Thursday, February 25, 2021

Cleaning day

 My saintly housecleaners came today, and, as usual, I arranged to let them have the house to themselves. This usually entails more forethought than it got today, what with being distracted by paperwork, and needing to make a trip to the town hall about one lot, which worked out fine, and having to make copies and finish up my tax paperwork, which also worked out fine.

The day was beautiful, bright sun all day, temps in the 40s, so after a couple of errands, on one of which I saw a covid vaccine clinic in full swing at the local pharmacy, mixed feelings of jealousy of the people who'd managed to get appointments, and pleasure that if I can get in here, the travel is eliminated and it's a much easier thing to handle. Once I can get in, that is.  

Anyway, I thought I'd better get calm and go to the Preserve to see if I could walk. Which I couldn't much, because of the snow.  I'm not very steady walking in hard snow that lets your foot suddenly plunge as you go.  So I walked where there wasn't any, and watched the birds, a lot of activity. Virtually every tree packed with them.  A family arrived with little kids, all excited and shouty, and the birds promptly vanished. Lovely morning trip with kids.

Standing here, in the lee of the preserve building wall, to take pix.








Since I had taken no thought as to how to use the time if I couldn't walk, nothing to read, no wifi available, I decided to use it to breathe, in the car with the window open, just sit, not easy for me, and I took a few pix, then did a quick line drawing of trees opposite me, shadows lying along the snow.  A couple of minutes. All I had was a little jotting pad a couple of inches across,  and a ballpoint. That's why there are weird things at each end of the drawing, it's a St Jude little scratch pad.

Very much out of practice, and it reminded me to put a bit of real drawing paper and a couple of  pens and pencils in the glovebox for future times when I might just want to draw a little because there's a bit of time.  I'll do that.

 So here we are.  Calmer for being in the open air, in sunshine, and the family next door is back from India, kids already out playing again, yay.  It's good.


18 comments:

  1. It must be good to have the kids next door again.

    I love the blue sky and the shadows. Pretty winter scenes!

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  2. Good idea to put the paper and pens and pencils in the car for emergency use. You have reminded me that I do not have an emergency book in my car- a necessity. I will do that tomorrow.
    Beautiful pictures.

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    1. I was really annoyed when I realized I'd forgotten my Kindle full of emergency reading.

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  3. Beautiful shadows!

    I was sure a large beetle with great big pincers was crawling onto your "sketch" paper - until it suddenly transformed into the stag logo. :-) Whew!

    Glad the neighbor kids are back - and their parents, too.

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  4. Still a buncha snow at your house. Thank all the gods and goddesses - we are back to normal with temps in the 70's. Of course I'll probably be whining when summer arrives here sometime in March, but right now - it's good!

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    1. I certainly couldn't tolerate your summers, and here everyone's so cheerful because it's stopped snowing for now and it's above freezing, too! Everything's relative.

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  5. beautiful pictures of the blue sky day. so intense. it always impresses. overcast here today.and a sweet little sketch.

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    1. It surprises people who think this is a highly industrialized state to see how clear our skies are here in central NJ, and how much wildlife we have. Thank you for the nice words on the drawing.

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  6. Nice sketch! I like the photos that emphasize the tree shadows too.

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    1. Thank you. Yes, despite being tired of snow, it's still good to see the trees' bones before they start to leaf out and blur their architecture, and the sun on snow does that just fine.

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  7. Sounds like you had a very balanced day - a little bit of everything and then come home to a lovely clean house. Great photos too. Glad that your neighbours have come home safely....I trust that they have to quarantine.

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    1. About quarantine, I expect so. They're very considerate, always mask around me, and it won't be hard to keep distance. Smitha is usually at home a great deal anyway, even without a pandemic.

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    2. The color of the sky is stunning, a good day to be outdoors.

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  8. Look at that sky! What a beautiful day.

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  9. The sky's lovely these sunny days with the reflection off the snow.

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  10. Lovely photos, and nice neighbors, a clean house and now, a place for your injections...a good day.

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    1. There are no appointments available though. Always listed fully booked. Entire supply booked in less than two minutes from going live. And nobody knows when that is. It's pure chance. I spoke too soon!

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