Escape from Grey Gardens

Gustav derailed this blog. Looking back over those entries, I am reliving it all, and it wasn't that long ago but I've resisted looking back. So--onward! I am bound and determined to finish my Copenhagen post-blog, and then get on with the next trip (Italy, early April), and also tie up some loose ends. I just added to the Copenhagen entry I had left half-done and published it, and will finish that narrative soon.

Since last blog we are up to 3 cats. Edie and Cinclare have become Great Hunters of Rodents, parts of which they leave on the porch for me, thanks. A new cat showed up one night; we are calling her Visiting Cat but I think she may be here to stay so we might need a new name soon. She's a gorgeous tortoiseshell and very friendly, also very vocal. She appeared with a collar so she did belong to someone, but nobody's answered all my ads and notices.

The third dog, Hattie, has been here a year. On Feb 1 we will celebrate that with a tea party, since we found an old recipe for tea cakes and she loves them to distraction. Guests are requested to wear hats, in her honor.

Since last blog the bathroom is still NOT FINISHED but in January it has gotten most of a floor and the walls now exist, ready to be painted, which we started this weekend. Progress!

Since last blog Addison turned a year old, and her parents relocated to Baton Rouge so we get to spoil her from much closer range. and now another grandchild is on the way: Gary's son and his wife are expecting their first.

Since last blog there are still piles of Gustav debris on our land, waiting to be burned. The yard in fact kind of looks like hell, but it's winter, and we'll get it back, in time.

Since last blog it snowed here, several inches, one night, and we woke up to find everything transformed so breathtakingly. That's the third time since I've been here that it has snowed, but the only time it has ever really accumulated so the world turned white.

And since last blog the economy went into a death spiral, old wars keep going, we elected a new president, and I've gotten back into politics and volunteered.

A lot, in a few months, has happened. Out of these I will choose one image, of the snow.

December 11, 2008: Snow in southern Louisiana!