**lyrics from Moody Blues: Nights in White Satin

The moon was beautiful last night with a little aura surrounding it. I took this photo and this song immediately popped into my head. I always loved the part of the song where he almost whispers these words.

I usually strive to do “good deeds” whenever I can. Or maybe it just falls under the category of doing something nice for someone you don’t know. It might be something a small as letting a car out ahead of me into traffic, or letting someone with only a few items go in front of me in the checkout line at the grocery when I have a cart full.

Last week, just before Thanksgiving, I was at the grocery store. An elderly woman was checking out in front of me and they had to call for an extra cart for her to get all her bags in. I’m not sure how she got it all into one cart to begin with! When I got outside she was standing just outside the exit looking a little lost. I offered to help her to her car with her extra cart. “Oh, my,” she said, smiling at me, “my son is coming for me in a few minutes, but thank you so much for the offer!” One good deed not completed.

My next stop was the Dollar Store to pick up some cheap bows for the Christmas wreaths I planned to hang outside (see my last post for photo). I was third in line when a man came to the counter with an aluminum roasting pan in his hand. He told the girl checking us out that he was sick and needed to get out of the store—fast. He pulled out a dollar bill, threw it on the counter and asked how much tax there was. She told him and he just turned around and left the store without putting down any additional money. The girl was very upset with him and talked about the situation with the woman in front of me. When it was my turn I took out 7 cents and laid it on the counter. I told her I was paying for his tax. She looked at me incredulously and said “Are you with him? Do you know him?” I replied no, that I just wanted to make sure she didn’t come up short at the end of the day and it was nothing for me to pay her 7 cents to make up for what he didn’t pay. She would not take it! She said her father owned the store and it wouldn’t matter. Hmm. Okay, second good deed foiled.

The last good deed has a happy ending, or it will tonight. We have a gorgeous, expensive, 10-foot prelit Christmas tree that we bought in Colorado when we had really tall ceilings. I think we paid around $700 for this thing and we didn’t want to just leave it behind when we moved, knowing full well that it would not fit in our house here since we only have normal ceilings. We tried several times to give it away to a local church or charity but no one wanted it. Last week Rick decided to put an ad on Craigslist to try once again. We specified that it was free only to a charity or non-profit organization. One person said they ran a care center and would love to have it. When we told them they would need to provide us with a letter for tax purposes, we didn’t hear from them again. Probably NOT who they said they were I’m thinking. Then there was this:

Hi,
I am not from a non profit origination but, I am a single mom of a 6 year old.  I am a productive, working person but we do not have a Christmas tree.  If this is sufficient for you please, get back to me.
Thank You

Uhm. No. What would she do with a 10 foot tree anyway? Plus, when Rick listed the tree he had it down as being 18 feet tall! (He realized his mistake after going down into the basement to check the box.) This thing weighs a ton since all the branches are metal and fold up umbrella style into three separate pieces. We can barely get it together ourselves!

I am glad to announce that we found a proper place for our tree. Father Mike from St. Cecilia’s Catholic Church in Kearny, New Jersey is the lucky recipient of our lovely tree and is coming to pick it up tonight.

Finally, a good deed has been accomplished!

The tree in our old house.

Addendum: When Rick just now went to remove the ad from the list he found it had already been “removed by the community” for reasons such as “you can’t say who free stuff goes to” and “just take it to Goodwill”. Geez. This was the first time we’ve ever used this list and it just might be the last! How ridiculous it that? At least Father Mike saw it before they removed it. Must have been divine intervention!

Sunrise over the backyard this morning.

I know I haven’t posted much over the weekend. Well, okay, not at all. Black Lynne was in residence but I think she’s left now. For those of you who know me personally, you’ll understand. Sometimes there is just a black cloud over my head and no matter how much I try and shake it off, its persistence is maddening. If I dodge left, it follows; dodging right has the same effect. Sometimes it comes with rain, thunder, and even lightning. Thankfully this time there was only a touch of rain.

Perhaps I can blame it on the wind. (Or maybe I should just admit I’m a moody little bugger.)  But I do believe it has something to do with the barometric pressure of which I seem to be closely aligned with. It seems magnified being this close to sea level. The dogs feel it too and get very jumpy. We had a big blow overnight on Friday night into the day on Saturday. The wind woke me up out of a sound sleep. It barreled through the trees with a steady freight train roar, the gusts shaking the house. It woke up the old ghost in the attic, forcing it to walk the floorboards above me. (Not really sure what causes this phenomenon to occur but it happens whenever the wind is really bad, and believe me it sounds like someone is walking in the attic. Creepy.) Phantom tree branches scraped against the house like gnarly fingers on a chalk board. We lost power several times during the day on Saturday but at least we didn’t lose any big trees. Our neighbor across the street lost a big one that came down over the road. We lost a few small ones that got uprooted, and lots of large branches all over the front yard, but thankfully nothing major. Our flag blew right off the flag pole and ended up in the neighbor’s yard across the street: undamaged I might add. I HATE wind.

The wind did cooperate on Sunday and settled down so that we could put up the outside Christmas lights and decorations. All went well except for one small thing. Rick was hanging wreaths above the four downstairs windows and I was holding the ladder for him. When I looked up I caught a blur of motion before I felt something hit my chin hard. ouch! A large flashlight had fallen out of his pocket and found me on its way down. I have a small bruise and a somewhat tender chin—nothing big. I’m just glad it hit me there instead of in the eye or on the nose. But, the outside of the house looks nice and festive!

The wind did knock plenty of pine cones out of our tree which seems to have an overly large supply this year. I picked them all up and saved them for lighting fires in the wood stove. Look at how many!

