E A Summers

January 18, 2013

My happy list

1. Walking in the woods with Bear (my dog).
2. A morning snuggle with Bob (my cat).
3. Coffee in a dark kitchen (house or motorhome) with just a few undercounter lights glowing.
4. Sitting on the front porch or my chair in the sideyard with a cuppa and Bear and Bob near.
5. Sitting in front of the woodstove with a small fire going
6. Most of the time – my work!…from my home office :)
7. Puttering in the kitchen making anything!
8. Watching the snow fall.
9. Snowshoeing in the woods with my dog (is this a repeat of #1?)
10. Anything… anything quiet, at my home, with Bob and Bear

A blog I sometimes read…a few or several weeks ago…talked about the author’s “happy list” and her desire to do 1 or 2 of the things on her list daily.

Hmmm.

I whipped off my list.

AND…I realized that I do most of them every single day!

Caveat(s). I am single to her married with children. I am 57 to her thirty-something. Still. I am so very grateful that I made the choices I made.

I am a happy person, fortunate through opportunity and choice to be living exactly where I choose and doing things I love 95+% of the time.

It is Friday evening.

I worked until 2:00 today.

Then, Bear and I jumped in the Jeep and headed to town to do some supply gathering.

We stopped on the way at the wild fowl regeneration/public hunting conumdrum (EVERY time I look at the signs, I just wonder??? It is the U.S. Department of the Interior…wild fowl regeneration and public hunting ???) Anyway, it is a beautiful spot and I am guessing that wild fowl hunting is NOT in season as I haven’t seen trucks and bird dogs there for several weeks.

Bear and I walked toward the lake, through a grove of century old Ponderosa Pines…hoar frost from the freezing fog making everything a work of art.

Addendum to the happy list: walking with Bear on a path to a lake in freezing fog.

January 17, 2013

Freezing fog along the road home

Enjoying freezing fog is a guilty pleasure of mine. It can make the roads slick with black ice. But I love a little of it – it has made for some of my favorite photos and whether it is with or without sun, there is something about the air when it is filled with freezing fog.

I left home this morning, with Bear in the Jeep, to run some quick errands in Bigfork and take the boy for a walk somewhere. The sky was blue, clear and sunny at my house.

As we descended through the treed section, I caught glimpses of fog over the valley.

Freezing fog.

The fog was low, the sun was high and above the fog, the sky was icy blue.

Sunshine at the right angle flashed thousands of miniature rainbows in the tiny prisms of fog and snow crystals. I had no success catching them with the camera and they seemed almost surreal in peripheral vision, disappearing as I turned my head to find them.

Headed home, the fog thinned as the road ascended from the valley floor.

At home…

…it was still sunny and bright. Bob, Bear, the herbs (the parsley is in the other window enjoying its own sunny spot!) and I enjoyed.

January 16, 2013

Oh, what a beautiful morning!

A colorful sunrise…the color was brief and vibrant…a beautiful morning to start Wednesday.

January 15, 2013

Sleeping arrangements

I have wanted to get rid of the too big bed I have for some time. It is too big for the room and too high for Bear to be jumping up on, even when he is 100%.

I wanted to duplicate what I have in the motorhome which is a platform with mattress and foam topper. I sleep wonderfully on that.

I saw a sale on a plain platform bed and bought it without much thought. I put my too big set in the Mountain Trader but I didn’t have much hope…the size is not a popular size, but I thought I’d try and I put off worrying what and how I’d get rid of the set if it didn’t sell.

It sold by noon the day the paper came out to the 2nd caller and I’ve had no other calls. The buyers were not so concerned with size as they were with wanting the exact style: a BeautyRest Classic. Bottom line – we all got what we wanted. They picked up everything on Sunday and helped me bring in the motorhome mattress which I’m going to use on the platform until I buy another for the house.

The platform had not arrived yet so the mattress has been on the floor. It is no different for sleeping than on the platform but getting out of it is more of a challenge.

Monday, I received word that the platform had arrived and would be delivered today…so only 2 nights “on the floor”. I took down the gate to the bedroom when the big bed left and thought maybe Bear would join Bob and I but he did not.

This morning, though, he went in the bedroom and got on the bed. He tried to see out the window and then circled on the bed a number of times and looked again. It appeared that he couldn’t figure out what happened to the rest of the bed and why it was low and all was just a bit confusing.