Creativity.....

It was cold and windy last night so we pulled the shades down in the living room to try to cut down on drafts. Mother Nature finally decided that Wisconsin needed a little blast of cold, and quite a bit of snow. We woke this morning to drifts of up to 12" just outside on our 7:00 a.m. unshoveled-yet sidewalks. Imagine Fenway's delight when he found that lifting his leg meant his little you-know-what was buried in the snow. Needless to say it was a fast first early morning "walk".

The sky is still that low grey and the snow is supposed to keep up until sometime this afternoon....lake effect! When we pulled up the blinds to let in a little more light we were greeted by some unexpected art work.

Pretty isn't it. Temporary but pretty. A free form splash of snow and ice crystals blocking our view of Lake Michigan...our reward for wind off the lake and a cold, cold night. I will enjoy from inside thank you....but yes, thank you!

Mood......

My moods, like everyone else's, go up and down and some days are better than others. Most days are just pretty "average" and a few are really "down" and a few more are really "up". I would consider myself mostly "happy".....but as I used to tell my kids when they were growing up, "If you don't have bad days you'll never appreciate the good days."

2020 and now into 2021 has been a mood challenger for sure.....for our world. I know I'm fortunate to be living where I do, have enough food on the table, have my friends and family staying healthy.....bored maybe, but healthy. Still....there are days when the sun is bright and the sky is blue and Lake Michigan is sparkling that are really good days. I can feel my insides "lighten" on days like that....especially if it's really cold and we don't want to go outside but can enjoy the beauty through the window. If we do get out for a walk its even more of an "upper" when I feel that sunshine on my face.

And then there was Sunday....all day Sunday. The sky was an unrelenting, monochromatic grey all day. Mostly what I felt like doing was taking a nap.

Monday (today) dawned and I had to leave the condo about 9:00 to head into Milwaukee for an appointment and run a few errands on the way home. I drove out of our parking garage, turned the corner and I think I saw the sun.

OK.....appointment, errands and then a nap. 

I Don't Bake......

We enjoy having friends and family over for a meal....at least we did prior to this past year. I have some good and pretty easy dishes I like to make so even though I don't enjoy time in the kitchen at all I have some delicious repeatable recipes. Still one thing I very rarely do is bake anything. I used to when the kids were little....cookies and cakes and brownies and apple crisp etc. But not much anymore....other than a boxed bread mix from Trader Joe's.

Then my best friend from Alaska sent Fenway some special cookies for Christmas....made from salmon! He loved them. So I called her for the recipe and after having salmon for dinner one night I used the few left over pieces to try it on my own. I just mixed the shredded salmon with an egg and enough flour to make a dough....pressed it out and cut it into squares.

These bake very slowly and then I left the pan in the oven overnight. It worked but the cookies were so hard I was afraid that Fenway would break one of his little teeth trying to eat it.

Now I have to soak the cookie in water for several hours before it's an OK treat for Fenway. And he loves them. Well I guess I'm back to spending a little time baking....at least after we have salmon.

Exhale......

January 21, 2021.

It's probably no surprise to my few followers but I am SO relieved to have watched Biden take the oath and know that he now occupies the Oval Office as our new President. I watched most of the coverage yesterday and found that as the guests gathered on the steps outside the Capital and the dignitaries took seats my muscles would tense up. I just kept thinking "Please don't let anything tragic happen." I would purposely take a deep breath and relax only to find I was all tensed up again 30 minutes later. During the swearing in, during Biden's address to the Nation....as he and his new VP went to Arlington Cemetary....as he and his family walked a few blocks on the semi-parade into the White House grounds. I was thinking ...."Please...please....please."

Happily inauguration day went very smoothly and I thought, even the scaled down version, was a testament to America and to the peaceful transition of power. I wish our new President only the best for his four year term and I hope he can accomplish even half of what he would like to bring to the table for our Country.

Watching the TV coverage of President and First Lady entering the Capital I saw, once again a picture of the broken glass in one of the doors of this historic and important building.

My feelings tonight, as the President begins to make his mark on the office and our Congress moves forward to prosecute the home-grown terrorists who tried to interrupt this process? Prosecute all of them to the fullest. Don't fix this window. Leave it broken for everyone to see as they enter...a reminder that our democracy is fragile and needs to be protected. This broken glass is a reminder of what happened there on January 6th....and if the window is repaired citizens may forget.

And I don't want anyone to forget.......

Lotto Fever.......

We don't usually buy lotto tickets but once the "pot" gets to the millions and millions of dollars Dave does stop and get a few. This time it worked! A winning ticket!