Bella got her sutures out on Friday, but the vet still insists that we not let her out with the other dogs and to curtail her activity level. I asked the vet if she’d like to come home with us and help out with that. Honestly, Bella is feeling so good it’s a constant struggle to not let her run. The vet was adamant, however, so we will continue to follow instructions for another two weeks. Bella can’t wait to be free again to do as she’d like and I can’t wait for my freedom again either.

Yesterday I boiled down the turkey carcass and made turkey pot pie with the last of the turkey. It was the perfect day for it since it was rainy and grey out. Yum! I love turkey or chicken pot pies made with broth from scratch. The only frozen ingredient is the peas, otherwise I use only fresh carrots, celery, and onions with a biscuit dough topping (also from scratch).  I made extra filling so I could have it to freeze for another meal later on. Rick declared it the best ever but I just think he forgets from year to year how good it is.

I finished one slipper (double sole and all) and started on the next one. I had to remind myself how to roll the cuff and use the same technique to attach the second sole! (Letty, I promise to do a post on this!)

I have most of my Christmas shopping done already. This is the first year I can remember that I’ve been so far ahead of the game. I have to admit that I did most of it online—just too easy!

Johnny gets his winter gear on tomorrow. Off with the mowing deck and on with the snow blower! The snow poles are up on the driveway, so now we just have to wait for the white stuff to start falling from the sky. Fingers crossed.

I think that about catches up all that’s happening around here. More to come soon! Thanks for stopping by!

Greetings fellow readers! As I look out on this day I see gloomy skies, fog and drizzle. As the day wears on the fog gets thicker and thicker. It’s so dark outside! I am keeping cozy by the fire with plenty to do however. My pumpkin pie is in the oven baking, filling the house with a wonderful aroma, the cranberry sauce is done (in my Mom’s crystal bowl).

With a few of the Thanksgiving tasks taken care of I’ll be settling down now in front of the fire to have a mini marathon of my favorite Christmas movies. Have you seen any of these?

They never fail to jump start my holiday mood. Since Thanksgiving is so late this year, I need all the help I can get. Why is it that I don’t ever really start thinking about Christmas until Thanksgiving? I wish they would insert another month in-between. That would be much more to my liking. That way you’d have plenty of time to gear up for the holiday season. Yikes! Christmas is in just a few short weeks!

I’ll also be working on these while watching the movies: Rick’s slippers. Don’t worry, I know they look big enough to be clown shoes but they get thrown in the washer and felted down to a normal size. Cozy and warm, and my favorite pattern of all to knit! (More on that later.)

I might even get to start this:

I need a thriller right about now!

Hope your holiday is cozy and packed full of all the things you love!

Taking Bella out on a leash in the back yard can be either an enjoyable experience or a painful one. Enjoyable because we get one-on-one time together and it’s interesting to see see her favorite places in the yard first hand. Painful because once in a while she’ll just take off without warning and fly to the end of the leash, causing a painful, abrupt jerk of the arm. Also painful on forays into the woodsy part of the yard. In and out of trees with small branches poking into my arms and face. I’ve learned one thing for sure: she does not travel in a straight line.

And, now that she’s feeling her old feisty self again she has taken to trying to chew the leash in half so she can be free, all the while bouncing up and down like a kangaroo. This is new, and trust me, not an endearing little act but it is funny. I try not to let her see me laugh.

Of course, her most favorite spot in the entire yard is the woodchuck hole under the side deck. It looks harmless enough, right?

Just room enough to stick a dog’s head into, but certainly nothing else?

Okay. On Sunday we were outside raking and blowing the last of the leaves. Bella was inside, staring out at me through the sliding glass door. Her eyes said mommy please please please let me outside with you. i am so bored and i promise to be good. I fell for it thinking she would just come out and hang out with us. If she got too rowdy I would just put her back inside. I let her out and the glee in her expression said it all. i’m free! i’m free! I went back to my raking, keeping an eye on her. She seemed to be doing just fine up on the side deck sniffing around.

A few minutes later I look up to check on her whereabouts and ... she’s gone! I quickly scan the yard, the woods. Nowhere in sight. I panic. I call out BELLA! Nothing. I look back up to where I last saw her and know she couldn’t have gone very far in the few minutes I had looked away. The side deck. The woodchuck hole. A sinking feeling started to take over me. No. No, she couldn’t. Could she? She wouldn’t have gone under the deck into the hole. Would she? I knew in my gut that that was exactly where I would find her. I threw down the rake and ran to the deck. BELLA! I called. Nothing. Closer and closer I got, calling—now screaming—her name in panic. Honestly, the worst thing a dog with stitches in their belly should be doing is crawling into a hole! I was having visions going through my head of Rick having to tear up the boards to get her out, her thrashing around panicking. I mean, I didn’t know how far she could go under there. I was almost to the hole, waves of guilt and fear washing over me, when out popped her head, then the rest of her body.

There she stood. Muddy and dirty, leaves sticking to her coat, with a big grin on her face. hey mom. guess where i was? I was ready to kill her and feeling (very very) guilty at this point, imagining that she possibly had torn something up inside. I grabbed her collar and promptly marched her back into the house. I kept a close eye on her for the rest of the day for any signs of distress, but she appeared to be no worse the wear from the “hole” experience.  Well. So much for letting her off leash until the stitches come out and the vet gives the all-ok for normal exercise.

When I laid on my stomach on the deck and hung over the edge of the hole to try and get a photo of how much room there really was under there, this is what I got.

So, it doesn’t look like she could really go very far. Still.

As for the woodchuck hole, we’ve added a few impediments to the entrance in the form of big chunks of logs. Now only the head can get in.

awww mom. you’ve spoiled all my fun!

Get over it Bella!

And folks, don’t forget to sign up for my special Christmas yarn giveaway! The drawing will take place on Friday! Don’t miss out!