This year got off to a rocky start. Here I am, more than a dollar short and a day late.
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The reading about London during the blitz brought home to me another reason I miss George so much. When I read something that catches my attention for any reason, there is no one to whom I can call out “Listen to this” and then talk about it.
Just another hole in my life.
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Speaking of holes … there have been a couple of holes in the family. Tyler was away for a week seeing his New York people. And Mark got back from Rochester late last night where he went to help a friend. Guess I’m getting used to my new set-up. My days and chores stay much the same. Big difference shows at morning and evening meal times … and the time of chapter reading just before bedtime. Current book is the Hardy Boys “Footprints under the Window”. I was a bit surprised (although I guess I shouldn’t have been) when I learned the Hardy Boys series is appearing in picture book form. Just saw a couple of them at the library. Nancy Drew as well.
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Weather has remained cool/cold but with spotty precipitation. A bit of rain and snow this morning.
Coming in from closing in the hens the other night I noticed the phenomenon that winter creates around stones of any size. As the water in the ground freezes it pushes the stones up to the surface (once in a poem I wrote about “stone bird nests”). Then as the thaw comes, the stones stay up but the ground shrinks around them leaving the stones sitting in cavities. You need to be careful walking because sometimes the size of the cavity can’t be judged from the surface.
And another note about the hens. One was taken out by a big bird last monday. I saw the bird, but only a glance. Not sure if it was a hawk or an owl. It was daylight, but I didn’t hear any sound … so it could have been either. For the next couple of days, the hens were reluctant to go outside, but egg production stayed up.
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Back to reading … Current reads have been “historical” non-fiction as well as more mysteries.
One excellent read, which women and girls should read since it is part of our hidden history, is “Code Girls” by Liza Mundy. It is about the g-girls (civilian government girls) who worked at code breaking before and during WW II and how more than half of the “wins” attributed to men (such as Midway and the breaking of the “wolf” packs in the Atlantic) were based on breakthroughs by those “girls”.
But it wasn’t only the “g girls” who were heroes in those days. Females of all ages were out there doing their part in places other than government offices or factories or “auxiliary” military corps. They danced with “boys” far from home. They wrote letters (ever heard of V Mail?). They even learned to identify types of planes by sight and sound and did assigned eight hour watches reporting any and all overflights, including type of aircraft (specific if possible) as well as direction and estimated altitude, to the nearest Air Force base (in my case Ryan Training Field). In summer, when visiting my Nana at the coast very near an oil refinery, I shared laughs, chocolate, c-rations, and magazines with the crews of the barrage balloons posted in the empty lot just across Concord Street.
I guess that makes me part of history.
In those years it was a UNITED States. The closest to that historical time I’ve seen since was in the days immediately following 9-11 when people were lining up all over the country to donate blood.
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Went to the quarterly meeting of the Weed Friends of the Library last tuesday evening. The librarian (a friend) seems to be butting heads with them and so I thought I’d go see what I could learn.
I learned this is going to be a longer project than I thought.
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Winter seems to always amaze me. I look and think “I need to take a photo of this” and then remember all the times I took the photos.
Who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed. … Albert Einstein
So … ‘til next week …