It’s 3 degrees; I did rush out naked with my Leica 2 to capture the morning in our pasture as Maria comes in from feeding the animals. I love the frost in the forest; I only had seconds before the sun moved. That’s just what it feels like. I might be ready for one of those Polar Bear clubs.

We had breakfast and have recovered fully from sickness, outages, arctic cold, wind, plumbing, and power outage issues. I am mindful that people are still without power all over the country, but the storm has left us, and we are well. We had a beautiful Christmas, just the kind we had hoped for and almost lost.

We’re heading to the Vermont Inn, where we had our honeymoon in 2010.

I had one of the happiest dinners of my life there, and we try to go every Christmas. I still have that feeling of enormous gratitude and love.

This year, the Inn closed on Christmas day to give its employees some time off, so we spent the holiday at home and invited a good friend to lunch – a Quiche/Spinach pie on the menu. So we’re going tonight.

Maria gave me a shirt and a new winter cap. I gave her a shirt and some earrings. I love buying presents for Maria since she never buys anything for herself.

We have an excellent farm sitter coming over to take care of the farm and the dogs.

She is incredibly reliable, she never contacts or texts us, and we never even think of the farm when we’re gone. Once we are out of the driveway, the vacation begins.

We know she would let us know about an emergency, but she is one who just takes care of things. And she loves our dogs; I’m not sure they even notice that we’re going.

We are going out this morning to put a fresh bandage on Lulu’s hoof; the abscess is draining and needs to stay clean. We are already packed, which is pretty easy for one night.

Then we’ll stop at the post office and the bank and head home.

The storm was draining and unsettling to me as I wrote, and something new for me to think about. I’m back to myself.

My blue sky is back and smiling at me. I’m taking a beautiful and sophisticated and beautifully written (so far) mystery called We Are Liars by E. Lockhart, but there won’t be too much time to read; although cold as it is, we’ll probably stay in our beautiful room happily and quietly.

We’ll be back in the morning, I’ll get to Mansion Mediation class this week, but Bishop Gibbons is closed. We miss Sue and the crew there.

We hope to take it easier this week, it’s still a holiday week feeling. We do not celebrate New Year’s much, we hope to have a Winter Solstice fire on New Year’s Day.

I suspect Zinnia will look for me for a bit, then settle down. She doesn’t get neurotic or anxious, and I never make a big deal of going.

I have this weird feeling that our nasty storm said goodbye to me just as it left early in the morning on Sunday. I think this image is a goodbye to me. I know that’s probably just a projection, but that’s what it felt like.

One final snarl, so long the storm they called Elliot (what an inane name for a storm). . More later.