Dear Neighbor . . .

 

(source)

 3 ESTATE LANE, Nova Scotia
4*C/39*F

dry day today but getting cooler as 

the day progresses

Dear Neighbor,

I hope that this missive finds you well and happy in your little corner of the world. It is just turned 7 a.m. here in mine and the sun is up and it's light outside. I was a bit later waking up this morning. Only by about half an hour or so. I was a bit later falling asleep last night. Generally speaking I fall asleep right away, but then I will wake up about 35 minutes later and have a hard time falling back asleep, like I have just had a cat nap or some such. Eventually I will and I don't really know why I stress about it because I live by myself. I work for myself. My timetable is my own.  I make my own hours so it should not really matter in the scheme of things what time I go to sleep and what time I get up . . .

Except for this little guy . . . 

 

He has this inner alarm clock that tells him I should be getting up at least by six every morning and if I am not, he paces back and forth in front of my door, letting me know it's time to get up by meowing every five seconds.  He actually starts warning me about 5:30 . . . truth be known.

Oh, she is there too, his sister . . .  she's just not as loud about it.

 

I have a ROKU television.  I actually got a very good deal on it when I bought it.  It is a 50 inch ultra smart LED television and I paid $379.99 plus tax, which was a very good price at the time. It has a lot of channels programmed into it and most of the time when you turn it on it will give you suggestions about different films that you can watch, etc. It suggested this film to me this week.  I Heard the Bells. It is a film based on the writing of that Carol by the same name, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  It is a true story. I love period dramas, and true stories, and so I started to watch it.  I am about halfway through it now.  I only ever very rarely watch a film all the way through in one go. I don't seem to have the attention span for that as I used to have. I will watch it over one or two nights.  

Technically this might be considered a Christmas movie, but it is so much more than that.  

I Heard the Bells is the inspiring, true story behind the beloved Christmas carol and the song’s author, America’s beloved poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Known as America’s Poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow leads an idyllic life . . . until the day his world is shattered by tragedy. With a nation divided by Civil War and his family torn apart, Henry puts down his pen, silenced by grief. But it’s the sound of Christmas morning that reignites the poet’s lost voice as he discovers the resounding hope of rekindled faith.

I am really enjoying it and I felt that you might also enjoy it.  I forget at the moment which channel I am streaming it on. I do think it is available on Prime and on the Great American Family Channel.  Its very good.

 

(source)

I find that I do not watch regular television at all.  I do keep a very basic channel line on the TV, just in case, but I don't watch it. I mostly just stream things, and I do watch a lot on YouTube. I find that you can find lots to watch on YouTube most of the time. It can keep a person very entertained. I try not to turn on the television at all until later in the day, or early evening.  I am determined not to be that person who sits in front of the boob tube all day through.  I see a lot of elderly people doing just that. I refuse to waste my life watching other people live theirs. At least that is my determination.

I try to keep really busy in other ways. I have my journal to write in.  Crocheting. Embroidery. Reading. My little job.  Cleaning, cooking, writing, etc. It all keeps me very busy, for which I am very grateful. I know not all are thus blessed.

 

(source)

It has been suggested that today everyone practices a form of Economic Blackout.  I am not sure if this is just in North America or not.  I may have it completely wrong.  (Mostly because I do not watch the news.)  This blackout is to apply to all discretionary spending, and in particular not purchasing through big companies like Amazon or Walmart.  If you do have to buy something, they (whoever they are) would like you to do it through your local small businesses.  No fast food. No gasoline, etc.

The intent is to disrupt the economy for one day and send a message to the Government.  I am not sure if this isn't just in the United States.  It could be. 

Do you remember the "sit ins" or "walk outs" of the 1960's? Another form of Government/establishment protest.  I think there has probably always been a push between the people and Government.  Perhaps that is a good thing. It helps to keep a government on its toes and working for the people it is meant to represent and not to be very self-serving.

