Hello, it’s our first post from the other side, 2014, the beginning of a new year!  And we did it up right, with a huge snowstorm!  It’s a B L I Z Z A R D out there, so white it hurts your eyes, and big flakes still coming down, every tree branch is covered in snow, every leaf, the pickets on the fence, the bushes, everything.  MUSICA MUSICA (This is double whammy, first click on one, then the other, then come back to blog for ambience perfection.)

This storm makes the January page of my 2014 calendar a premonition!  In case any of you missed it, we still have calendars left if you need them.  We finally ordered enough of something!  We’re all sold out of Janie’s “winter” banners, but she’s making us some different ones for Valentine’s Day and they should be here soon.  We also have my Valentine cards ~ someone asked the other day, and yes, we do have them.  But I digress!  It’s a . . .

Or, our ancient white house would look like a ship in a still, white sea, if we could see it.  Like a ship in a storm is more like it.

It was still dark this morning when I started this post.  And look at the windows over the kitchen sink!  We’ve been frosted!

I tried so hard to peek out to see what was going on but the wind had coated everything in ice and snow.  Squeals of delightenment.  We love it!

Luckily we have no place to go, and no desire to go there.  I’m all wrapped up, tee-shirt, two old cashmere sweaters, scarf, thick delicious handmade shawl that I adore, like being a child and having a bankie at all times, and flannel lined pants too.  We have heat, but we augment.

Jack and I have a fire, the heater is humming, the house creaks a bit in the wind . . . I’m eating leftover Mushroom Soup that Lowely made for New Year’s Eve . . .

 I lit some candles, just in case the lights suddenly go out . . .

 This is our first real snow . . . the last couple of days have been FREEZING cold ~ 28° when we go on our walk.

But look how beautiful it is out there.  The way the sun sends rays through the breaks in the clouds.

They are dredging the opening to the pond, something they do here every few years.  See that boat, that’s the dredge.  They are pulling sand out of the channel so that boats can get in and out of the pond without hitting the bottom.  The sand goes out through that pipe to the beach, the opposite of the way a vacuum cleaner works. Erosion steals the sand from the beach daily, exposing the little fishing shacks to storms. So dredging is a redistribution of sand, from one place where it’s a hinderance to another where it’s a blessing.  Ah men.  How smart thou art ♥.

Joe and I have walked this walk almost every day (unless we’re away) since we bought our house in 1989.   We shall haunt it someday, but right now, we just try and go there as often as possible.  It’s my favorite part of the day.

All this dredging is big excitement at the normally quiet-in-January shore.  Here’s the pipe running along the opening toward the sound.  That’s Cape Cod over there.

Then the pipe makes a right turn to run along the beach — they put it wherever they want the sand to land … they already did this part of the beach, now they have taken it down toward the fishing shacks.

Can you see how far that pipe goes?  Into the water and back out again.  Here, here’s a better look at it!

See how exciting?  It’s mesmerizing . . . listening to the water roar, watching the seagulls.  But COLD, my fingers are freezing so much I can’t turn the camera off.  Not such a professional ending, but the water is worth it.

Prettiest place in the world.  One of the things I want to remember to do every day of this new year is write down what I did, the basics, not to be Jane Austen, but so I know what I did.  It’s going too fast, a blur.  I want these days remembered.  I want the double enjoyment that memory can bring, even if the memory part has to be helped along a bit.  I want to know I went to see the dredging and I’d like to know what I ate in front of the fire on New Year’s Eve, and now I do.  (Freezing cold iceberg wedge salad, with creamy blue cheese dressing, sprinkled with pomegranate seeds and fried pancetta bits, and homemade Mushroom soup with rye toast star croutons. ♥)

I’m not sure I’ve mentioned it yet.  But I did a new version of my now out-of-print Book of Days!  It’s very much like the old one . . .

A wire-bound book that will lie flat, space enough to write each day, with additional room for notes, just a little bit bigger than the old one. . .

You can use it for any year, and keep them year after year until you have the story of your life.  This scribble below is something I wrote in one of my diaries back in the 90’s, when I was still trying to figure things out (not that I have it figured out, because I don’t.  Yet.  But I’m not giving up).

I know the answer to that one now.  They begin in two places.  They read, and they write.  Teach your children well.

It’s getting light outside.  The camera focused on the ice, while I was trying to get it to see the birds at the feeders.

Outside my kitchen windows, let the magic begin . . .

Some people have fish tanks, I have bird feeders.

I just peeked out the living room window, there is Joe, shoveling the driveway . . . he LOVES it out there.

I knocked on the window . . .

He saw me . . .

A threw a shovel of snow at me! ♥

Jack said, “What’s going on?  Pick me up!  Showmeshowmeshowme!”  Which I did; we stood at the window watching Joe do all the work.

This is my chosen entertainment for today.  Howard’s End.  I’m just going to slip it into the video machine. Perfect for diary, snow, fire, kitties and popcorn because really, what else can we do.  Nuttin Honey. (If you’re looking for something new to read, I highly recommend the book too.)

Hope you have a lovely day wherever you are!  “Thank you” doesn’t seem quite enough to express all I feel when reading your wonderful comments.  It’s such a pleasure to know you!  Here comes another year!  I wonder what will happen next?  Let’s make it good! ♥ xoxo