Snow, Beautiful Snow

We awoke this morning to a beautiful, proper snow storm. Son of COG tried to go skiing but announced, coming back into the house, that it was too windy to ski. There are wonderful big drifts around fences and walls and big trees. The Bride, reveling in memories of the wonderful snowstorms of her Northern childhood, feels quite cheerful and is humming winter songs.


The COG, on the other hand, is walking around the house, peering out of windows and muttering under his breath about when to get up the snow. For, as it so often does here, near the ocean, the snow is already turning to rain. Clearing the drive too soon will result in a drive coated with ice. Too late, and the snow will have an impermeable crust of ice - too heavy for the snowblower. At exactly the right moment, the snow will have been a sponge, holding the frozen rain so that after snowblowing, the drive will be washed clean by rain.

Deep Thoughts - On the Nature of Hell

This afternoon, the COG and I drove through Boston to the south shore. We spent a very long time in start-and-stop traffic in a tunnel that seemed to go on forever. I said to the COG, 'We're in Hell. This is what Hell is like: not a blade of grass anywhere, no birds, just polluted air and big cars whose drivers have road rage. Maybe we had an accident back there and we're really dead and in Hell'

He agreed that it was, indeed, his Hell.

Then we saw the light at the end of the tunnel and we rejoiced.

However, when we got to the end of the tunnel it was snowing hard. Visibility was bad, the road was slippery and all those angry, aggressive drivers were fighting to merge into 2 lanes from 3.

That was the perfect touch to complete the vision of Hell, making it even more hellacious. That little period of hope, of optimism when we saw the light, followed by the crushing of that faint hope under snow and road rage.

In the end, as it turned out, we weren't in Hell after all, but simply on the road to Ikea. We had a nice meal, bought some furniture and came home safe and sound.

I think that Hell, for me, would be a featureless filthy place created by human technology, with nothing of nature about it. Oh, and cold. It would be cold.

Happy Anniversary, COG!

The Geezer and I are celebrating our 35th anniversary today, each in our separate ways. He's been at work all day. I have wasted the entire day watching our new 52 inch flat screen tv.


Although the bottom picture may be a more accurate representation.

An Outing

Today the Geezer and I took Sheba to Halibut Point for walkies. The Geezer wanted to try out his new camera. Sheba and I just wanted to walk.

We saw a flock of Harlequin Ducks. (The picture is from the internet). They were floating in the sea, diving, and standing on tiptoes in the water, flapping their wings.

It's called Halibut Point because it's the place where sailors used to tack out (haul about) to avoid Cape Ann. Not because of the fish.

It was very clear and we could see the Isles of Shoals in the distance.

COG Photo for Andrew

Andrew, this is an abstract the COG did at the island, in the reeds by the beach. I love it. I thought you might like it, too, since you said you like abstracts.

The COG on his bike

The COG was never allowed a bike as a kid, for safety reasons. But he bought himself one last Spring and is really enjoying it, as you can see from the picture.

Today he talked me into biking the length of the Plum Island with him. Plum Island,which is more of a peninsula, really, is mostly a national wildlife refuge. It's an important stopover on the Eastern migration and it's where James does his bird banding. The road is about 6 miles each way, and half of it is unpaved. It's pretty flat, but it was bumpy. My bike isn't really made to use on unpaved roads and the bumping was.... let's just say I'm a little saddle sore.

But it was a great ride.

Life's a Beach

This little film was taken at the tip of Plum Island looking across the salt marsh and Plum Island Sound to Cranes Beach. That's where, in a kind of symmetry, the COG and I took a wonderful walk with Sheba yesterday. Today was cooler and greyer than yesterday, which was pretty much perfect, but it was still wonderful. The film doesn't really capture the wonderfulness of the place. It's hard to explain how beautiful the salt marsh is. In pictures it just looks flat, but it has wonderful textures, and very subtle color differences.

Pictures I wish I'd taken in Oregon.

There's a whole list of photos I wish I had taken to put up here. I'm still learning the blog thing.

1) The COG by the Mini. He loved it.

2) A picture of the moon viewing, while it was still light, just to set the scene. However, the COG took one and sent it out to family members, so that's OK.

3) Just for the sounds, a little film of the Japanese garden in the dark, with flute music and the sound of the waterfall in the background.

4) COG and Sister of The Bride and I tasting various things at the Clear Creek distillery. We ended up buying pear brandy, Marc, eau de vie de blue plum, and an eau de vie de douglas fir. Apparently this last is called eau de vie de bourgeons de sapins in Alsace. The woman who we met with for the tasting (just the three of us) told us that the whole company of 8 people went out and picked the little fir shoots early in the spring from the farm of the owner.