I have never understood politics. It seems that the wealthy have always had control over the people of a land.  In the U.K. there is the House of Lords that can veto any type of policy being brought in.  This is a house filled with Aristocrats and titled people. Here in North America, unless you are a very wealthy person or supported by very wealthy people you cannot hope to gain a seat in Government.  We have rich people (for the most part) who don't have a lot of knowledge of the struggles of the common man making all the rules for us, or at least that is the way it seems to be from my perspective anyways.

Oh, I do not believe that anyone goes into politics with anything other than good motives and a desire to make a change for the better, but I think something happens along the way to distort those desires. Perhaps it is the very nature of the way that politics works.  I do not know.  I probably should have studied more about these things when I was at school. 

 

(source)

Cindy and I are taking one of her cats to the Vets a bit later on this morning.  He's been acting a bit peculiar and seems to be in some pain, so it is best to have these things checked out just to make sure it is nothing really serious. Animals cannot really tell you how they are feeling.  You need to know your animals really well so that you can notice when something is not quite right and a bit off. 

I read somewhere that there is an epidemic at the moment of people abandoning their pets, mostly for financial reasons. It is not cheap to have a pet when you take into consideration the cost of feeding and caring for then, vet bills, etc. For families struggling financially, having a pet can sometimes turn into a burden that they cannot afford.  Sad but true.

I saw on Facebook yesterday that someone in one of the groups I belong to has a 12-year-old female collie they are looking for a new home for.  Apparently, it has bad hips and is struggling with the stairs in their home. Not an easy decision to come to most assuredly.  Having someone take charge of an older animal with health problems already is not an easy task. Especially in today's economy.  I wish them luck.

I was so blessed to have found a very good home for my Mitzie when I had to leave her behind in the U.K. They gave her a very loving home and the best life possible for the remainder of her life. I was so grateful for that.  It was a tender mercy for us both.

Oh, and I keep meaning to tell you that Cindy's mammogram came back alright as well. Thank goodness!

 

(source)

How can it be that we are already at the end of February?  It hardly seems possible that two months of the new year have already slipped off the calendar. 

I have tried to make each day that I have been given the best day possible.  That is my goal for the year.  To make each day the best and to be the best person I can be each day.  A tall order perhaps?  So far so good.

Each night I pray that tomorrow I will be a better person than I was today.  More loving and kind, with a greater generosity of spirit. More forgiving and understanding.  I do not always do as well at any of that as I should do, but I keep trying. I think for the most part I succeed.  

When I find negative thoughts about particular people creeping into my mind, I try to change the subject.  Yes, with myself. ha ha  I turn the page and think of something else.

That is the best way to go about life I think, especially in these uncertain times we are living in. Forgive, forget and move on.

 

(source)

That book I am reading, The Comfort of Crows, actually made me laugh out loud the other day.  

"In The Comfort of Crows, Margaret Renkl presents a literary devotional: fifty-two chapters that follow the creatures and plants in her backyard over the course of a year. As we move through the seasons—from a crow spied on New Year’s Day, its resourcefulness and sense of community setting a theme for the year, to the lingering bluebirds of December, revisiting the nest box they used in spring—what develops is a portrait of joy and grief: joy in the ongoing pleasures of the natural world, and grief over winters that end too soon and songbirds that grow fewer and fewer."

This particular passage I was reading was about the author having found a peculiar looking wad in her back garden.  It was the subject of great discussion between her and the online nature group she belongs to.  Was it an owl pellet, etc.  It went back and forth for days about what it could possibly be.  

Finally, one day she decided that it had to be an owl pellet, and she was excitedly getting ready to dissect it, when her husband finally admitted that he had been cleaning out a blockage in their vacuum cleaner and it was the wad that had been blocking it.  

Oh, I did have a good chuckle over that. I could just imagine how excited she was about her seemingly wondrous discovery and how hard it must have been for him to have to tell her the truth about it.

Life.  It can be so amusing from time to time. 

