Wednesday, November 23, 2016
The arrival of winter has been confirmed, I had my first nosebleed this morning. It didn’t take much to get it going, I gently blew my nose this morning and the deed was done. Luckily I managed to get it under control in about ten minutes. Nosebleeds are very intrusive!
The temperature dipped to -7C or below last night, which means our source of heat switched to the oil furnace, which results in a significant fall in humidity inside the house. The weather forecast calls for temperatures above -7C for the next few weeks, so I will have a reprieve period before the serious days of interior aridity settle in. When we need a new furnace, we will purchase one with a humidifying feature, and an air cleaning feature as well. With any luck, that eventuality is years away.
Attila obligingly set a load of his laundry to wash before he left for work this morning, so that I may hang the wet laundry to dry on the racks, and increase the humidity in the house.
Increasingly my eyes are worn out by evening. My eyes water, they sting, and my vision blurs. I spend many hours a day reading, the computer screen, and books. Last night I decided to amuse myself with an audio book that I found on youtube. I wanted something comforting, an antidote to the madness in the world, so I chose an audio version of The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson. It is a children’s story, and is quite delightful. I thank my Mom for reading to us every night at bedtime during my childhood, an experience so wonderful that we did not realize at the time how very special it was, and how very lucky we were.
Thursday, November 24, 2016
The mystery of me can be quite perplexing. For instance, sitting in my easy chair this morning, after spending a frustrating few hours rummaging through the house for the container of picture hanging hardware, something I used to be able to locate at the country house, I am feeling chilly, and puzzled, and euphoric. Euphoric? Well I don’t know, do I, why that particular feeling is welling up inside me, and sitting comfortably with me, on this snowy, cloudy, cold wintry day. It is a mystery.
Sometimes mysteries are most pleasant!
The snow has accumulated. When I stepped out the front door yesterday to head out on my walk, the snow on the front porch was four inches deep. I was wearing my running shoes, so it felt quite chilly. But the road was clear, even dry in spots, although icy in others, so that I could walk briskly, which kept my feet warm. Not so today, it snowed overnight, is still snowing this morning, and there is a layer of snow on the road, which can conceal slippery spots. This is enough to deter me from going for my walk. If I slip, even slightly, my knee will be injured, requiring weeks of pain and babying, preventing me from walking any distance, even on flat surfaces like the floor of the grocery store. I don’t want to risk that! It is likely that all this snow will melt away by the end of the week, perhaps even by tomorrow afternoon, and if it does I can resume my daily walk.
Today I unpacked another box from the move, a year ago September. We are getting down to the last boxes now! This box was marked “fragile”, and held various pieces of artwork. I decided to hang the art, five pieces in all, on the wall in the living room. Thus, I was looking for picture hanging hardware, which I know we have, but I don’t know where it ended up after we moved. I didn’t find it. After juggling with the idea of running out to the store to buy more, I decided to wait until Attila comes home from work, and see if he has any idea where it might have ended up. It is worth a try.
Saturday, November 26, 2016
Today is dump day.
When we purchased Mist Cottage, just over six years ago, we were using a cooler, and a hot plate, as there was no refrigerator or range. We used the laundromat when our laundry needed washing, and hung it out to dry on a rope tied across the beams under the front porch. At that time our neighbour wanted to get rid of a little apartment sized freezer that they no longer used, so we accepted it when he offered to give it to us. It served us well until last autumn. Just after we moved here in September it gave up the ghost, and has been sitting empty in the basement ever since. We are now at a point of progress in our organization that we are ready to transport it to the dump, where we will pay a fee to dispose of it. Slowly but surely we are settling in here at Mist Cottage.
The snow stayed with us until yesterday evening. The weather was cloudy and chill when we entered the grocery store, but had transformed to a thick, stinking fog by the time we emerged with our purchases. This morning the fog is gone and so is most of the snow. We can start again later with a fresh batch of snow, not to worry.
I decided that this year we are going to have an actual Christmas tree at Mist Cottage, and put up some outdoor decorations. Last year our little 24 inch pre-lit Christmas tree was a far as we got with Christmas cheer here. Yesterday I downloaded Christmas music from librevox.com, and set up the iMac to play it continuously. I also did an internet search for Christmas images, which I downloaded into a dedicated folder, and had the screensaver display while the Christmas music played. I have an old photo of myself and my brothers and sisters around the Christmas tree in the mid to late 50s, I will scan that and it will go in the Christmas image folder, as well as pictures of all the relatives in our immediate family. That way we can have them here with us as we spend our quiet Christmas’s, just the two of us.
The Christmas music from librevox.org is interesting. Anyone can create the audio files and upload them, so that there is a rainbow of offerings, from the profoundly tone deaf attempts to the some truly beautiful gifts. I like all of it, the less talented offerings are like having real people around, sharing the good will of the season.
Well, we are about to leave the house and make our way to the dump. Attila has the freezer loaded into Tank, along with a large load of cardboard for recycling. The sun is shining, and it isn’t snowing, it is a beautiful day!!
