A Blog for 2025

January 31, 2026 So much to love in this  photo. Good day, world.  Today was almost a normal day, almost.  I went to the Coop for lunch and enjoyed being in Greenfield.  I had a poor night's sleep, so conscious of having lost so many recently.  I try too hard to make sense out of life. It all happens in my dreams.  I really am going to start keeping a dream journal.  That's a statement of intent.  As of tonight, I am going to keep a dream journal. I am a documenter.  Loren and I were just talking about what that  meant.   A journalist is supposed to be unbiased, but a documenter acknowledges their personal framework, lens, context.  They are biased by nature.  I am biased in my perspective.  I'm not sure I could articulate all  of my biases, but I do know I have my own voice and my own lens.  And I appreciate it.  I like the way I see the world. Today I did some picture taking.  Main St., Brat...

January 30, 2026 That is real winter in Vermont.   I remember my first Marlboro winter so well. Not a cloud in the sky and miles and miles of snow fields and mountains, just stunning.  Flat snow, undisturbed until a deer trail is plowing through.  I haven't seen this type of landscape around here in many years.  I find it too cold, and gorgeous and I'd take it over hot and humid any  day. I took EJ's car to the Inspection Center and got it all legal for him.  It's really sweet to have use of it this weekend so I can feel myself.  Thank you, my bestest.  Drove up to Marlboro this afternoon.  Remembered the first time I drove up to that property was when they were doing the house raising.  Diane, Jason and I went up and socialized or something.  I believe it was about 40 years ago.  Can that really be true?   The sun that spills into that living room is wonderful.  Tom is in the living room where he can watch ...

January 29, 2026 The boys are in their barn and their pasture is full of snow. The level of complication that getting this new car has created has mystified me.  I won't bore you with details, just know that we got held up for another 10 days to 2 weeks.   And last night I got word that I needed to go visit my friend Tom, now.  So I asked EJ if I could borrow his sexy new car and he said, yes.  It's really sporty, its just a corolla, but its nice, I like it, not as much as I like him, but I do like it. I drove from Northfield to Turners the back way and the amount of animal trails visible was nuts.  Its so snowy, white and clear out there.  It's also been outrageously cold so I'm kind of in awe of the deer tracks.  They make real paths through fields.   And  at Migratory Way the canal was almost entirely snow with bird paths.  I saw swans, and black ducks, but nothing else out there in that tundra. As I started to head up the h...

January 28, 2026 The bottom of Keats Road.  When I woke up this morning it was -4 and really pretty.  By the time I took this picture around 2:45 it was 22 and still really pretty.   I spent the whole day busy so I did not take millions of photos of beautiful shadows, but believe me, they were there.  And now, after sunset, we are back down to 14 and falling.  COLD. My day was full.  First day in the pool since Friday and I really needed it.  My arthritis is really painful today.  It makes me have to stop and be intentional about moving my body, like it doesn't just stand up when I want to stand up.  But in the pool....  And I got a hot tub and I had therapy.   That all takes up the entire morning.    Clara picked me up and we went for enchiladas for the first time since way before Christmas.  I haven't been to Cocina's at all since I left LAVA.  It was really nice to be there.  Then she chauffeure...

January 27, 2026 Happy Birthday, Karen Schmidt.  Hope your day was warm and snuggly. Got up early this morning to be at the lab by 8:15. There was sun shining into the house and a pinky color  reflected off the snow as the sunrise ended.  I loved it, it embraced me with a newness that my soul  needed. Jan's car wouldn't start right away and by the time she got out of her driveway it was too late to go to my appointment.   I sat on hold for 14 min with the lab and never got to reschedule. I'll try again tomorrow. She came and got me and we went to the new breakfast place in town.  But first she got stuck in my driveway.  After a little shoveling and a little/lot of pushing by Laura next door we got out of here and onto the very snowy streets of Greenfield.  Place looked so very different.  It was the first time in 3 days I was away from the house.  ' I'm convinced that the world of on-line banking is the biggest possible scam in our ...

  January 26, 2026 Today would have been my Grandfather Whiton's birthday 1887-2026, 139 years.  I was in the 2nd grade when Grandpa died in June 1961.  I remember crying.   The view from upstairs at 8 this morning, I'd say 14 inches and a little higher around the car because of the plow.   The plow had not returned during the night. It had stopped snowing at 3 a.m.  and it almost looked like the sun would break through, but the opposite happened, it started snowing again.   I'm not sure how much snow we actually got, but it is a lot and it has gone back to frigid.    In this photo you are looking down onto my front steps which are completely covered with snow, plus. The plow came through during my nap time.  He got about 5 feet away from the door. so I used the electric shovel.  It is not easily manipulated and my joints don't help, but it did the job and I have a path from my door to the car which I can't use yet....