I want a dog

I know it is a commercial but I don't care.

   

The Endless Winter

 

I can't remember when there was no snow on the ground. I don't remember which month it was when it started ... it seems like I should be trying to remember what year it was when there was no snow on the ground !
I fell asleep to the sound of sleet hitting the windows.
I woke to the sound of snow blowers and more snow, a lot of ice and fire sirens.

I am seriously considering living in a place that has no need for snow blowers ..

 The Girl Who Gets Gifts From Crows

I will definitely see if I can do this too. The little birds count on me and come when they see me but not crows. What a lovely story this is.

When is Spring ?

I admit it, I got up and looked out the windows and saw that it was not snowing or doing anything else and I did a Happy Dance, right there with the kitten.
 Well , she watched, she isn't really into Happy Dancing yet.

She does do a little Kitten Hop when she gets a new toy .. or as in today- when I took an old toy that I put away, and threw it for her and she went all nutty because she had a ...New Toy , Oh boy Oh boy A New Toy !!!!

So I did a few things around the house and decided to go look at a few homes that were on Trulia.
I drove around and it was depressing, I couldn't find the right street or homes and one that looked really charming , although old, in the photos online, was one big sneeze from falling down.
I think it was built in the 1800's and has had little work done since.

So disheartened , I came home.

I told the kitten that we were going to have to just wait and see what happens and I got my Murder Mystery and got cozy on the sofa with the kitten and read my book.

Thinking that tomorrow, maybe I would go to a different town and browse around a shop or even go to Great Barrington ...
While I was having dinner I kept hearing this noise.
I kept getting up and walking around trying to figure out what it was ... then I realized, it was a tapping sound. tap tap tap .... ice ... on ... the ... windows.

We are now having an ice storm.

I have cat food, eggs, coffee, and pasta ... Minette and I can make it til Spring.

When is Spring again ?

It seems as if it was just yesterday

My husband and I walked everywhere while living in Buenos Aires. Miles a day.
We were both in fairly good condition, having been living in a city where we walked every day, but we went nuts in Buenos Aires !
We would start walking and talking and photographing and stop for a cup of coffee in a sidewalk cafe then continue, walking, talking and photographing.


When my son was born, my husband gave me my first camera.
I took  photos of the baby ... every single minute of his days for those first months .. then I started on the house, the children playing in the yard,   my daughters birthday parties and her friends.

Christmas and dogs and snow and beaches and holidays , it is all on film, in large boxes, that have traveled with us across the US and to South America and back.

I rarely take them out and look at them.

One day I plan on taking them and putting them in albums with dates and keep them in some order.
So the children can show them to their children and so and and so on .... or throw them away because they are old and boring to anyone else but us.

I stopped looking at our old photos... it is still too poignant for me to see his face, our happiness, remembering that time, those days, in our lives together.
But one day, when the pain is just a dull ache, I will sit and while away the hours, looking at those photos.
Looking at our lives.

I went from the first Polaroid Instamatic to sneaking his Pentax out of the closet and using it during the day, then surprising him with photos of what the baby and I did while he was at work.
He carried his camera with him when we went on trips, but somehow, I ended up using it more than he did.
( He took some pretty wonderful photos himself, he was an excellent teacher .. one of his photos is an album cover, and there are a few fashion models around today that were privileged to have him as their photographer. .. way before he met me )

One day he gave me a "real " camera ... no waving the photo in the air to dry. And my love of photography really took off.
By the time we went to Argentina, I had several movers boxes full of photographs.
We ended up spending a weekend, with take out food and chocolate and going through the boxes and culling the photos.
No one ever looked at them anymore..even if they were in albums.

He and I sat on the floor, surrounded by photos from our years together .. and some of his Before Me .. we laughed at the baby photos, at what a wickedly beautiful child our daughter was, how angelic and pretty our son was, they both look pretty fantastic now too  !

I had so many photos of cats and beloved dogs.
He had a photo of a car he bought when he went to London to live, he drove it to France and shipped it home to NY .

Photos of the children .. at the beach, Christmas, a 4 year old with his 8 year old sister, young teens all sleepy faced on Christmas morning.
Vacations, my daughter swimming like a fish in the pools in Bermuda, riding horseback in Jamaica, my first trip to London, my first trip to Paris, our first trip to Buenos Aires.
The cat we loved so much, who lived until he was 18.
Our dog, Tate or as he was known online "Pup" .. a chocolate brown Standard Poodle.
The Best dog, we agreed, that we had ever had .

So here I sit with Minette the kitten, my children are home, taking photos of their children, my daughter takes photos of her movie star cats too.

And it  seems as if it was just yesterday, he handed me his Nikon and said ... Go ahead, use it, take some photos ...

                                Buenos Aires skies

                                               In the neighborhood, Buenos Aires

                                               The view from our home.
And now I sit in a house in the countryside with several feet of snow on the ground.
Minette and I ...  it all seems as if it was just yesterday.