February 17th, 2022 I write while the sun shines, and beckons me to take my mid afternoon coffee out to the porch where the thermometer leans towards twenty above, but experience tells me that at this stage of the game in the afternoon I will just get settled on the porch and the sun will slide gently, but with some malice, behind the mountains to the south..... So I will enjoy the blue sky as it comes through the window. and look forward to my daughter's regular Thursday afternoon visit when we will settle the ways of the world as they affect us - or at least discuss them! I feel so terribly lucky that I have this to look forward to, - her visits and the comings and going of our younger son, who also inhabits the house during the night. I know that there are some who, when they reach this ancient age, don't have the pleasure and the privilege of family close by. I have been tidying closets, and have just come across a bit of embroidery (complete with silk skeins and even a needle already threaded). I can imagine it got abandoned at some point in the past when something more intriquing dwelt in my mind. It suggests a couple of evenings spent finishing the work and perhaps even finding a frame that will enable this little "unfinished" to hang around in a way that says "completed" instead of "when did you think you might take this sad little bit of linen in hand to finish, or hang, or give away...." It is a study in thistles, - better to be hung on the wall then to grow in the garden! Besides, I just found all my embroidery needles all shouting "hurrah" at the thought of being put to use!!! It is amazing, - as I am sure you will all agree - what you find when you take it upon yourself to clean out a drawer or two... And here comes my daughter - time to take the wine and the apricot brandy down from the cupboard. We don't mix them, - she is a wino, while I have a fondness for brandy!!! Although I don't partake on a regular basis!!!! There is curling on the television - all those lovely men throwing rocks around!