more sweet than bitter

I made a recent bittersweet visit to Brooklyn

during which my dear father-in-law died.

From 2006-2010 I experienced the death of my father, mother, stepmother and best friend.

So I've learned certain things about the process of grieving,

but it's different every time and for everyone.

My father was first. I was alone with him when he died.

It was profound. Since then I've tried to remember the idea of living 

every day as though it's my last. Which I don't do literally,

but I've made some changes with that in mind.

One thing is arranging my life so I have more time to read.

The bliss of having entire evenings to do nothing but read,
for five or six or seven hours straight!
(except for occasional tea/cookie/cat breaks)

We all have our own ideas of living life to the fullest.

(And why didn't I become a librarian?)

a country weekend

We are climbing the walls around here, so it was nice

to escape to the Catskills for a weekend.

There's plenty of snow there too, but hey, it's country snow.

I haven't been in ages, because the pipes burst and

our kitchen flooded and had to be ripped out, too depressing to see.

But it's almost back together now.

The waterfall is frozen, which always amazes me,

the water rushes so fast I wonder how it stops in space and time,

what is that instant when water becomes ice?

Saturday we drove to Table on Ten for breakfast.

Conde Nast Traveler wrote about them in this article on food in the Catskills, 

which made me suspicious, but the article does a pretty good job of describing

the western Catskills, our neck of the woods.

And there were eggs with brilliant orange yolks

and fresh sourdough bread, and delicious treacle cookies.

Treacle! 

Saturday night we had dinner with friends,

and Sunday I made the rounds in Margaretville, where I had my store,

saying hello to friends and buying a few books at the Bibliobarn.

And then home Sunday night, to cats, books, and a pink quilt

that I am disproportionately fond of.

Remember the greenhouses in my last post?

I brought home some begonias. Touches of pink

brighten up the bleak late winter.