Closing the door, staying inside

Hi readers! So glad to see you again. 🙂

OK, you guys, would you want to go outside when it’s only 5 degrees?  (-15 Celsius for you non-Fahrenheit folks.) 

Darn it, I did it for a year.

Lately I’ve just wanted to stay inside and…read.  Computerize.  Email.  Stoke the fire.  Make delicious vegetarian dinners.

Until tonight, that is.  Barry was gifted a partridge from his fishing partner and co-worker, Nancy.  She knows I don’t want to eat the bird, but Barry is game.  So we took the bird and layered it with rice and cream of celery soup.  Tossed it in the over for maybe 40 minutes.  He ate partridge; I ate rice and vegetables and we shall forever co-exist in married bliss.  (You believe that one?)

Anyway, I am still so excited about the birth of this new blog.  A baby blog.  A New Year’s blog.  A blog that’s barely crawling into the world with its diaper on. 

Mostly I’m excited because of the fact I don’t NEED to post a blog tonight.  It’s a luxury.  It’s a gift.  It’s a sweet offering.  It’s not a NECESSITY.

And I am not obsessed with how many people are reading.  Earlier this afternoon there were 40 hits and all I could think of was “how cool that 40 people stopped by to read this blog!  I could hug every one of them!”  Later this evening, the stats count says 85 hits and there is still no attachment, no yearning for more.  Simply an appreciation for what is.  The very fact that I put pressure on myself to write the outdoor blog for 365 days made me long for readership.  Now I feel simply appreciative and grateful and happy.  And not HAVING to write a blog.

You want to see a photo from last January that I never published on the Opening the door, walking outside blog?  But I always liked this one very much.  It’s a dock leading out into Roland Lake, a lake upon which we once lived in a small cottage when our oldest child was born.  We were barely 24 and 25 years old when we lived on this tiny lake.

Dock covered with snow

Do you know what I am spending hours upon hours doing?  Going back into 10,000 photos from the past year and appropriately saving and deleting them.  It is a HUGE job, let me assure you.  Which photos should one toss?  Which photos should stay?  I am putting all the blog photos from Opening the door, walking outside in a separate month-by-month folder, after which I shall cold-heartedly delete the unwanted shots.  It will keep me busy for another month or two.

Speaking of Roland Lake, here’s a photo of the house where we used to live, all those decades ago:

Our long-ago house (on the left)

OK, I’ll tell.  It’s the house on the left.  We rented it from lovely folks (they still sent a Christmas card this year!)

It was strange, though.  We live in one of the least-populated areas in the country.  Arvon Township had 482 residents as of the 2000 census, and that’s stretching it.  And we lived within twenty feet of neighbors.  Their names were Maxine and Bert, and they were so very kind to the young 24- and 25-year-old neighbors, even though we had a dog named Tasha who chased deer when we weren’t watching.

Maxine fed me and our young son cookies and coffee (well, guess who was drinking the coffee?) on many a morning on the shores of Roland Lake.  She entertained us with stories of the “old days” in the lumber camps of the area.  No kidding.  She loved the woods, hunted avidly, stomped through many a swamp in her day.

It’s so strange how, as we grow older, we must say goodbye to the generations above us who taught and shared so much with us.  Maxine and Bert are both gone now, yet their memory remains fresh and clear, all these years later.

Fallen bones of aspen

The fallen aspen photo also comes from last January.  One that didn’t make the “cut” of the blogs posted at that time. 

If I would open the door and walk outside…you might get some new photos.  In the meantime (yawn)…that couch looks pretty inviting.  And 5 degrees feels a little bit…chilly.   🙂