It's still January and...

my snowdrops are blooming! 'Galanthus' are usually early, - really the first to bloom, - but I have never known them to bloom in January! I hope this does not mean a prolonged winter/spring when mud season doesn't end until May. On the other hand, it is quite wonderful to have snowdrops blooming in January!

The rest of the world looks troubling, what with Syria still in turmoil and Egypt flexing some mustle in retaliation for the suggestion that we might withdraw aid to its military. Iran is ever difficult, and Israel refuses to act responsibly to its Palestinian population. Ron Paul begins to look like a solution, though we know from history that isolationism does not work. Still, some withdrawal from the world's theatre begins to feel necessary. There is still much work to be done at home vis a vis infrastructure and renewable energy, if our grandchildren are to have a future as good as our past has been.

So I shall pay attention to my gardens, my family and friends, and do my best to vote for people who have my same concerns. I don't yet know who they will be, but elections will come sooner than we expect - like snowdrops in January.

fierce and passionate beauty

"Snowshowers" is one of my favorite images. In the grayest, blackest and whitest of weather, there is always a bit of blue somewhere - either in the sky or in a shadow. Usually it is seen through a veil of white, but it will be there somewhere.

Lately, I have felt a bit like this small island. Life has been either black or white, and always seen through a veil of snow showers. Now, I feel a bit of the blue, and while the blues are not usually a relief. In this case, the blues are just fine. Adding a bit of color to my life has freed me from the frozen waste I've been in for 5 years. I will not melt again very soon; it is after all, January. But the New Year holds the promise of color - a welcome addition to my life.

the joy of owning an old house

I spoke too soon about the end of the year 2011. My old Whirlpool frig gasped and died that very day, melting a year's worth of garden veges and freezer jam, plus sundry other stuff. Then came the New Year weekend, so it wasn't until Monday, the 2nd, that I could shop for new frig's.

The first difficulty was finding one which would fit into the cabinet space. I don't need a large frig, but it did need to fit into a space 30" x 68" maximum. Going on line, I managed to find 4 models at both Home Depot and Loew's, only two at Agren's, the local appliance distributor. So I went back and forth that Monday between Loew's at Cook's Corners, and Home Depot in Topsham negotiating price, delivery costs, and times between the two of them. Home Depot won out because it could get me the frig today, vs. Jan. 24th at Loew's.

But today it arrived, and wouldn't fit into the kitchen!!!!!! My kitchen has a great many wonderful handcrafted features, all carefully built into an old kitchen. But the doorways have been sacrificed in size to the joys of beautiful craftsmanship. The logical doorway to take out the old frig and bring in the new, should work by itself, but it is compromised by a clever corner cabinet that reduces the opening to 25" wide. The old, let alone the new, was not going to fit in or out of that.

So I called my contractor, who after conferring with the delivery boys, decided that they could leave the new frig in the dining room. Bill Dighton will come in on Friday to take out the other kitchen door frame, bring the old one out via the dining room, and install the new one in the kitchen - finally.

In the meantime, it feels like I still have a dead body in the kitchen, while the dining room fills up with strange, dysfunctional sculptures. The old frig does not smell quite as bad as it used to, because Nancy Adams came and helped me clean it out. But it still smells a bit. At least the new one doesn't smell bad, just like new plastic. 2011 went out with a big bang and a plop; 2012 started out well but it seems there's still a bit of a hangover from 2011 with the cast on my arm and the frig in the dining room! What's next I wonder?