Worldly Distractions
Weather
-8°C
Date: 6:00 AM EST Wednesday 23 November 2016
Condition: Clear
Pressure: 102.9 kPa
Tendency: Rising
Temperature: -6.7°C
Dew point: -9.3°C
Humidity: 82%
Wind: WNW 9 km/h
Wind Chill: -11
Visibility: 24 km
-2°C
Date: 9:00 AM EST Thursday 24 November 2016
Condition: Mostly Cloudy
Pressure: 102.2 kPa
Tendency: Falling
Temperature: -1.5°C
Dew point: -2.8°C
Humidity: 91%
Wind: NE 18 km/h
Wind Chill: -7
Visibility: 19 km
2°C
Date: 9:00 AM EST Saturday 26 November 2016
Condition: Mostly Cloudy
Pressure: 102.1 kPa
Tendency: Rising
Temperature: 1.8°C
Dew point: 0.9°C
Humidity: 94%
Wind: NNW 7 km/h
Visibility: 19 km
Quote
“A task left undone remains undone in two places — at the actual location of the task, and inside your head. Incomplete tasks in your head consume the energy of your attention as they gnaw at your conscience.”
Brahma Kumaris
[This reflects my approach to life.]
“Eventually, time takes care of everything. The trouble with procrastination is that people give up on it too soon.”
Robert Brault
[I have trouble with this!]
It’s a good thing to be working on increasing humidity in the house…when I lived on the prairies, it was very dry, and the houses, sealed against the cold, didn’t allow any moisture in. So I had to be vigilant about using steaming kettles, and yes, hanging wet laundry does work!Sounds cosy at your place!
Every single time I read “Mist Cottage” in your journal here, an image comes to my mind’s eye of your kitty cat Mist curled up by the fire in your old house in the country. It’s a nice way to always remember something or someone, to name something after them. I keep photos framed of all our dogs sitting around the house, in almost every room, so that we can see them and sometimes give them a kiss or a little chat. They are all missed and still loved.
In fact, on Thanksgiving morning, after spending several hours in his workshop/basement painting lobster buoys, he got thinking of Kip and Em and how much he missed them and how they should be HERE with us, and he just broke down into uncontrollable sobs. Just the day before that, I was sitting in the reading room and looked at a couple of photos I have in there of Kip and Em, and I just lost it, as well! Haven’t done that in many months — but I had a good long cry. Now I wonder… do you suppose they were “here” with us just to say hello over the holiday? I think so.
BTW, Maggie, did you see I answered your query about that painting in my FB page? Wasn’t it a happy picture?
Here are some more of her paintings on her web page:
http://lucypittaway.co.uk/
also: http://www.farnhamherald.com/article.cfm?id=108692&headline=From%20Dales%20to%20Punch%20bowl§ionIs=news&searchyear=2016
Two things that may or may not be of use to you:
1. Everett gets nasty nosebleeds but hanging wet towels and laundry around his house is “too much trouble,” apparently. So I filled plastic tubs (those small, cheap containers for food) with water and set them directly onto the heat registers. The water evaporates more quickly into the air and it seems to help.
2. My eyes were itchy and watery a lot at the time I ordered my new glasses, and the optometrist told me that people of middle age often experience “dry eye” and eye drops would solve the problem. It works. At first it made no sense; after all if my eyes are dry, then why are they teared up and running? The answer was that the tear ducts work overtime to compensate for the dryness.
-Kate
Thanks Diane, it is cozy here, at least we think it is, and I guess that is what counts. The low humidity of heated homes has always been a nissue for me, I have had nosebleeds all of my life, and usually only in the winter. I have a nice little humidifier that I bought a few years ago, I guess I am going to get that set up, to run at night when the hydro is more affordable. In the summer I wipe the shower down with a squeegee after every use, to send the water down the drain and reduce the humidity; in the winter I let the water pool and rest in the tub, adding to the moisture in the house. Natural evaporation is the least expensive form of humidifying the house.
Bex, it must be the season for missing our lost loved ones! I have ahad a few boughts of sentiment and tears, missing my brother, my former partner, and my Granny and Grandpa, all this past week. Maybe they are visiting, checking up on things, giving me a little psychic hug and a pat on the back.
Yes, I did see your response, such a lovely image! Thanks for the link!
Kate, two great tips! There is one heating vent that is not in a traffic area, so it won’t get knocked over and spilled, so I am going to put a bowl of water on it tonight. Well, my word, I never would have suspected dry eyes causing the problem with my eyes, but since my nose is suffering from the dry air, then it makes sense that my eyes are experiencing a problem with it as well
Attila putting in a load of laundry so you could have benefit of the moist laundry drying made me smile. So thoughtful. 🙂
When I use to do large amounts of cross stitching for my first business I sometimes overworked my eyes terribly. They burned and teared for weeks, until I could evntually put away the stitching. It was the eye strain that was bothering me, and in the end the only thing that helped was not using my eyes for anything stressful for a few days and then only doing light work for than a week later.
We’re doing some Christmas decorating today, ourselves.
And thanks for the link to librevox. Can’t wait to go explore!
Teri, Attila can be very thoughtful, and the rest of the time he is cooperative, and I reciprocate, it works for us 🙂
I think part of my eye trouble is eye strain, and the dryness may be the final straw.I am going to try those eye drops, and be a little more careful about pacing myself when it comes to heavy use of the computer. Working on the book is very taxing on the eyes, but I would like to finish it as people are waiting for it, so I have been pushing myself, maybe a little too hard.
Christmas decorations are so cheerful, enjoy!