It was bitter today. The wind was coming out of the Northwest and the wind chill of -18 degrees was searing. The rhododendron leaves were rolled tight into pins. They are always a good indicator of the depth of the cold. I always glance at the ones in the yard before I head out the door. I call them the rhodometers.
These leaves need a sweater.
I am counting the days until these icy buds turn into this.
I have admitted that I am not a very dedicated blogger. But over the past 10 years or more I have been a very dedicated foreign correspondent with a tiny readership. Very tiny. Just one reader in fact.
Mr 163 and I have spent about half of our married life apart. He chases down seismic squiggles in the four corners of the globe and I keep the home fires burning. Offshore communications used to be limited and often we had no contact while he was working in the field. It was nearly impossible and or insanely expensive to stay in touch. He would sail off on a project and I would not hear from him until he landed at the local airport or found a telephone when his vessel came into port. I would not know if he was in the middle of a raging storm or becalmed on a glassy sea.
Email changed all of this. It gave us some daily chatter. Our email messages to each other are pretty prosaic things. Not much more then a laundry list of the minutiae that makes up our days. "Tuna for lunch, it snowed again, the car needs new brakes" is echoed with "tom yum soup was tasty, northeast monsoon has started up, program crashed". Nothing too lofty, but we are both devoted to the practice of this daily ritual. One message is sent and one is returned so that the volley can continue. This unbroken string helps keep us tied together. And the photos here are a few coloured threads to brighten the weave.
Sometimes when you're doing simple things around the house
Maybe you'll think of me and smile
You know I'm tied to you like the buttons on your blouse
Keep me in your heart for while
Hold me in your thoughts, take me to your dreams
Touch me as I fall into view
When the winter comes keep the fires lit
And I will be right next to you
Warren Zevon - Keep Me In Your Heart
5 comments:
lovely and beautifully put.
Hey ! is there a post-a-thon goin' on here ? lovyalots su san
amazing. i never figured nova scotia for rhodies. i have them too - same color in north georgia. lovely photographs here.
Lovely words here and quite concur about email's advantages.
I'm glad email has helped the two of you stay close, it sounds awfully lonely to me. And that song makes me cry, so poignant.
I came to your blog via OWL and 29 Black street...had to see who this nice MLou was. What a nice visit I had and lovely photos!
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