fire and ice

Four and a half hours after leaving my house, I turned into the half-mile lane we came to first eight years ago.  Three friends and I unloaded bags and boxes, ducking under the pine boughs to reach the porchlit door. I knocked.

“Come in!” she called, and in we came to warmth and cozy lamplight, rooms full of whimsy and books, steeped in love. We were home, again.

Hugs and shortquick studies of each other and we burdened the kitchen island with our treats, sustenance for a weekend away: lemon bars, peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, Chex mix, almonds, dried apricots, guava paste and Maria cookies. We pulled up chairs around the gas flames and warmed our souls.

I gathered up the gifts those two long full days we spent away, arms full, and squirreled them away like nuts to lunch on through the winter of ordinary home-demands. All the long drive home, I handled them like strings of pearls, to keep their luster bright in my mind:

# 329 – hot air balloons on a grey day

# 330 – Rose's miracle armchair

# 331 – welcoming warmth of a home

# 332 – those warm wooden walls again

# 333 – sound of rain on tin, a nighttime lullaby

# 334 – heavy white flakes, so slowly descending

# 335 – brisk walk in a white bracing wind

# 336 – pulling the needle in and out, to make a bear

# 337 – our eight-year tradition

# 338 – coziness of lamplight, rocking chairs, gas fireplace

# 339 – beautiful music and the sound of turning pages

# 340 – all the house quiet in afternoon sleep

# 341 – a word fitly spoken

# 342 – the smell of soup, prepared by another's hand

# 343 – sunshine on snow: gold on white, fire on ice

# 344 – brilliant drops of liquid light on ends of twigs

# 345 – lungfuls of outdoors

# 346 – a horizon, for the health of my eyes

# 347 – keeping some thoughts to myself

# 348 – scarlet sugar maple against October sky

# 349 – clumps of snow clinging high to leaves

# 350 – morning nap in sunshine

# 351 – liquid drumbeat: melting snow meets roof

# 352 – patterns, everywhere (potential pots!)

# 353 – inspiration for a bowl

# 354 – lead-seamed glass lampshades like exotic flowers

# 355 – miles of thoughtful silence along winding creek, in flickering light, by spacious river

# 356 – flaming pink sun melting into mountain

So many gifts, pearls stringing out to the horizon ...