Some Random Thoughts

Last night near sunset, I felt the temperature drop like a stone in a pond.  I hustled the hens onto their roost so I could close them in safely for the night, but I could tell they weren't yet ready to be finished with their day.  After all there was still light in the sky.  A lot of scratching and pecking could be done with that last 10 or 15 minutes before nightfall.

But I was cold, and couldn't wait to be indoors.  I could hear them grumbling as I walked back to the house.

I was cutting some Himalayan lakta end papers for the books I will be binding in the next couple of days and I cranked the heat in the room I was working in.  Later when I went outside at around 7 o'clock, I stopped to admire the stars in the clear night sky overhead.  No wonder my hands were still ice cold.

This morning I woke to a world of frost.  And when I went out to the hen house just before sunrise and opened the door, Penny (always the last hen in at night and the first one out in the morning) flew out and gave me a sharp peck in the leg.  I guess hens have long memories.

I found the above photo on a Google search.  It was sent in by reader Chris Smart to The Telegraph in the UK.  I was struck by how closely it resembles my own ground (here in the Puget Sound) just outside my front door.  Frost covered oak and maple leaves.  Brrr.

I had to use this photo because when I went out to take my own, the frost had melted off.  Somehow it hasn't made me feel any warmer.  I think I'll go warm up by washing the breakfast dishes.  Warm soapy water aught to do the trick.

Stay warm.