A Cold Morning on the Hill...

A cold wind is blowing this morning. The early morning scramble for heavy jackets inspired me to clean out the front coat closet. It looks tidy and smells like lemon-grass and ginger essential oils and I have discovered a few things: Sijo has lost his winter coat, which would still fit him this year as it was purchased a little large last winter. I'll just add that to the shopping list. Haiku doesn't like any of the women's winter coats in our closet. None of them were purchased especially for her, and none of them quite suit her style. This may be the year that I buy her a good quality new one, since at nearly 15 years old, she is not going to get much taller (much to her dismay!)

I also noticed that this closet is one of the spaces in my home that has never been painted, beyond the initial one coat of ivory paint, that has faded and chipped over the years we've lived here. I may have to do a closet "make-over" this fall, as I did with my linen closet earlier this year. Hopefully I have some nice paints on hand in the basement left over from some other projects.

My good intentions are piling up like old magazines around the house. I have projects I want to do, breads to bake, autumn tasks in the garden to tend to. But these days, my mornings are dedicated to appointments or laundry, my afternoons to working, my evenings to after-school activities and homework. These obligations set the pace of my days and I have not yet found the quiet niches of time for reading, writing, or even rolling up my sleeves and tackling a project. I will... I just haven't yet.

I will make the time this weekend to pop some tulip bulbs in the ground with Tanka (he helped me pick them out) and to twist pretzels in the kitchen on Sunday afternoon.

photo by Aisling, October 2007, Cloud Tower over the back hill.