January Edition: The Simple Woman's Daybook

Alexander Filonchik / unsplash.com

Happy New Year to you -- I hope it was a good holiday season for you and all your loved ones.

Since Christmas, our days have been quiet and peaceful. I must say I love this time of year. After the busyness of the holidays, I enjoy this downtime when a person is free to read, snooze, watch a movie, sip tea, eat leftover chocolates, ponder plans for the new year, visit friends ... to generally put one's feet up and take it easy for a few days. I know not everyone has that option and some might think it a little boring, but for the two of us, even though we're both retired from careers and jobs, we do appreciate this lull in our normal day-to-day schedules.

Funny, people will often ask why we don't go away on a winter holiday to the tropics. Sorry, not interested. I like winter, even the deepest, darkest days of December and January. I like snow days. I like crisp, sparkling days where tree tops glisten with Alberta sunshine. I like early evenings and late sunrises. I like frosty nights where we can be cozy by the fireplace, nestle under heavy quilts, and sneak toe warming opportunities with a nearby warm body.

In the New Year, I will carry on my tradition of monthly posting The Simple Woman's Daybook, and so I offer my January edition, with open hands and heart warm wishes that 2017 will be a very good year for you.

With love,

Brenda

xox

FOR TODAY

Looking out my window... It was gray and moody out there this early morning. Cold at -20C ( -4F ), but as I work away on my post, the sky brightens with shades of blue appearing. ... Oops, now it's back to gray and moody with hints of snow flurries.

You know the wind's been blowing in the night when snow on the roof tops slide over the edges like fondant icing on a layer cake. I love how it does that. The photo below was taken a couple of years ago, but it looks pretty much the same today. We added sparkles using the PicMonkey editor in case you're wondering.

I am thinking... that I'm turning the big 6-0 later this Spring. It isn't anything I haven't already been pondering for the past ten or twelve months. For though I have wondered in disbelief that I could have reached such a decade so quickly -- surely I'm only 37, okay then 47, but not really 60 -- I have  also been feeling an excitement about the whole thing.

I'm finally old enough to have a history of my own, to have a wealth of experience that shapes my thoughts and emotions and beliefs, to have knowledge about things I could never have known as a 20-year-old, and maybe even offer a little hard-won wisdom to anyone asking, even be a role model or mentor for a newer generation instead of feeling I still need one for myself. There is something about it all that I like, I feel happy about it.  

I read Agatha Christie's fascinating, very conversational autobiography last year. It seemed important for me to read it now, at this stage of life. Imagine my delight to learn, then, that Ms. Christie was sixty when she started this book. She once said, "So what I plan to do is to enjoy the pleasures of memory -- not hurrying myself -- writing a few pages from time to time." It took her some fifteen years to complete, but all that time she had the pleasure of reliving old memories and capturing them on paper.

I was surprised at how many of her stories and accounts I could relate to in some way, being of a completely different generation, but an idea grabbed hold and I've started gathering the bits of pieces of my own history ... for who knows if a young woman some years hence mightn't stumble upon it and find it a fascinating read about someone who grew up and lived during the 20th and 21st centuries.

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I am so thankful... for a husband who reminds me a little of Mary Poppins ...  for like her, Rick is 'practically perfect in every way'.  He really is.

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One of my favorite things... a big floral scarf in my wardrobe. It reminds me of our trip to England last summer. Lovely scarves like this were at most garden gift shops, but even though I took real pleasure in admiring and touching, I'd put them back, thinking maybe I was too short to wear swathes of fabric around my neck.

But then, upon meeting my dear blogging friend from Cornwall later in the trip, I was completely delighted to find the very scarf I'd been longing for tucked into my gift parcel from her. I realized then I would just quit being silly about worrying about my height. And, ever since I've been wearing it just about everywhere. Even in the dead of winter, it adds such colour and cheer to my otherwise sombre outfits. And, I love how it makes me feel pretty.

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I am creating... order out of chaos on my desk today, joining National Clean Off Your Desk Day as delightfully demonstrated in the cartoon below by artist Sandra Boynton.

The Christmas miscellany is now off my desk and restored to its proper place. Paper continues to gravitate into small piles and books taken down for quick browses still await being re-shelved. There are notebooks, photos, used postage stamps too pretty to throw out, quotes written out on cardstock ... not to mention a newly minted British £5 note with Sir Winston Churchill's familiar face on it (it was sent recently to me by my friend in Cornwall).