We plan to call our investment advisor next week but in the meantime are dreaming of 2021 - 22 travel possibilities.

I wonder how far we can go on $4.00??

Waiting......

A few days ago I was coming back with Fenway after our first-morning-walk-of-the-day and moving up the sidewalk that runs on the north side of the building. It's part of the condo property, but I don't go that way every day. Snow still on the ground and all leaves now off the bushes. I glanced to the right and noticed a small bird nest.

Obviously this nest had been in place for awhile....maybe Fenway and I had gone past a bird family many times without knowing any better. Maybe it's a reusable nest and is occupied every spring/summer season. I decided to sort of keep an eye on it as we move from month to month and try to peek in once this bush is in full bloom.

I moved one more step toward the lobby door and snapped another cell phone picture. This one made me look twice and smile. The snow inside the nest may melt or change in the next few days, but I caught it at just the right time.

Nature shared a little heart-hug with me.....once again a reminder to keep my eyes open on our little neighborhood walks....even the most familiar ones.

Now I wait for spring.....

Another Grey Day......

It seems a permanent shade of grey descended on Wisconsin a few days ago....gone is the bright sun and blue sky that kept my mood "up".  Now I wake to low cloud cover and go to sleep in the pitch black. Seems fitting.

I was in the kitchen quilting on Wednesday with the television on in the background. I'd been listening to a few talk shows but not really engaged. Dave, from the den, called and said I should pay attention because the Congress was beginning to count the certified state election results and Mitch McConnell was speaking. So I sort of paid attention as I worked.....and looked up a few minutes later to see George Stephanopolis on the screen. He was explaining that the state roll call was beginning and just how this every-four-year-procedure would work. I happened to be watching as he stopped, looked off camera and seconds later came back to face forward. I cannot forget the look on his face. Sort of confused....obviously listening to someone off camera who was talking into his ear. His face sort of "froze" as he began to say that protestors were coming up the Capital steps.......and basically we all know what happened from there. 

The camera covering him suddenly went to an outside view and I watched as hundreds of people mounted the steps, climbed the walls, broke windows, forced their way through historic doors and "took over". It's been several days now and I close my eyes and still see the images of our elected officials hiding under desks, putting on gas masks, being ushered out to safer locations as the mob made it into the House Chamber.

I watched for hours as fellow Americans roamed through the building yelling, taking selfies, destroying government property and demanding that Congress "Stop the Steal". The stories of what they did while in our Capital Building are sickening.....and people died.

This last (I hope) gasp of 45's desperate grasp on power was heartbreaking. He didn't care anything about the people who marched up to the Capital for him (in fact while we watched on TV he "complained" that his supporters looked like "low life"), he didn't care about the Constitution, he didn't care about our Democracy. 

And I hope now that more and more of us just don't care about him. I hope more and more of his supporters see him for what he is......and I hope that proud Republicans will take back the Party of Lincoln and say "Hell no....you do NOT represent our party." I hope that, once President Elect Biden and Vice-President Elect Kamala Harris take their oaths on November 20th the press will stop covering this man. I hope he doesn't get one more moment of the attention he so desperately craves. I really hope the only coverage he gets after November 20th is when he is sitting in a court as a defendant.

I hope.....I really do. 

I also hope the sun shines tomorrow.

Perfect Winter Days.....

December was good to us in Port Washington....we enjoyed many days that were very mild and great for walks outside. We did not have a white Christmas but turning the page and into January 2021 we've had two nice snowfalls. Powdery inches that piled up in parks and decorated every tree branch. A 30 degree day in January is something to be celebrated in Wisconsin!

So out we went. Dave dusted off our snow shoes and we walked through the park right down the street. Quiet. Snow crunching under our shoes. Deer bedded down on the hillside watched as we went by.

Theses were short excursions but it just felt so good to get outside and break up our inside-activity-kind-of-day.

Two days in a row were just perfect for our excursions. And today looks just as nice.....so after lunch we'll go out again. Thank you Mother Nature!

Not Much.......

We made it......I put up my new calendar and spent a moment just looking at January 2021. I am "old fashioned" and still like a wall calendar so I can see my whole month at a glance.

Last year's January page was pretty full. Lots of Newcomer activities, dinners with friends, movies, acupuncture appointments, quilt guild meetings.......etc....etc.

I took the calendar off my refrigerator and put it in a drawer, 2020 completely out of sight! Then I posted my new one.

There are three birthdays circled in red, three zoom meetings and one doctor appointment.  What a difference a year can make. 

2021....January may be mostly "empty" but I feel certain, as I turn the pages, the months will begin to look more normal if I am just patient and get that vaccine as soon as I can. Please.