Our local weather station just announced that we have more cold weather on the way. Will this winter ever end? November and December were both record months with temperatures way below normal. January was bitter and February has been a month of snow and ice. I know the groundhog saw his shadow but Spring seems so far away.
This past weekend, instead of spending time working on the wide plank floors in my second kitchen, I went to the walk-in clinic (part of our local hosptital). I had awakened Saturday morning with a bloody eye. As the eye had suffered no trauma I wasn't sure what was going on. Could it be connected to the headaches I had been experiencing the past few days? Could it be what my mother always termed, "cold in my eye"? This house has certainly been frigid this year.
The walk-in center staff was unprofessional to say the least. The LPN on duty kept announcing (to those in the waiting room) that there was nothing wrong with any of the people "back there". The place looked like it hadn't been cleaned this year and there were butt prints in the paper from the last person to use my room. And so, after almost two hours (and offending both the LPN and the PA when I tore off the offending paper before sitting down)I left, none the wiser as to why my head ached, my right eye was bloody and my vision fuzzy.
Still smarting with indignation, I arrived home to find that the pellet stove, our only means of heat, had broken down. Two days of trial and error repairs revealed that I now need a new motor...maybe. I'm not completely sure. A new motor will cost $150 and a new stove will be over $2,000. I have to believe it is a new motor I need. But first I have to pay the property taxes and the water bill.
Then, on Sunday evening, my children came home to tell me that their father had taken them to lunch to inform them of his marriage....two years previous; and how he is planning another wedding (in April) so that his American family could attend this time. The no-so-new (and never blushing) bride then informed everyone that she is pregnant but would have prefered a Summer baby.
Later that evening, huddled up together amongst the blankets and the tears, I tried to convince them that they would always be first with me. That it didn't matter if their father had remarried and was starting a new family. Then I refilled the kerosene heater and we drank hot chocolate in silence, each of us wrapped in our own thoughts...
And I wonder why my head hurts and my eye is bloody....
Monday, February 14, 2011
Sunday, February 6, 2011
WHAT THE DICKENS?
I'm not saying the house is cold but the girls and I have been spending most of our days, huddled up like Dickensian orphans, in front of the pellet stove. The weather people say warmer days are coming and everyones favourite groundhog saw his shadow last week...but I don't believe any of them. It's been cold since November and I doubt March will be much warmer. Lovely New York State, seven months of Winter followed by a month of rain and a hint of Summer before it's time for me to start making Halloween costumes again. Makes a girl feel like moving somewhere warm...anywhere. It's a good job I have been slowly adding a protective layer of fat to my middle! Got to do something to stay warm right?
Due to the weather, things at the house have come to a complete standstill. I have a lot of plans made for Spring but February is that awful inbetween month when cabin fever gets the better of me and I don't get any Valentines. I am so bored that I am beginning to think I should steampunk the house - make the whole place look like some modern day Jules Verne Sci-fi fantasy. Lots of lace and black velvet, silver, cameos, sepia portraits and heavily swags windows, bog clocks with their faces missing so we can see the workings inside, spiders made from bicycle chains, lead balloons, Edgar Allen poe book on the table with a pair of wire rimmed spectacles sitting atop. Maybe I should make covers for the piano legs, buy an aspidistra and make some of those lacy headrest things for the back of the settee?
Actually, the more I think about it, the more it appeals to me. I had intended to paint the interior creams and whites in preparation for sale, but with house prices where they are and the number of foreclosures and tax auctions going on around me, I might be here a bit longer than anticipated. It might be fun to give this old (1780's) American house a distictly British look; make myself a Union Jack and hang it over the mantel, find a portait of Queen Vicky to hang in front of it.
A childhood spent in the rain soaked North of England has certainly given me a love of all things dramatic (think the Bronte sisters romantic heroines and their dark brooding lovers). I must confess a love of Pastoral paintings, old armchairs and dedicated libraries. I have a deep seated need for moody reds, navy blue and dark green.
Ever felt that you were born at the wrong time? I have a sudden desire to subscribe to The Times and place wagers on crazy things...I can see myself sitting in the library devouring the latest Thomas Hardy, waiting for afternoon tea to be served. Funny how we never see ourselves as the sevant class in those dreams isn't it? Still, not a bad way to spend a Winter's afternoon.
Due to the weather, things at the house have come to a complete standstill. I have a lot of plans made for Spring but February is that awful inbetween month when cabin fever gets the better of me and I don't get any Valentines. I am so bored that I am beginning to think I should steampunk the house - make the whole place look like some modern day Jules Verne Sci-fi fantasy. Lots of lace and black velvet, silver, cameos, sepia portraits and heavily swags windows, bog clocks with their faces missing so we can see the workings inside, spiders made from bicycle chains, lead balloons, Edgar Allen poe book on the table with a pair of wire rimmed spectacles sitting atop. Maybe I should make covers for the piano legs, buy an aspidistra and make some of those lacy headrest things for the back of the settee?
Actually, the more I think about it, the more it appeals to me. I had intended to paint the interior creams and whites in preparation for sale, but with house prices where they are and the number of foreclosures and tax auctions going on around me, I might be here a bit longer than anticipated. It might be fun to give this old (1780's) American house a distictly British look; make myself a Union Jack and hang it over the mantel, find a portait of Queen Vicky to hang in front of it.
A childhood spent in the rain soaked North of England has certainly given me a love of all things dramatic (think the Bronte sisters romantic heroines and their dark brooding lovers). I must confess a love of Pastoral paintings, old armchairs and dedicated libraries. I have a deep seated need for moody reds, navy blue and dark green.
Ever felt that you were born at the wrong time? I have a sudden desire to subscribe to The Times and place wagers on crazy things...I can see myself sitting in the library devouring the latest Thomas Hardy, waiting for afternoon tea to be served. Funny how we never see ourselves as the sevant class in those dreams isn't it? Still, not a bad way to spend a Winter's afternoon.
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