December 11, 2011

Island in the valley fog

A heartfelt "Thank You" to those who commented on my 12/9 blog.  I really do appreciate the feedback.  Thanks for reading my diary.  Hmmm.  Now there's a sentence I never thought I would write. . .

Forgot about the eclipse Saturday morning, but Sandy called me at 6:30 a.m. to be sure I didn't miss it!  It was beautiful.  Just wish I had the right camera to photograph it.

Have finally finished making my Christmas cards, wrapping the last few gifts and packaging them for mailing.  JB is going Down There on Tuesday to do his Christmas shopping and mail everything.  This will probably be the earliest he has every shopped.  When we lived Down There, he would do his shopping on December 24!  Guess that's typically a guy thing.  Personally, I used to start shopping for Christmas gifts at the December 26 sales, as there are some people on my list for whom I am at a loss at what to make (like my brother).  I think my Aunt Nene has all her gifts purchased or made by July 4th!  Since we have lived at Rose Camp, I buy any gifts I haven't made and I still need on line on Black Friday. 

I have started reading a book on which I was able to get a great deal at Hastings.com on their Black Friday sale.  It's entitled Throne Games by George R.R. Martin and is the basis for the HBO series.  After having read only a few chapters, I really want to see that now.  Except for Jim Butcher's books and, of course, J.R. Tolkien, I usually don't go for that genre, but this book is fascinating.  I am always amazed at how authors can create entirely new worlds in which to set their tales.

It was only 14 degrees outside yesterday morning, with a high of 22.  The canyons and valleys have been full of fog for most of the week, with it sometimes dissipating in the evenings.  Lots of deer around, too.  I think they've all come up out of the fog.  One of the most fascinating aspects of the fog is the islands of trees peaking through it.  I love it when I can capture that in a photo, as in the one above.

And speaking of Aunt Nene, they have had a tradition for many years of smoking cheese and sending it to everyone at Christmas.  It is a special part of the holidays that we all look forward to.  She sent some extra this year so we might even share it with Larry & Elsie.  They smoked some last year and it was delicious, too.  We would love to build a smokehouse.  Doesn't have to be very big and we could probably just use logs from Up Here.  Good Lord!  You'd think that after the shop and deck, we'd never want to build anything again, but here I already have a list of three more buildings - guest cabin, root cellar and smokehouse.  It's a good thing we're getting younger, and not older. . .

Thought for the day:  I cannot endure to waste anything as precious as autumn sunshine by staying in the house.  So I spend almost all the daylight hours in the open air.   Nathaniel Hawthorne