I have to tell you - doing this blog is such fun for me. Like today. When I wrote yesterday about Pat and George Karnady, I wondered if they ever check in on our web site - and today I had a very nice note from Pat saying she'd seen the blog. It was really nice to hear from her. She also said George is hunting - at Victory Bog (rural Vermont at its best!) - and that made me smile, knowing George still gets "home" for deer hunting. Pat said they keep in touch with Joe's Ponders who are in Florida as well as some of their former neighbors here. She also said she and George will be off on a cruise up the Amazon soon - how cool is that! It's always fun to hear from friends and know how they're doing, so I'm glad Pat took the time to get in touch. That's what is so nice about the blog - I get to keep in touch with old friends and make new ones, too.

When we got up this morning we wouldn't have been surprised to find several inches of snow on the ground. We'd only had a sifting, though, and within a short time most of it was gone. The sun wasn't very strong for very long, but the day turned out to be not all that cold. I snapped a picture from our front deck. Our blacktop driveway was snow covered and I thought it was kind of pretty. Then I got busy and took down the summer curtains and put up the heavier drapes for winter. It's just what I do every year. Goes back to when I was growing up on the farm. The drapes helped insulate against the cold. Of course, we also pulled the dark green roll-down shades, too. That was in addition to the storm windows being in place. The winter wind on Cabot Plain was serious, and while I never remember actually being cold in the house - the hot air furnace and big old kitchen stove, both wood-fired, kept us cozy - I do remember the snug feeling when my mother would close the curtains, especially during the day. We could feel the wind gusts against the house, and there would be great clouds of snow blowing continuously, pelting the windows and rattling anything loose outside. With the curtains drawn I felt both warm and safe.

I rarely draw my winter drapes, but it seems right to have them in place in case I feel the urge to. Now I enjoy watching the snow swirling by and the trees bending with the gusts. And in the spring I really, really enjoy taking down the drapes and replacing them with sheer curtains that billow gracefully in the warm breeze. Combined with a little general house cleaning, spring and fall, the house gets a "sort of" re-do and I feel I've fulfilled my housekeeping duties. Not up to my mother's standards - she wore out a couple of bathtubs scrubbing them until the enamel wore off, and generally turned the house inside out at least twice a year - but I think she'd be glad to know that some of her habits rubbed off on me . . .

These are the flowers Fred brought home to me last week. It wasn't a special occasion or a peace offering or anything - just my husband being himself. I think he deserves at least a batch of brownies, don't you?