A Woolen Sky

8:35

Not much color out the window this morning, more like a black and white photograph except for our flag and green lawn, now bare of snow.  It's 34º and the Winter Storm Warnings are out, as it looks like we are in for a lake effect snow, perhaps up to a foot or two of snow in some areas. 

Ice Fishing In Fog

Yesterday was back to normal after Monday's road trip to Cleveland. It was nice to be back in a routine, early morning coffee, write the blog and then, in no hurry, drive to yoga class. After class,  I stopped for a coffee, talked with Dave for a while then drove to Wegman's to do our shopping for the week.  It was crowded because it was 5% Tuesday for us retirees and with the stock market dropping each day, we need to watch our pennies.  The aisles and check out lines were busy but I cooled it, convincing myself that I need not be in a hurry.  Lots of breathing. 

I was home by noon and we quickly put away the groceries.   I was hungry because I had a light breakfast of Baba toast, so Evie made me a quesadilla to go with the leek and potato soup.  Both hit the spot whatever that means and we watched an episode of Breaking Bad.  I then napped briefly and was determined to finish my book in the afternoon, Normal People.  It's an intense read and I was really into it.  It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won various other awards in England.  It's hard to describe so if interested, check out my blog where I attempt a precis. 

Around 4:00, Evie got busy in the kitchen, putting together our dinner, a favorite of my parents, called Santa Fe chicken.  It's basically chicken thighs, with hominy, sweet potatoes, green chilis, garlic,and a green chili sauce.  Once the chicken is browned, the other ingredients are added and its left to bake for an hour and a half until everything is done.  While it cooked, with enjoyed our box wine from Trader Joe's.  I am discovering that we drink more when we have a box wine.  Just push the button and we have a glass of wine. 

Dinner was great as we devoured it, along with cornbread made from a Trader Joe package.  It's quite good and was a perfect accompaniment to our stew.  We taped the debate, then watched an episode of Breaking Bad, then some of the debate until we got fed up with the fighting, then back to another episode of Breaking Bad before it was time to start my new book, Richard Powers THE OVERSTORY, the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.  The first chapter chronicles the tragic disappearance of the chestnut forests in the United States, a result of an Asian bark fungus.

Our Mighty Sugar Maple

A Poem From This Morning's The Writers Almanac:  A Portrait Of Our February Days

The New Year of the Trees by Marge Piercy It is the New Year of the Trees, but here the ground is frozen under the crust of snow. The trees snooze, their buds tight as nuts. Rhododendron leaves roll up their stiff scrolls. In the white and green north of the diaspora I am stirred by a season that will not arrive for six weeks, as wines on far continents prickle to bubbles when their native vines bloom. What blossoms here are birds jostling at feeders, pecking sunflower seeds and millet through the snow: tulip red cardinal, daffodil finch, larkspur jay, the pansybed of sparrows and juncos, all hungry. They too are planters of trees, spreading seeds of favorites along fences. On the earth closed to us all as a book in a language we cannot yet read, the seeds, the bulbs, the eggs of the fervid green year await release. Over them on February's cold table I spread a feast. Wings rustle like summer leaves.