Happy New Year!
I took this picture a few years ago at the Venice Rookery of the beautiful Sand Hill Cranes . . . celebrating something!
A chilly start to 2018 here. At 8 a.m. this morning we already had our high for the day at 64 degrees. It is now 3 p.m. and the temperature is dropping … now at 55 degrees, quite breezy and no sun. Over night it is supposed to reach 41. The prediction for the week is 50s and 40s, but Thursday and Friday lows might be 38. I really don’t care that much about the weather, I just dress accordingly and accept it. It is what it is, what can you do. I do care about my plants though and hope they all make it. In our area here we do stay a little warmer than predictions say because we are so close to the water.
We had ham for Christmas dinner and I made a big pot of ham and potato soup yesterday in anticipation of the colder weather. The regular stuff went in, carrots, celery, onions, etc., but I also added a pound of sliced sautéed mushrooms and three ears of fresh sweet corn. A good decision! We had a bowl for lunch today. The old adage is true that soup reheated is better tasting than the day it was made.
My Mom always fixed sauerkraut, pork and dumplings, with hot dogs thrown in to make it go further, every New Years Day. Even though Pete is not a big veggie eater, I found out the first year we were married that he likes sauerkraut, and so I carry on my mom’s tradition and make it every single New Years Day. I try every year to make dumplings, but they never turn out very good. My Mom made the best . . . light and fluffy. I miss her so much. It seems there’s not a week that goes by that I don’t think of something I need to ask my mom or dad or tell my brother, John.
I haven’t made a new year’s resolution in years. After reading my sister’s post egg_shell recapping the last year by checking her LJ, I was thinking I’d like to do that, too, but my 2017 was sparse and there was so much that happened and I didn’t even write about it. I used to write faithfully, rarely missing a day and would go into depth with feelings as much as I felt comfortable sharing. I don’t know what happened, but if I were to make a promise, I will try and document more this year.
Last night we spent a quiet time at home. We stayed up and watched the last few minutes of the old/new year on TV. What I took away from it was such crazy excitement and buildup counting down the last few minutes of 2017. Pete soon went to bed and I dozed off in my chair. When I woke up the next thing I saw on TV was the wall to wall crowds gone and hundreds of workers in sub freezing temperatures cleaning up the mess. I read, watched some shows I had taped and dozed on and off until 4 a.m. and went to bed. I had a very strange dream and when I woke up I kept going over the dream for a long time.
I dreamed that Pete had died at some point (nothing about that in the dream) and that I was alone. In our will we had named our two kids as sole beneficiaries. In our real life that is the way it is. But for some “dream reason” I now had the chance to change that if I wanted to. And I wanted to! In the dream we had amassed a nice chunk of money. First I started wondering if I would use up all the money paying for my “old age care.” I needed to see an attorney and talk to him about that and change the will. I would still include the kids, but I started thinking of other people I wanted to include and relished in the thoughts of how they would react after I died and found out they had been left something.
In the dream it got quite detailed, starting with some of my favorite relatives, then narrowing it down to deserving ones who didn’t have much and would really benefit from the inheritance. I started “dream thinking” of people whom I knew were always financially struggling, then groups and organizations, wildlife preserves, even my art gallery, all good causes. I discussed this with a lawyer, who was just a faceless man in my dream, about how they would all be told of my passing and how they would all meet, wondering why they were there. This was pretty much the last thing I remembered from the dream and when I woke up I seemed to continue the dream in my mind, thinking of more people and things.
I have always believed my dreams were first based in reality and then my dream mind would take over, going weird places. I’m left now, many hours later, still thinking where this all came from, what was the reality starting point. The older I get the more I think about my mortality, maybe somewhere in those thoughts of traveling down the other side of the hill is where it originated.
A chilly start to 2018 here. At 8 a.m. this morning we already had our high for the day at 64 degrees. It is now 3 p.m. and the temperature is dropping … now at 55 degrees, quite breezy and no sun. Over night it is supposed to reach 41. The prediction for the week is 50s and 40s, but Thursday and Friday lows might be 38. I really don’t care that much about the weather, I just dress accordingly and accept it. It is what it is, what can you do. I do care about my plants though and hope they all make it. In our area here we do stay a little warmer than predictions say because we are so close to the water.
We had ham for Christmas dinner and I made a big pot of ham and potato soup yesterday in anticipation of the colder weather. The regular stuff went in, carrots, celery, onions, etc., but I also added a pound of sliced sautéed mushrooms and three ears of fresh sweet corn. A good decision! We had a bowl for lunch today. The old adage is true that soup reheated is better tasting than the day it was made.
My Mom always fixed sauerkraut, pork and dumplings, with hot dogs thrown in to make it go further, every New Years Day. Even though Pete is not a big veggie eater, I found out the first year we were married that he likes sauerkraut, and so I carry on my mom’s tradition and make it every single New Years Day. I try every year to make dumplings, but they never turn out very good. My Mom made the best . . . light and fluffy. I miss her so much. It seems there’s not a week that goes by that I don’t think of something I need to ask my mom or dad or tell my brother, John.
I haven’t made a new year’s resolution in years. After reading my sister’s post egg_shell recapping the last year by checking her LJ, I was thinking I’d like to do that, too, but my 2017 was sparse and there was so much that happened and I didn’t even write about it. I used to write faithfully, rarely missing a day and would go into depth with feelings as much as I felt comfortable sharing. I don’t know what happened, but if I were to make a promise, I will try and document more this year.
Last night we spent a quiet time at home. We stayed up and watched the last few minutes of the old/new year on TV. What I took away from it was such crazy excitement and buildup counting down the last few minutes of 2017. Pete soon went to bed and I dozed off in my chair. When I woke up the next thing I saw on TV was the wall to wall crowds gone and hundreds of workers in sub freezing temperatures cleaning up the mess. I read, watched some shows I had taped and dozed on and off until 4 a.m. and went to bed. I had a very strange dream and when I woke up I kept going over the dream for a long time.
I dreamed that Pete had died at some point (nothing about that in the dream) and that I was alone. In our will we had named our two kids as sole beneficiaries. In our real life that is the way it is. But for some “dream reason” I now had the chance to change that if I wanted to. And I wanted to! In the dream we had amassed a nice chunk of money. First I started wondering if I would use up all the money paying for my “old age care.” I needed to see an attorney and talk to him about that and change the will. I would still include the kids, but I started thinking of other people I wanted to include and relished in the thoughts of how they would react after I died and found out they had been left something.
In the dream it got quite detailed, starting with some of my favorite relatives, then narrowing it down to deserving ones who didn’t have much and would really benefit from the inheritance. I started “dream thinking” of people whom I knew were always financially struggling, then groups and organizations, wildlife preserves, even my art gallery, all good causes. I discussed this with a lawyer, who was just a faceless man in my dream, about how they would all be told of my passing and how they would all meet, wondering why they were there. This was pretty much the last thing I remembered from the dream and when I woke up I seemed to continue the dream in my mind, thinking of more people and things.
I have always believed my dreams were first based in reality and then my dream mind would take over, going weird places. I’m left now, many hours later, still thinking where this all came from, what was the reality starting point. The older I get the more I think about my mortality, maybe somewhere in those thoughts of traveling down the other side of the hill is where it originated.