Where Is She?

Good question....

She is around. Just not here. In Blogland. She does think of you often, though, and wonders how you all are. 

She reminds you, dear ones, did you back up your blog recently?  If you are with Blogger, a friend just shared a link to a set of perfectly simple instructions on how to do that.  So if your 2012 material is still not backed up... don't wait another second...for simple instructions go to shanamama.com. It takes two minutes.  Well she didn't really time it, but you know.

So where is she?

She's been in the kitchen baking homemade bread with her new Christmas present, a Bosch kitchen set. Sorry there are no pictures.

You see, it's a little like that very old Sesame Street segment with Bert and Ernie. Ernie is painting a picture. There's nothing on the paper.  Bert comes along and asks Ernie what he's painting.  It's a cow eating grass. But there's nothing on the paper.  Well, yes, that's because the cow ate the grass and left. .... Same thing with the bread. Someone ate the bread and there are no pictures.

What else?

She's been longing to go for a winter walk in the woods (she'll have to drive to get there first). There have been beautiful calm and mild days since Christmas. But now it's back to frosty, crisp and breathtakingly beautiful, despite the plummet of temperature. Perfect! And what she's also been longing to have along on this winter walks is a beautiful dog with a plummy waggy tail. (Must have been reading those lovely British novels (Winter Solstice, for one) where people take dogs on happy walks in the countryside!)

She's also been having 'Tea At Three' many afternoons with hubby as they've gobbled down leftover Christmas cake and watched the entertaining and delightful detective-cum-chef Henry Crabbe in the enjoyable series Pie in the Sky.  Sister lent the set after Christmas.

She's been chewing away at a couple of unfinished projects that will finally be done soon.

She's happy these days (for the most part). Yes, and she even sings along with Miss Molly the Vacuum Cleaner (sometimes) at four in morning.  She's finally adjusted to this new time schedule in her life.  And though it's not perfect, her life is still good.  With lots of glimpses of heaven.  Even at four in the morning.

She's delighting in watching the flutterings of her feathered friends at the feeders.  Oh my, such a flurry! The joy these little ones take in finding a bit of water in the heated birdbath gives her such a warmness around the cockles of her heart. (Anyone know what a cockle is? Maybe she shouldn't ask?)

After that walk in the woods, she longs to have a winter picnic for herself and hubby, and take good friends along. The scene described below leaped from the page straight into her imagination as she savored the last few pages of Winter Solstice.  Oh my.  Sigh.  It's been a long time since she was on a winter picnic.

Wouldn't you bundle up for a taste of these delectables... 

'The Christmas Eve picnic at Corrydale, the first one they ever had there, was something of a movable feast. It started with a glass of wine by the fireside, in the warmth of the blazing logs, but slowly progressed out of doors, because the day was so beautiful that it seemed almost sacrilegious to be inside... The air was cold, but the sun beamed down upon them, and in the shelter of the house there was no breath of wind.

 

...They had brought hot soup laced with sherry, drunk from mugs; fresh rolls filled with thick slices of ham and English mustard; a bacon-and-egg quiche; chicken drumsticks; tomato salad; crisp green apples; and chunks of cheddar cheese.  Finally a flask of fresh, boiling-hot coffee."

And so... a little glimpse of what's she's been about... while she's not here.

On that note, she wishes you a beautiful day.......