The Eskimo have a word for it...

No, not 'snow' but Pibloktoq, an ethnopsychiatric illness, a form of winter madness or hysteria.

I'm not quite speaking in tongues or keening and ripping my clothes or running naked in the snow, but I have sympathy with the Eskimo who do that. I'm tired of being cold all the time. I'm tired of wearing 5 or 6 layers all the time and still being not quite warm enough. My feet are always cold unless I wear my Uggs in the house, as I'm doing now.

On the other hand, the picture is a view from our bed and it shows what I saw this morning as I opened my eyes. A beautiful, beautiful snowy world. And the COG and I went snowshoeing yesterday and that was lots of fun.

So my particular form of Pibloktoq is a little schizo, moving between wailing 'my feet are soooo cold' and thinking 'isn't it beautiful' moment by moment.

Oh well, Spring will come, just not soon enough.

Mamma Mia!

Finally got the COG to watch Mamma Mia last night. It took some pleading, some promises of pictures of sunny places, and rather a lot of wine. But, he loved it! He'll never admit it but he sang. He danced. I had lots of fun watching. There's something exhilarating about watching middle-aged people having a great time - making fools of themselves and not caring. I refer, of course, to the film, not the COG.

A great Mid-Winter film with no subtext or redeeming social value whatsoever.

Snowshoes!

Here is the COG on snowshoes at Appleton Farm. It was cold - about 0F, but with a wind chill of -12F. However, once we got going, we were toasty warm because it's pretty hard work. Snowshoeing uses the same number of calories per hour as cross-country skiing. What a happy fact. One of the best things was being able to go off trail, bushwhacking through the woods. There is something so peaceful about the quietness of a snow-filled woodland. We had a great time.

As I was taking the picture, the COG asked if I had put the camera on the 'snow' setting. I hadn't, because I don't know here it is and it was too cold to find out. So it's darker than the nice pictures the COG took. Tant pis, as they say.

Cutest Baby in the World?

Miss Octavia Mary McCambridge, aged almost 3 months. Quite possibly the cutest baby in the world.

Solitaire Heartbreak (suppressed sobs)

After winning 1360 consecutive games of Freecell, I accidentally clicked the wrong button and lost the 1361st game. Not everyone will understand the true heartbreak of this moment, but some of you will.

Insanity? Or Good Housewifery? You Decide

So... we are having new windows put in this week, meaning all the pictures must be off the walls, all the furniture moved from the windows, anything which might fall over, packed away. Not to mention Christmas. But I noticed that the bookshelves were dusty and I'd been wanting for a long time to move the books around, so all the cookbooks were accessible in one place. This turned into a huge mess of books stacked hither thither and yon. Many books packed in boxes to be given away (or stored by Son of) and a general turnout of the room. The pictures were actually taken when I was nearly done - all 10 boxes of giveaways neatly stowed and the shelves nearly full. The next stage, in the New Year, will be to decorate the shelves a bit - arranging them nicely with some gew gaws and gimracks here and there.

First Snow of the Season

Our backyard after the first snow of the season.