Winter Wonderland

Wow! And we thought there was snow here last week - the Arctic blast that has frozen the East Coast of the US is doing the same here... we have two feet of snow on the ground! Marg and John got out just in time. We dropped them at the train station on Thursday, with the poor old Ford (we call her The Brute) alternately plodding and fishtailing along the icy roads. They arrived safely in freezing Paris and then home... we're left here to miss them and enjoy a little Cabin Fever! Days filled with writing, PhotoShop, beautiful walks, reading (I highly recommend Wolf Hall, last year's Booker Prize winner), RummiKub, and of course, cooking, food and wine.

The absolute silence of the countryside in the snow is awe-inspiring - as if we're the only people in the world... a perfect atmosphere in which to reflect on the year just past. We are firmer than ever in our convictions that our actions are our only true possessions - but also that our friends and family are what makes our life meaningful.

Having been unemployed and wandering for almost a year, it's clear to me that we are not what we do (in the sense of employment) and that (to quote a poet of my youth, Jackson Brown) - "whatever it is you might think you have, you have nothing to lose." And everything to gain... sending oceans of love to all of you who make our lives worthwhile.