Meanwhile, outside a winter storm turns the world a pure white; the house groans in its efforts to stay Earth- bound in the gusting winds; the woodstove crackles and thumps in the basement as it strains to keep the house and its inhabitants cozy; and I have stopped rushing to the window every time a snow plough passes and begun a knitting project. The lights flicker. Will the power last the night? At least we've had a hot soup to warm our bones. We know where the candles are. I will light one now to help you find your way.
Glad to hear that you made it back without any mishaps and that you're home "au chaud".
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year!
We have 50 mile per hour winds howling here in the south lands... and one worries with the gusts...afraid that the power lines or trees will come down...not a great way to start our new year.
ReplyDeleteStay warm and safe and happy new year.
Bonjour Jacqueline,
ReplyDeleteIn some ways good to back in the burrow, with my toys and space. Not an auspicious start to 2010, however, with the nasty weather and nasty computer situation. Maybe it's a sign that I should be barricaded in my studio, working on paintings! See you when the weather and roads are decent.
Hi Patricia,
ReplyDeleteI hope things have calmed down in your neck of the woods. We made it through the night without a power outage but the snow/ice pellets/rain continues, making it a slushy, slippery world that one just does not wish to venture into. I guess it's a good start to the New Year in that, hopefully, things can only get better? (touch wood!)
I wish you a happy, healthy, inspiring 2010!
How wonderful that you can live frugally (at least for a day, not more!). Light the candles, switch off the appliances and sit by the fire. Drink wine. Make love. The essentials.
ReplyDeleteHappy new year!
Eleonora xx
Aww, yes pretty messy. life never stays still does it.. crashed computers at your house and crashed cars at ours (from swerving to miss one of santa's escapees..) does this mean that if S**T happens now then the rest of the year will be clear sailing... ok we'll try to think positively.. oh I see you think the same...
ReplyDeleteRemember my computer being 'killed' a day before I had to deliever a speach about X-Ray at the university...being forced to use chalk instead of power.point made the professor come up with 'strange comments'...ah! life...
ReplyDeletePlease have you all a light and bright start into the new week.
p.s.: over here temperature still hovers around 70F during midday
Ah, Eleanora, I do love your Italian sensibility about the essentials of life: wine, fire, love. Not necessarily in that order!
ReplyDeletePS. Eleonora--sorry I spelled your name wrong above. Happy New Year to you, too. May your best dream come to be!
ReplyDeleteHi Gwen,
ReplyDeleteFellow Maritimer, fellow Fundy-coaster. It is quite a coaster ride for us in the winter months out here! That is terrible about car crashing! A Santa escapee? I'm thinking more along the lines of deer or moose rather than elves. I'm definitely sticking with the belief that the year is going to get progressively better after such a rocky start, rather than a bad to worse scenario! As for the weather...only 3.5 more months of winter to go!
Greetings, Robert!
ReplyDeleteIf you view my winter grumblings I hope they will make you appreciate your 70 degree weather over there.
I had a similar incident to yours when I had a presentation to deliver on a certain native artist and I lost the whole thing on my computer. Fortunately, I had lots of pictures to hand around, and knew my subject well enough to wing it. Flying by the seat of one's pants, I think it's called!
I hope you are stepping into the new week of the new year in health and happiness and hope!
Hey Lynne ! I'm back at last... was out in Brittany freezing my buns off in a big old house with no central heat, only one working fireplace, the others are all blocked up, and cheesy electric radiators just not up to the task. It is so nice to be back home where there is a heater that sends nice hot water to radiators all over the house... where one can sit at a table to type comments without wearing four sweaters and a parka, with freezing feet and a blue tipped nose...
ReplyDeleteSo, you fried your PC ??? Sautéed with garlic and onions I hope ? Deep fried in oil with a breaded crust ? Fried and frazzled ?
Oh the wonders of technology. I wish you goodluck getting it all back in working order... I hope you had backups of all your files ??? I'm paranoid about that now, I'd hate to lose any of my photos... so I keep three separate backup copies now... is that sick or what ? Just can't trust much of anything anymore.
Santa brought me a new cellphone for Xmas... it is turning out to be a nightmare, and a battery that runs dry in no time, when the advertising claimed it would last a week on a full charge... Liars ! Thieves ! Raccoons of business !
Well, really, good luck with your PC, stay warm, don't get blown away in the wind and snow, and....
Happy New Year ! ! !
BrOwen! Happy to see that you're back. Blue nose and toes? I can relate! Though not in the here and now, thankfully, as the power held through the 2-day storm and we stayed lit and warm.
ReplyDeleteI experienced No Central Heating Syndrome at the palazzo we stayed at in Italy and almost cancelled the whole trip and went home, I was that cold and miserable when the sun went down. Once we stopped pretending that we should eat outside (at 10 pm) and I begged a propane heater from the landlord, which allowed us to huddle in the kitchen...AND I bought a WOOL undershirt to wear to bed at night (under several other layers of clothing)...everything was hunky-dory!
Electronic gizmos--boon or curse? I don't have a cell phone. Pierre used to get one when he was doing television work, or up to nefarious activities, but that is past history. My new challenge will be to program my MP3 player, get tunes and all. That's basically what led to the computer-fry (always with garlic and onions! and usually green peppers)
You are very wise to have all those back-ups of your files! Pierre managed to find all the buried corpses after 4 days of probing the computer's secret burial grounds. So I'm back in action. Truth to tell, the only back ups I have are my Italy pix and my Maritimes series. argh! Not good.
I hope the new year brings you smooth sailing and calm seas at work so you will be in fine fettle for the important things in life, such as blogging!
WV: "opperdic" (I'll just let you use your imagination for that one!)
Oh you're back and in fine form too I see! I am pleased I'm not the only one in this blog-family to have PC problems (and I don't just mean with Political Correctness. Sneaky computers, always doing what they shouldn't. We do regular back ups as well, but our old computer had all our music backed up on it and we have had to resort to some White Magic Techie Boy to try and unravel that particular issue. All it means is that all our music is still on the old PC and won't transfer over to the new one.
ReplyDeletePLUS my Scowly Teen and I sat outside the other night til mid-night, candles barely breathing in the windless 22 degree air....
I've missed you, Saj! Poor you, with those breathless candles in 22degree weather. I'll be sure to come crying to you next July when we're suffering from crippling heat. Meanwhile, I will continue my whining about the cold white stuff, rain, ice and fog that is failing to light up my world!
ReplyDeleteAs for the computer and those "white magic techie boys"-haha! My old man used some of his grey magic and eventually got it all up and running...Yup. He got it up all right, it just took a bit longer than with a younger guy.
Can you send him to me then please cos my old man (who ain't a dustman) is driving me nuts with his complaining about our PC and the lack of music...whats wrong with just doing things the old fashioned way, says me, you know like putting on a CD?....
ReplyDeleteHe's bloody well not going to NZ without me! Just send us the fare and we'll be on our way. We can even hum a few tunes for you till your music files get transferred.
ReplyDeleteActually, we've been without a CD player for months now cuz it just up and died. God, we're pathetic.