Hello blog buddies,

 

How does this much time pass?  But somehow it does. So where to begin.

 

My little Sydney has decided that chasing cars seems to be fun.  She broke away from our grasp and spotted just the car she liked. Well she got whacked on the right shoulder and side of her mouth. When we brought her into the house her right leg hung like a useless appendage and she was bleeding from her mouth. My initial impression was that she broke her right leg. I never heard a dog cry before and as she was leaning next to and against me she was just whining from pain. She managed to quiet down as we prepared to get her ready to take to the vet clinic.  Thankfully a half mile down the road. What I didn't realize was that she went into shock. My brother picked her up under the fore-legs and carried her to the car. I can't begin to imagine the pain she was in at the time. The vet called several hours later and said.....the good news is nothing broken but we have moderate concern for some nerve damage. (In my mind, the possible nerve damage was worse than not having a fracture.) She was definitely spending the night if not the weekend. The radiographs showed a badly whacked shoulder and water in her lungs! To make a long story short, she was fortunate. She's on pain meds and by days end she has a slight limp. But I am grateful that she is recovering well and very much her old self.  What I do know is that there is an electric fence in her future!

 

Our weather has been quite frigid. If anyone has been watching the football games last weekend you know what our weather was like. One night it was -3 with a wind chill between -10 to -15.  When it hits those kinds of lows it becomes a bit frightening.  Those are the kinds of evenings when you keep the wood-stove stocked and the faucets dripping. Nothing as distressing as frozen water pipes. And we have the occassional inch or two of snow which helps keep the landscape pristine. Several times last week with the snow and cold, the hillside looked like a winter wonderland. It truly was very beautiful.

 

I finished reading "A Thousand Splendid Suns," by Khaled Hosseini and I must say the book blew me out of the water.  It probably was my best read this past year. I recommend it highly.  He is the author of "The Kite Runner's" which was made into a movie.  I've now started a book entitled "A Golden Age," by Tahmima Anam. This book takes a slightly different perspective on the war in Pakistan and neighboring countries.  It is from the perspective of a mother and her two children and the impact of children wanting to join the military and political efforts of revolution and war. I suspect the mother will play a larger role than what we are led to believe early on.

 

Anyway my friends, I continue to peek out at the hillside and look for the yellowing of the willow trees.  It is too early to think that meybe there is some pink showing on the distant maples.  Blessings from the hillside.  Bittersweet

Well we're a few days into the New Year and had snow for several consecutive days.  We just received a summary of December's weatherman and he indicated we had 31 inches of snow in December. We've had a few smaller storms since then and then temps plummeted to -10 with the wind chill two evenings ago. I think winter has thrown its mantle around us and I must admit there is a beauty to the scenery that only winter can bring.

 

Christmas went well. I enjoyed our indoor tree although I took it down because the needles were shedding and it was becoming quite dry. I am unsure as to why since it was a freshly cut tree and we kept it outside until it was coming in. Some years it is just like that!  I usually keep my tree up until the 15th of January but not this year. We enjoyed the outdoor tree and turn the lights on most evenings. Our Christmas Eve dinner went splendidly well.  We had 8 for dinner including one neighbor which is plenty enough especially when your cooking a full dinner. We repeated last years menu of a shrimp cocktail followed by prime ribs, mashed potatoes and then garlic green beans and glazed carrots enhanced with rosemary and honey. I don't cook the carrots but julienne then brown then in a light layer of oil, adding the black pepper and rosemary and towards the end add the honey.  The carrots cooked this way are truly special. And the meal is topped off with homemade German cookies and chocolates with coffee. I think most of these past two weeks has been about cooking.  Preparing nice meals is a source of pleasure for me so I take every opportunity I can. I can honestly say that I've never prepared a meal for the sake of having a meal on the table. It was always prepared with thought and care.

 

I just finished reading Khalid Hosseini book, "A Thousand Splendid Suns" and must admit it is one of the best reads I've had in the past year or two. Shocking, breathtaking, and beautifully raw. You read of the horrors of life in Afghanistan and it becomes excruciatingly painful when one of the characters you truly care for gets caught in the cultural, archaic and religious web of a country gone mad. I was spellbound and horrified at the same time. Hossiene's writing is beautiful and flawless.

 

I hope all are well and many blessings in the coming year.  Bittersweet