Bring a Torch Jeanette, Isabella

 Do you know that old carol?  We learned it at school.  It's about bringing lighted torches, to see the stable and visit with the baby in the manger.  Here's an elf all ready to make his way there.

And reading is gripping this Tonstant Weader (Dorothy Parker, in case you're not familiar), with yet another Maisie Dobbs, on Kindle via my library app

She's in Gibraltar at the time of the Spanish Civil war, intrigue, murder, spying, her own grief to deal with, a very exciting and moving read.  Guernica features.  In fact I had to stop there this morning, overcome by that.  The huge Picasso masterwork based on that atrocity was almost too much to deal with. I saw it in Washington, I believe. I think it's now housed in the UN building.

I knew Spanish people, refugees from Franco's Spain, outlawed by his regime, when I was a kid in England. Along with all the Poles, Latvians, Lithuanians, Estonians, and later Hungarians.  The Spaniards were from Barcelona, an outpost of anti Franco resistance.  They couldn't return until he died.

 Of atrocities, the surprise attack by Italian and German bombers on Guernica, the deliberate slaughter and complete destruction of a small unprotected Spanish  town with women and children out in the marketplace, clearly visible to the bombers, in a supposedly neutral country, ranks as one of the many unforgivable. After I recover, I'll continue reading.

And here's the second part of the Shanghai Girls novel, thank you Ellen, for mentioning it, or I might not have realized there was another part.  This is gripping enough that when I started reading yesterday morning, I put my breakfast toast into the toaster oven, and completely forgot it, so there was a nice piece of buttered charcoal for breakfast.

Here, Joy, the daughter in the Shanghai Girls book, goes to China in a quixotic mission to find her real father, having suddenly found out the person she thought was her mother is her aunt, and the person she thought was her father was no relation, though he cared for her as his own.  And Pearl, one of the Shanghai Girls, her aunt, not her mother, goes in search of her, risking the dangers of red China and the chances of never being able to return.  Neither of them has any idea what China has become, since the American newspapers were anti Communist  propaganda more than news at that time.

Then, in better news, today was the day of the Great Pickup of The Holiday Box Lunch at the town hall.  And it turned out to be very good indeed, well organized, freezing cold Recreation Dept staff out there in the parking lot, checking, running, picking lunches, delivering to drivers, all very cheerful despite the bitter cold and threat of snow.

I've already emailed a huge thank you to all of them.  The police department has undertaken to deliver meals to any seniors who can't get in to pick up, sometime this afternoon. The meals were handed over hot, and only needed a bit of reheating once I got home.  I had thought about doing another errand before I went home but changed my mind, which is good, because the weather changed dramatically.

Veggie lasagna, from a good local caterer, enough for two meals for the likes of me,   As you see, tomorrow's lunch on the left, today's on the right.

And a chocolate chip cookie!  My tax dollars well spent today, anyway. Very happy senior here.

 And as I was almost home, the snow, forecast for today, was just starting.  Home before it got underway.

This afternoon is about being under a warm blankie, reading Maisie and maybe Joy, too.