In lieu of trying to belong to any number of societies: Chesterton, Sherlock Holmes, the Inklings, and so on: I propose and establish one of my own. Don your intelligence cap at the door; dust off your logic and imagination; did you bring your inspiration and encouragement? We are shapers, my friends; lit lamps; light-bringers. Bring quotes; poetry should be uplifting and thoughtful, or witty and clever, (or both). Humor is encouraged; laughter is invited back. Pull up a chair. Anyone for tea?

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Winter

' [Willy Sloper] always referred to the furnace as "She." "I got her wide open," he'd tell you on a cold night, or "Say, Cuffy, she'll be needing a couple tons stove coal tomorra, next day, tella Boss." Or oftener still with a knock on Father's study door, "Say, Mr. Melendy, the furnace, she's on the fritz again." This would be followed by an exasperated sound from Father. Once he said, "Okay, Willy. Call in Mr. Yellen. But the next time she acts up I'm going to replace her with a good dependable oil furnace; maybe gas. This way it's like being married to an Italian opera singer. Tell her I said so." '
The Saturdays, by Elizabeth Enright
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This I quote not only because I love Elizabeth Enright's wit, and furnaces have been very necessary recently (it was 8 degrees this morning), but also because it reminds me of the temperament of one of the other machines in our house. Our computer, which always makes a pathetic groan when we ask it to do something, has now resorted to grunting like a pig, clicking at odd intervals, and generally acting like it is about to die. It also lost some pictures, and shut down unexpectedly, so uploading pictures was more trouble, and therefore, unduly procrastinated. All that to say, I finally did it, and am very glad I did. I hope you enjoy them.

The most delicious picture books. . .
Christmas in the Country
Nana's Birthday Party
Bravo Maurice
Peter Spire's Christmas
Seven Silly Eaters
Gingerbread, to put it simply, deep with ginger and lemon. . .
winter fog. . . entirely delightful.
Lovely friends of ours enjoying games and chatter. . .Baby Josiah . . .
and experiencing the bitter cold.
Everything is iced over,
~out walking with Natalie~The haybarn is a wonderful place to take refuge from the cold.

So are the lanes between the haystacks.

And the reward of braving the cold winter's day is seeing eight deer from close range just as dusk is falling.

There were many happy hours around the sink and kitchen table. . . love you guys!

5 comments:

Auntie Meredith said...

Oh, Livi! I'm aching inside to have missed all of this. I'm so glad you had a lovely time. Thank you for hosting my girls and making them feel so welcome and as if time had stood still. God has been so very good!

Natalie said...

Lovely pictures! Those deer were quite the highlight of our many sinto the cold! Thankyou so much for all the tours around the farm: the grainery, the cottonwood tree, the haybarn... It was so much fun, and was just delightful to see you again. Miss you already. :)

Olivia said...

Thank you for commenting and for coming! I so enjoyed sharing some of my favorite things with you. These pictures of course cannot do justice to the hours of snow and Pictionary that we laughed through. We missed you, Auntie Meredith et al!
~Livi

Fred & Leon said...

Oooohhhh!!!! I wish we were there with you right now, with all that snow:) I can't wait till Christmas =D

~Alysha

Rosie said...

Such a lovely post Livi!
It is like I get a little bit of a visit with you all too....it looks like you guys all had so much fun.
Hello to all there, from the Clan,
~Rosie