cozy times

We had a love­ly pow­er out­age tonight: what a nice inter­val to find our­selves unable to watch the final episode of what­ev­er scary real­i­ty tele­vi­sion com­pe­ti­tion Avery’s got attached to since we got back to Amer­i­ca… absolute­ly won­der­ful to have no recourse but to light every can­dle we could find, includ­ing this love­ly lamp that I light (and its twin on the next chest of draw­ers) every night, and watch its rays reflect on the dormer ceil­ing of our lit­tle farm­house. How cozy is that?

That plus light­ing the can­dles in the four front win­dows (two in the par­lor, one in the entry hall, and one in the guest room) for the across-the-road ben­e­fit of Anne and David… I adore that tra­di­tion, every evening. I often walk through the rooms down­stairs in the evening, after my ear­ly-bird child and hus­band have gone to sleep, and think what a peace­ful place it is to be: no wor­ries, no bad mem­o­ries, only good feel­ings and a pre­vail­ing sense that a lot has hap­pened here in the past 200+ years that puts most of our expe­ri­ences into perspective.

We fin­ished the fence and gate today! I paint­ed the gate in between “Days of Our Lives” and “Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal,” and Avery kind­ly kept me com­pa­ny by read­ing her Nan­cy Drews from the library on the front step, between the gera­ni­ums and the bego­nias, while John napped upstairs. Then, while we were at the pool, John paint­ed the last four feet of the fence. So when we returned, EVERY­THING was per­fect, and fin­ished. So lovely.

Tomor­row will see us scrap­ing and paint­ing the teeter-tot­ter! How excit­ing is our life here… Exact­ly what the doc­tor ordered for the August before school starts up again in Lon­don, and every­one’s blood pres­sure goes straight back up. My moth­er, father and broth­er will be here on Fri­day, and I can bask in the fun of fam­i­ly, sum­mer, and fun.