 

(source)

With a few warmer days that dirty pile of snow on my front lawn seems to be receding a bit. Oh, we have a long way to go, but it is encouraging. We did get a light dusting yesterday late in the afternoon, but not a lot.  The snow on the roof tops across the way is melting also. It is supposed to snow again on Sunday I believe, but I can already see that Winter is losing its grip a little bit with each day that passes.

It is now pothole season.  That wondrous season where potholes appear in the roads on a daily basis. Some of them are quite bad actually. You endanger your tires and car suspension each time you go out.  They seem to sprout overnight!  The potholes.  There are a few bad ones already on the road into town from here.  You try to dodge them as best as you can, but inevitably it is impossible to miss them all.  We drive through the countryside as if we are on a dodge-em track weaving back and forth trying to miss them, but every so often one catches us out. I cringe each time.

But the filling in of them does keep people employed, which is a good thing really.

 

(source)

I am debating the value of purchasing a drying rack for my laundry. One that I can put outside in the warmer months on sunny days. Just out in the back on the patio.  My heart goes back and forth on the idea.  Would it be worth the expense or not?  I don't know for sure.

I do so love the smell of clothing hung out on a line, especially linens, but is it possible to really get one that is large enough to hang bedsheets on? I am not sure.

I did not have a clothes dryer the whole time I lived in the U.K. Not many people did.  Laundry day very much depended on the weather. I did have a good clothesline out back and a drying rack for indoors.  In the winter months when it was too rainy or too cold to hang things out, the smaller items got hung on the drying rack and the bed linens got hung over doors.  Mind you I had an upstairs there where I could hide them while they were drying.  I do not have that here.  A sheet hung over the doorway would be completely visible to all and sundry, and not very attractive.

I think I will just stick with the electric dryer.  I really do not generate enough laundry for it to be that much of an expense . . . but the smell . . .  I do so love the smell of line hung sheets and bedding.

 

(source)

It has been very busy across the road this week with the man who passed away's family sorting out his things. Cars and trucks going and coming almost constantly through the day. I expect they are trying to empty the place out before the end of the month. It is a bit sad to watch. That is as how it will be for each of us here. Next door to me on the right, he is still in hospital, and I have been told he will not be coming home, but his rent is paid up until the end of the year and so his son might move in until then. We will see what happens I suppose.  

I helped Sheila go back to her place from the mailbox yesterday. I was out checking my own and she appeared to check hers.  I think perhaps it was just an excuse for some conversation as not much happens on the street without her noticing.  I am quite sure she would have checked her post earlier in the day after it was freshly delivered. Anyways, we had a little chat, and I let her lean on me as I led her back to her doorway in safety. She is looking quite frail to me it seems. I will have to keep a closer watch on her.

I do bring her over something to eat most days, along with my already read Daily Bread magazines at the end of the month. (Did you know it is free?) I am bringing her my Senior Paper as well when I am done with it.  A little bit of something extra and out of the ordinary for her to read and enjoy, and a chance for some conversation.  Every little helps. A pleasure shared is a pleasure doubled.

And with that I will close this letter off now. 

A thought to carry with you  . . . 

° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •

•。★★ 。* 。
° 。 ° ˛˚˛ * _Π_____*。*˚
˚ ˛ •˛•˚ */______/~＼。˚ ˚ ˛
˚ ˛ •˛• ˚ ｜ 田田 ｜門 ★

 *.˛.And hope, if it had a scent,

would smell like spring, like rain,

like something new and alive.

~Jennifer Rush  ° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •

° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •

In The English Kitchen today  . . .  Garlic Swirl Rolls.  These easy yeast free rolls are quick to make and oh so tasty. With a laminated biscuit dough designed to give plenty of layers and a delicious garlic butter and herb filling, they go down a real treat!

I really do hope that you have a beautiful day, no matter what you get up to.  Its Friday so the weekend is nigh. Whatever you do, wherever you go, be well, stay safe and don't forget!

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⊰✿░G░O░D⊰✿⊰L░O░V░E░S⊰✿⊰░Y░O░U░⊰✿
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And I do too!