Last Thursday, after putting out the trash and three recycling bins,  we stood in the mud  and complained that weather so warm in January didn’t feel right. Our neighbor said he thought it was probably the cause of all the illness going around town.  It hasn’t been easy for the animals either. The thought occurred to me that I could hang laundry on the line; it was so bleak I didn’t have the heart to bring clean clothes out into that world.  Then at night the wind blew hard and everything changed by morning.

It is very cold now. There is something purifying about air so cold it hurts to breath. When we got up this morning the porch thermometer said minus 10-degrees.

Much better.

. . . . . .

  My niece came up from Maryland to buy her prom dress at a very fun shop in Syracuse. There were seven of us around her dressing room door: three cousins, one sister, two aunts, and her mother and we all agreed that one dress was perfect.  She looked absolutely beautiful.

And look at her, with bare arms in 7-degree weather! She could be a local.