.) I’ve been using almond milk lately, the trick to optimum flavor is to add a bit extra. I found that lactose free milk still wasn’t agreeing with me as it’s dairy. Along with my cup of java I enjoy a fresh fruit cup of raspberries, blueberries, bananas, golden raisins and almonds. I never would have thought this would fill me up…but it does and not only that it’s fresh and delicious!
Other summer mornings I indulge in my peanut butter oatmeal cup, banana slices and Teddie natural peanut butter or gluten free toast with peanut butter.
While I eat in the still moments of morning, birds calls and chirps can be heard. The bright welcoming sun peeks in the windows…a new day has began! Thank God for this quiet start to a new day!
What is your favorite summer breakfast? Do you enjoy a cup of coffee first thing?
You can CHOOSE how you react to others and negative situations. I’m learning this and training myself into calmness before I react. Instead of full bore antics I’m slowing down. I can Stop. I can Breathe. I can ask myself, is this action bringing me to a more powerful place? ( I like to think of it as a peaceful place as well) This is from Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway by Susan Jeffers. It’s been a helpful book on self awareness and feeling the fear and then doing something anyway. It focuses on changing your negative mindset and turning it into a positive one.
Enjoy the beauty of this day and don’t let others steal your joy, the joy that you deserve.
It’s hot and steamy July, a month when one usually doesn’t think of frigid New England winters. Yet soon enough it will be upon us and that’s my husband’s mindset. He knows how frigid and snowy it becomes here and his steadfast winter preparedness drives him to find wood.
Recently Tom bought wood from his friend Mike, cut from his land in our town. He’s been hauling in it, cutting it on the wood splitter and stacking it neatly. So far he has accumulated about three or four cords. We will probably need at least three or four more, enough to last about ten months. We primarily heat our house with our trusty wood stove besides the little kerosene monitor we have in the kitchen.
This is what Tom is expecting next year! Gotta have plenty of wood!
In the last few summers I enjoy going out and working with Tom. He cuts and I stack, which is an excellent work-out for me. Last summer I spotted a huge black and yellow snake living in the wood pile and since then I’m a bit jumpy and nervous about helping. We have far too many snakes on our property and they creep me out!
When we go on our summer country rides and back dirt roads I appreciate spotting stacked wood piles. It means someone else is planning ahead! It’s amazing to see who still burn wood here. With that said, I’ve heard that many have resorted to burning pellets. It may be convenient and maybe cheaper but you can’t stack bags nor admire their beauty in someone’s yard, right?
Forgive the picture quality, it was through a closed window. See what visited us the other morning? We were having our coffee in the living room and spotted a couple of does in our side yard. They’re so graceful and fun to watch this time of year! I feel beyond blessed to live with these beauties!
Hello blogging friends, it’s been a hectic few weeks with me finishing up school, attending a few events and squeezing in outside garden time. Every day I thought of a potential blog post but never quite got there. I apologize for such a hiatus but I guess I needed it for my sanity. Now I should have ample time for writing and snapping photos as our school is out for the summer!
The garden in its beginning stage
My primary summer focus is maintaining and harvesting our garden. Every morning I walk a few feet in the rich green grass damp with morning dew to our little plot. Dressed in old t-shirts and sweat or yoga pants, I carry a garden hoe and metal can for weeds. It’s my morning peaceful ritual, joining the variety of birds, an owl that lives in our woods, croaking frogs ( in our pond), deer and turkeys that all love this land as much as I do. Getting down in the dirt is my daily therapy where problems disintegrate and a strength and resolve grows within me.
To the left are my rows of sweet corn followed by Zucchini and Summer Squash
It’s been a tough start to our growing season as nights have been quite cool for weeks, plummeting to the 40’s and sometimes 30’s. In the last month it’s rained a lot but it is waning, transitioning into warm pleasant days now. I worry for my tomatoes I started by seed, as the leaves are purple and they look like frost may have harmed them. I’ve had to replant a row of carrots as well as oregano because the seeds didn’t sprout. Time will tell.
To the left you can barely see my cilantro, then my cucumbers and last is the green lettuce.
One of my things to do is mount the tripods for the cucumber plants for a trellis. It involves Tom’s help where he pounds the stakes in and I tie them together with strong string. That way the cukes will hang up on them instead of being on the ground for moles to nibble on.
As I wrap up this post I wish you pleasant growing weather as you garden in your back yard or in deck pots. I hope this finds you all well, wherever you are physically and emotionally. I look forward to spending the summer with you, updating you of what’s going on in my rural world and hearing your stories as well.
I am reading quotes and scriptures every morning as a peaceful way to start the day. How can you go wrong when you nurse your heart and Soul with love and inspiration!
Greetings! I’m passionate about the natural world we inhabit; the written word; and photography. Oh, and I should mention – I’m an eternal optimist. My cup is always half full.
heartandsoul974 