Thursday, November 27, 2008

Thanksgiving In New Hampshire ...

Last week we celebrated an early Thanksgiving in New Hampshire with my brothers, Reid, on the left and Zed next to him. Also there was Reid's significant other, Lee, Reid's son, Jesse, his wife, Amanda, and their little Anya, one of the cutest little creatures in this world. Lance, Lee's son and his love, Jan, were also there.

Anya and I played peek-a-boo while I worked the camera!

Lot's of fun...

while Lee and her son, Lance, put the final touches on a delicious feast of roast turkey with all the fixings. We pressed the last apples of the season for cider, watched snow flakes come down in windy, frigid squalls and cozied up around the wood stove! It was in the teens outside with a good windchill factor to boot!

It was a fun trip and we promised we'd do it again next year, only earlier! The weather in New Hampshire at this time of year is daunting for an ex New
Englander like myself who moved away 30 years ago. I've lived in Virginia for too long I guess!!

Today Bill and I celebrated our own quiet holiday and it was a pleasure to not have to fuss. I worked out in the yard a bit, putting the garden to bed. With temperatures in the mid 50's, it was perfect.

We're thankful for our friends and family,
all of the joys that life brings us
and hope that all of you have had a peaceful day filled with grace and joy!

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Sea Change ...


I'm on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Have been here for well over a week and head home on Friday. We've had beautiful weather and a mostly calm sea until yesterday when a storm formed just south of us. This morning I woke to a shaking house, windows rattling, driving rain seeping beneath a not well insulated door. The sights and sounds are absolutely magnificent as is our presidential victory last night. I feel like I've been holding my breath for months now, unable to concentrate on much of anything but the election and being driven by strong emotions and worries about the world I'll be leaving to my grandchildren. But now the storm within has broken, I'm breathing just fine and I'm hopeful that our world will begin to change for the better. I do think it will be a difficult time ahead but we've come through difficult times before and we will do it again.

This beach and the house we rent each year ( I call it, "somebody
else's headache"), is a magical place ... especially in election years. This is the 3rd presidential election year that we have been here on election day. We vote by absentee ballot way ahead of time then come here to relax and heal from a year's worth of battering and in the case of the first two elections to piss and moan about what just happened. But just being here with the sound of surf and the wind whistling through the screens and windows in calming and we've always returned to the real world in much better shape than when we arrived.

Our daughter Lisa, her partner, Deena, and the two
grandlings come for the first week. Then we chase them out and have the second week just to ourselves to read, write, watch the sea, observe the milky way. With Halloween on Friday just before they left we had fun seeing Zoe and Noah in there costumes as they went out for some trick or treating.

Zoe as a duck!

Noah as Ozone Man!

Hope you all had a happy Halloween and a wondrous election day!!!

YES WE CAN!