Every year I swear next December will be different. Shopping, making, wrapping, baking, cooking, cleaning – I’ll start all of it earlier and cruise into Christmas Day serenely on top of everything. Ha.
I do get a little more organized with every passing year, it’s true. The Christmas Binder™ of plans, lists, recipes and games helps a lot. Not having a whole month of Christmas concerts, class parties, Secret Santas and so on for three kids on top of all the other stuff helps even more.
And yet, by December 24 every year, I want to lie down and sleep for a week. After a few festive days of breaking up animal fights, endless dishwasher loads and non-stop eating, everyone gathers their loot and goes home and it takes a week to clean up again. I like Christmas, I do, but I like not-Christmas more.
Two of my guests, Nadja and Simon:
This guest was not allowed indoors:
Before the pressure got to be too much, there were walks with Anna and Evie.
Ah, October. And with it, the return of my will to live. I get an energy surge every year once autumn really hits and a desire to DO. ALL. THE. THINGS. I can’t even begin to express how glad I am summer is over for another year.
One thing I’ve spent a lot of time doing is downloading and sifting through the thousands of photos I’ve taken since June, some of which I’d like to share here. I really need to develop a better system for this because letting them pile up until it’s a completely overwhelming week-long project isn’t the most fun I’ve ever had. Lesson learned.
After a Thanksgiving lunch at Anna’s, we all went out to pick apples in her small orchard, much to the annoyance of this beauty:
A starling also had something to say about all the dumb people cluttering up the yard:
Now that it isn’t too hot and sunny to leave the house occasionally, we have started a weekly supper get-together at Anna’s. I bring the food and Anna supplies the view:
The neighbours want to know what’s going on:
At home, I’ve spent a ridiculous amount of time admiring cloudy skies and celebrating every drop of rain, after a summer of practically no rain at all. Stormy sky + red leaves = perfection.
On one of our after-lunch walks last week, Foster and I passed a field with hundreds of Canada Geese, all seated and facing north, as if they were at a drive-in. You can almost see them in this poor cellphone photo:
Heading into February, I expected a fairly quiet and mellow month. I knew there’d be drop-off and pick-up trips to the airport and that I’d be dog-sitting Evie for a week in addition to all the usual duties (grocery shopping, doctor appointment, parental care), but nothing too draining. What I hadn’t anticipated was an emergency root canal after two weeks of steadily worsening pain while (thanks to an error at their vet’s office) cat-sitting two of the world’s most energetic, curious and affectionate kittens.
This is grandcat Simon and this was my view any time I tried to write. Simon loves chewing pens, plants, upholstery, cardboard boxes, kitchen utensils, drapes and human fingers.
Simon is unfamiliar with the concept of personal space. He’s lucky he’s so cute.
This is grandcat Nadja. Like Simon, she likes to be paws-on and “help” write, walk, care for houseplants, knit, cook, do dishes, read a book, and, as in this photo, empty the kitchen garbage can.
They are beautiful cats and smart enough to break out poses like this just when you’re ready to strangle them.
Sadly, cousins Simon, Nadja and Evie do not make good playmates.
Evie just needs everyone to understand that this is her house and what she says goes.
I have never met a dog who enjoys the snow so much. She’d stay out there romping for hours if only she could find someone to stay with her.
But it was really cold during her week here and the stupid wimpy humans always pack in it too soon.
Uncle Glen is also frustrating for her. He looks like a dog and smells like a dog, but behaves like a Canadian pensioner on the beach in Florida, refusing to do anything but lounge in the sun all day. “Toys do not tempt him, Evie,” I said. “You’re wasting your time trying to get him to play.”
If you can’t beat him, join him.
And finally…
My lovely ram friend wanted to do a bit of modelling, but it was really cold that day and my mouth was hurting so I just took a few photos from the car and promised I’d do better next time. Sorry, buddy!
I love January. It’s cold and cloudy most of the time (the best weather) and quiet and peaceful because everyone else is too depressed to make many demands. I love wearing layers and cuddling under a blanket to read or knit and spending hours at my desk reflecting on the previous year (and all the targets I missed) and planning the year ahead (and all the goals I’m sure to fail to reach). Happy times.
A pair of eagles against a rare blue sky.
A mid-afternoon look across Wellington Dyke.
My snow-shovelling partner.
Trees in the backyard at the tail end of a snowstorm on January 29.
One of my mourning dove friends.
Eagles eagles everywhere.
Looking across the fields toward Blomidon.
Always a sucker for hay bales.
A slushy Minas Basin.
If you put a brightly coloured tractor in your field, I will take a picture of it.
Yet more eagles. Seriously, they are everywhere this year.
December is a lot. The cooking, the baking, the shopping, the wrapping, the cleaning, the cards, the finishing of handmade projects, the four million little things to prepare and remember. I get a little more organised with every passing year, but I’m not sure I’ll ever be organised enough to not feel overwhelmed for a couple weeks in the middle there. We had a lovely week with everyone home, though, and all the work was worth it, of course.
*My favourite people
*My favourite granddog
At her great-grandparents’, tuckered out by late Christmas afternoon and using Santa as a pillow. He’s been around so long there are probably pictures of little me doing the same thing.
*One of my favourite grandcats
This is Nadja, waiting impatiently for me to make a fresh cup of green tea she can share. Her brother, Simon, never stops moving and is harder to get a picture of.
*My favourite birthday present: Shaun the Sheep
Charlotte, genius crochet toymaker, designed him herself, which is no mean feat. Makers understand just how much skill goes into crafting something like this.
*Gecko!
Charlotte looked in on a friend’s geckos while she was away for the holiday and you better believe I was getting in on that. There were three geckos, but this one was the most outgoing. I could have watched him (?) eat mealworms all day.
I knitted a blanket for his upcoming first birthday and I think he liked it – if dragging it along while blowing raspberries means he likes it, which I’m pretty sure it does. It’s been a while since I spoke toddler, though.
*A visit with my crow friends
My walking companion is too polite to say so, but I bet he is heartily sick of my need to stop and chat with the crows during every outing. They’re just so smart, and they’re my neighbours, after all. Seems rude to walk on by without a word.
*Big, moody skies
This time of year brings the drama and I love it.
*’Embroidery Woman’ (1817) by Georg Friedrich Kersting
