It makes you appreciate a very balmy minus four!
It’s going to get colder as the day progresses, going to dip back down to minus seven tomorrow, climb back up to minus three on Saturday, and then go above freezing from Sunday on. Hopefully, this forecast will stick. I could get used to waking up in the middle of the night to throw off some bedding!
Miranda has been buffeted by strong winds for two days straight and she is rocking back and forth like a dingy on a stormy sea. Okay, I’m exaggerating a tad and I have never been seasick a day in my life (well, except for that one time on the North Sea after I consumed way too much whisky on an empty stomach), but the rocking is getting a tad annoying!
Anyone else tracking Santa? Last time I checked, he was in Athens, Greece. I really don’t get much into the holiday spirit, but visits to the NORAD Santa tracking site always make me smile.
Some travelers collect pins, others shot glasses or bar coasters, tee-shirts or ball caps; little trinkets to remind them of where they’ve been. I have no patience for things that are just for looking at, so over the past few years, while I was still bound to a sticks & bricks existence, I collected blue willow dishware and artwork. Since hitting the road with Miranda, I have, for the first time in fifteen years, begun to rely solely on photographs and journal entries to remind me of where I’ve been. However, there is one purchase made in Edmonton, at Rutherford House, that I like to pull out on chilly mornings like this one, to remind me of those heady first weeks on the road: tea.
I like visiting museum giftshops because you can occasionally find unique items there. At the Rutherford House giftshop I was greeted by a lady who just had to proudly show off her personal tea blends, packaged by herself into tiny and rather pricey packages. The blend she was most proud of was the Rutherford House, which she based on the Queen’s favourite tea blend of jasmine and Earl Grey, with a personal twist. I took one sniff of that mix of my two favourite types of tea, with a secret ingredient I couldn’t identify, and I just had to have it! I think the lady was surprised to have a sale!
Since that September day, I’ve only had four cups of this tea. I have to ration it out because there is so little in the bag, enough perhaps for two or three more cups. It is a strong and fragrant blend, rather exotic, more reminiscent of warm climes than of Edmonton, and yet each sip transports me back to the parlour of Rutherford house, with its apricot walls and emerald green draperies.
Such a souvenir is more transitory than a painting, but when the tea is gone I will associate Earl Grey and jasmine to Edmonton. That is the kind of memory that lasts a lifetime.
I had water at 6:30 this morning, but not at 8:30. I got the heat gun, set it up, opened the tap in the bathroom sink, and went out to open the guest facilities. I wound up getting tied up there and didn’t get back home for twenty minutes.
That was just long enough for:
*sighs*
I suppose that’s one way to wash the floors. I used a heater to dry out everything and the room looks okay. I hope that the water didn’t have time to infiltrate.
In other dismal news, I believe that my loft is now leaking. I’ve got a nice chunk of ice in one corner. Inside. I’m going to get the heater up there next, but I’m sure the damage is done. Caulking will have to wait until the weather warms up.
In happier news, it was SUNNY today!!! I went out to do the cleaning this afternoon and switched to a light sweater and a kerchief, instead of the sweater, coat, and tuque I’ve been living in. Sure, it was a tad ‘brisk’ (-11) walking around the park like that, but it felt sooooo nice to be unencumbered by a million layers of clothing. Of course, the sun is already setting (can’t believe it’s four, where does the day go?!), but I definitely got my vitamin D quota for the day.
This afternoon, I managed to run my errands in preparation for Thursday’s dinner with the guests. My contribution is mashed turnip (rutabaga for you purists) with brown sugar, which I will have the pleasure of serving in a bowl that belonged to my dad. I couldn’t tell you the number of times I served mashed root vegetables in that bowl over the past twenty years and I am very happy to bring a piece of my father with me to this traditional Christmas meal he would have enjoyed so much.
Gee, Rae thinks, it’s pretty warm out there (minus six). The tanks need dumping! Why don’t I just thaw out the dump valves. There! All thawed! Waitaminute, nothing’s coming out!
Yes, my full black tank is actually a solid block of ice. As a friend would write–:headdesk: