1. Walking to the gate in the fog I saw two rust brown wrens flittering in the pile of kindling I had made after the last tree fall. Since I was in camo it took a while before they saw me.
2. I drove up to the city for a birthday party for my D.I.L. and upon my return, I noticed that 90% of the leaves had finally fallen in that short period turning the trees into skeletons. Fall is departing.
3. One morning this week I walked in the early mist to the dock to catch a photo or two of the geese gliding on the river. Some broke into noisy flight heading toward the cornfield when they heard me. Then shortly I heard gunfire and felt terribly guilty.
4. Yesterday I woke early and saw that the woods were shrouded in fog, so in a sleepy "fog" myself put on my frumpiest clothes and headed down the street by my neighbor's houses without even taking a brush to my hair looking for photos. It is amazing how many of my neighbors have to drive somewhere that early in the morning...wondering if they recognized me!
5. Lobster tails were on sale the other day and so we bought two jumbo tails (which we may do once every few years or so) and had a lovely pre- New Year's dinner. Side dishes were asparagus sauteed with dill and oyster mushrooms and mac and cheese. It was a mini gourmet dinner.
6. My grandchildren have such a parade of guests coming through their home that they are not surprised to wake in the morning and find I have spent the night!
7. I am working this week on the gift list. One of the hardest parts of this season as I put great effort to get it right and many of those I buy for live in abundance. I do lots of donations which does lift my spirit.
8. Binge-watching House of Cards and wondering how they are going to end it without the lead after so many years. With today's support of an accused pedophile for Senate and a President who admits to infidelity, the series seems rather tame with its prostitution and threesomes.
9. "To face unafraid the plans that we made while walking in a winter wonderland." No longer making those long-range plans as I age, this thought crossed my mind as I listened to my holiday music.
10. This past week I have made persimmon bars, persimmon cookies, persimmon bread and persimmon pie. We gave bags of fresh persimmons away at a recent party.
11. My Christmas card list gets smaller every year. I am of mixed emotions on that.
12. We are well into the first week of December and I still have guara flowers and pineapple sage in bloom! Cold front coming this week.
13. For the last in this list, I realized, almost too late, that this little fellow could have gone into the persimmon jam I was making as he was so color-coordinated! This December has been exceptionally warm.