5) The dinner at Sympatico - I wish I'd taken a picture of each course. I loved the first course -- a corn souffle with a wonderful herb salad made from dill weed, flat leaf parsley and tiny mint leaves with a light vinagrette. Possibly made with walnut oil. Then we had a pasta dish -- a rough, irregularly shaped hand-made pasta with a light sauce of confit of pheasant in a ragout. This was most people's favorite. Then beef shortribs and hot slaw and blue cheese mashed potatoes. The potatoes were especially wonderful, just exactly the right amount of blue cheesiness. For dessert, honey ice cream and a peach half bruleed with some sugar. I loved this last course, but others felt their peach was too hard and should have either been riper or cooked longer.

6) The takeoff from Portland, as we flew above the heavy cloud cover, there was Mt Hood and farther away Mt. Jefferson (I think) in the sunshine, sticking up over the clouds. Breath-taking and memorable.

7) a couple more pictures of my lovely niece and nephew.

We're home now, getting back to normal. Had a great time.

The Bride is a Saint and a Martyr

This is the first of several beautiful views we stopped for this morning Before Breakfast, so the COG could take photos.

As is her usual wont, The Bride nobly forbore to complain that she was becoming paler, weaker, even faint with hunger, while the COG took photos. Not one word of Suffering passed her lips and, thus, she gained stars for her crown in heaven.

The morning light and the views between Yachats and Florence were a bit of heaven on earth, come to think of it.

Later, around Coos Bay, we started thinking more of Isle, MN with ocean views.

Oblivious to Metaphor

Oblivious to all possibilities for metaphor the Bride and the COG watched the setting sun when the day was done.

Admittedly, the Bride had to step away from the COG briefly to snap this photo of him.

Bloggin' Blues

The Bride is discovering that one problem with blogging is that you've made a commitment and you need to keep it up. And as The Bride is sort of conscientious about commitments, she ends up feeling like she ought to be blogging.

So just to satisfy that conscience, at the risk of being incredibly boring, here's the latest.

The COG and I are leaving for a week in Oregon tomorrow. I was talking to a friend and I said that I didn't know why I was so excited and she pointed out that I rarely go anyplace with the COG. For the last few years, anyway, I go without him, and sometimes he joins me later. This time we are lock-step the whole way and that will be really nice. We've got some really fun activities planned, but more about that later.

I'll have my computer and I'm hoping I'll have time/ wi fi/ things to blog about.

All I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by

The Geezer and I went down to the sea again this afternoon. He wanted to sail solo, with me as back-up. My role was to do nothing, unless he was about to back the boat trailer into a rock (in which case my role was to scream before he hit it) or if he fell out of the boat and couldn't get back in (in which case my role was to call 911 before he drowned).

I performed my role admirably by sitting propped against a sun-warmed rock, reading a book, with Sheba lying alongside. She's such a restful companion.

It was sunny and autumnal - gulls crying overhead and waves lapping at the beach. The air smelled of salt and ozone. The picture is the Geezer prepping our little sailboat.

Collioure --May 2006

The Sister of The Bride just visited the lovely seaside village of Collioure. Here is a picture of The Cranky Old Geezer in an uncharacteristically cheerful moment, taken in a restaurant in Collioure. The second picture is the view from the same table in Collioure.

So many blogs, so little time

Suddenly everyone has a blog. Even the Cranky Old Geezer (hereafter referred to as COG) expects me to be up to date with what's happening on his blog and he is sitting not 5 feet from me as I write. Of course, he's typing not talking, unless you count swearing at your computer as talking. Which The Bride doesn't.

But it's nice to see what's happening in everyone else's life, with pictures attached. My life is pretty boring, but since blogging is mostly a one-sided conversation, I'll just keep talking to myself.

So here's what happened in my life today. I found a Black Walnut tree in Louise's yard. We've been wishing for a walnut tree, so we could try to make a walnut liqueur, like the one we (Sisters of The Bride, Brother-In-Law of the Bride, and the COG and The Bride, herself) had in the Cevennes, at the first gite we stayed in. So I'm going to try to make it with Black Walnuts. The hitch is that you need the walnuts to be in their green shells, and so you really need a tree.

I'll let you know how it turns out.

Oh and I started this blog. I tried to insert a picture, but it didn't work. I"ll work on that later.

Oh and also I got into google, finally, so now I can blog and post to other peoples blogs. I was having a weird problem where I entered my name and then it switched to Portuguese. But I think I've figured it out now. Eu não penso que começará falar no português outra vez. Ao menos eu espero não.