Another American Adventure: 2012

Sunday, January 1, 2012

2012 - new year's day

Looks very ominous today. No snow at all. Even warm - in the 50s - but there is a blustery wind that makes it feel colder. They say snow tomorrow.

Meanwhile, John does his best to enjoy his 61st birthday.

6 comments:

BarbaraJanuary 2, 2012 at 12:54 AM
Happy New Year and Happy Birthday to John! I had a small dinner party for my neighbours. I went to put the garbage out again and fell on my bum again! What is worse than black ice? Rain on top of black ice!
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Sally ClayJanuary 2, 2012 at 3:09 AM
Happy Birthday, John
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beth cioffolettiJanuary 2, 2012 at 3:36 AM
John is grateful for the well wishes!

Be Careful on the Ice, Barbara!
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BarbaraJanuary 2, 2012 at 5:18 AM
I put an ice pack on it for a good while. It seems quite good today -- just a tad stiff.
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beth cioffolettiJanuary 2, 2012 at 12:30 PM
Too bad we never know when and how we're going to fall. Then we could be properly padded :-) ... hope you're fully recovered, Barbara!
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BarbaraJanuary 2, 2012 at 4:15 PM
I'm already properly padded. :D I do feel pretty much recovered. Thanks for asking, Beth.
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"In those first days, people said, a squirrel could run the long length of Pennsylvania without ever touching the ground. In those first days, the woods were white oak and chestnut, hickory, maple, sycamore, walnut, wild ash, wild plum, and white pine. The pine grew on the ridgetops where the mountains' lumpy spines stuck up and their skin was thinnest.

"The wilderness was uncanny, unknown. Benjamin Franklin had already invented his stove in Philadelphia by 1753, and Thomas Jefferson was a schoolboy in Virginia; French soldiers had been living in forts along Lake Erie for two generations. But west of the Alleghenies in western Pennsylvania, there was not even a settlement, not even a cabin. No Indians lived there, or even near there.

"Wild grapevines tangled the treetops and shut out the sun. Few songbirds lived in the deep woods. Bright Carolina parakeets - red, green, and yellow - nested in the dark forest. There were ravens then, too. Woodpeckers rattled the big trees' trunks, ruffed grouse whirred their tail feathers in the fall, and every long once in a while a nervous gang of empty-headed turkeys came hustling and kicking through the leaves - but no one heard any of this, no one at all."

Annie Dillard, An American Childhood.