For such a small surface, my beautiful antique table can hold a lot. Which is why it all needs a thorough shaking out on this National Clean Off Your Desk Day. After which, I hope to once again enjoy its marvelous wood grain patterns polished to a sheen ... at least for a couple hours before the new piles start all over again.

I am wearing... a cozy long-sleeved black shirt, blue jeans, and slippers. Forgot the lipstick today.

I am reading...  An intriguing murder mystery by Argentine mathematician and writer Guillermo Martinez. The Oxford Murders is the story of a professor of logic and a graduate student who investigate a series of bizarre, mathematically-based murders in Oxford, England. So far, nothing too gruesome. Thankfully. And, I get to envision some of Oxford's streets and buildings through the narrator's eyes.

I am watching ... Season Six of Downton Abbey with hubby. We started last night as if another season was just beginning Sunday night on PBS. Haven't seen it since last January so what fun to watch it all again. Most entertaining to catch glimpses of the scenes and say, 'We saw those. We walked down that grand staircase. We saw the paintings and those red deep couches by the fireplace. We stood there and soaked in all the grandeur.' BTW, I'm working on a post about our visit last summer to Highclere Castle complete with photos. It will go up later in the month. Stay tuned.

I am hoping... to get some decluttering and sorting done this month. Time to go through the books and music CDs again to see what I can cheerfully let go. And, put order in the pantry cupboards after all the rooting in there during the holidays. Last January (post here) I did a major clean out of my house, so it's much easier this year.


I am learning... to pay more attention to those comments my mild-mannered husband says, which I sometimes assume are just comments made in passing. Maybe it's learning to better listen with the heart as well as with one's ears. For he rarely asks for something, so I need want to listen more with the heart for those little things that will add to his comfort and happiness.

For instance, we had toast the other morning for breakfast and when I mentioned all the toast crumbs in the sheets (yes, we have toast and coffee in bed most mornings), he kind of joked, 'We could have muffins tomorrow, less crumbs.'

I don't know why I suddenly heard that -- I mean, really heard it. Now, the man was a bachelor for a good many years before we met and married, so he's very good in the kitchen. But he loves it when I cook and bake treats for us to enjoy. So I happily whipped up a batch of muffins as a surprise for the next morning's breakfast.  

In my kitchen... Tea with bread and jam, anyone? I made homemade bread the other day, trying out my new Christmas present, a Kitchen Aid complete with dough hook. Oh my, how easy. And how delicious was the turnout.

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In my garden... The snow is blooming very well this season. All the ground is covered and bare patches have been transformed into snowy mounds. I'm reminded of a few lovely lines Anne Shirley wrote to Gilbert Blythe in L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Windy Poplars.

“January so far has been a month of cold gray days, with an occasional storm whirling across the harbor and filling Spook’s Lane with drifts. But last night we had a silver thaw and today the sun shone. My maple grove was a place of unimaginable splendors. Even the commonplaces had been made lovely. Every bit of wire fencing was a wonder of crystal lace."

Shared Quote... A little more than a quote, it's a whole poem. I had a good chuckle when I read this poem by British poet Wendy Cope. I used to feel slightly irritated when people would ask me 'what's new?' I'd think to myself, what do you want from me? I haven't gone to the moon or walked the great wall of China. My days for the most part are ordinary. I do simple things; I peel an orange and relish its orange-y fragrance and savour its sweet juicy pieces. Shall I tell you that? Will it be interesting enough? ...  I enjoyed Ms. Cope's delightful response.

Being Boring

'May you live in interesting times.' Chinese curse

If you ask me "what's new?" I have nothing to say
Except that the garden is growing.
I had a slight cold but it's better today.
I'm content with the way things are going.
Yes, he is the same as he usually is,
Still eating and sleeping and snoring.
I get on with my work. He gets on with his.
I know this is all very boring.

There was drama enough in my turbulent past;
Tears and passion--I've used up a tankful.
No news is good news, and long may it last,
If nothing much happens, I'm thankful.
A happier cabbage you never did see,
My vegetable spirits are soaring.
If you're after excitement, steer well clear of me.
I want to go on being boring.

I don't go to parties. Well, what are they for,
If you don't need to find a new lover?
You drink and you listen and drink a bit more
And you take the next day to recover.
Someone to stay home with was all my desire
And, now that I've found a safe mooring,
I've just one ambition in life: I aspire
To go on and on being boring.

A moment from my day... My heart fills with the words of an old prayer by St. Francis of Assisi as this new year begins: "Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. ..."

Closing Notes... The day is gone, the evening's come, This post at last is finally done. The End.

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Linking with The Simple Woman Daybook