Notes From the Canyon

Christmas was lovely here, a reminder that it is always more rewarding to give than to get. My husband was having that feeling of 'maybe this will be my last Christmas,' but after he went to pick up his brother, his focus shifted. As I mentioned earlier, his brother's girlfriend recently died and you could just look at the man and see his sadness and depression, even though he claimed to be fine. That changed everything and hubby and I both focused on making it the best Christmas ever for his brother. Lots of reminiscing went on between the two of them, lots of laughter, some nice gifts, and the most wonderful food, prepared by my hubby. He was very tired, I could tell, but insisted on doing what he wanted to do anyway. So a wonderful Christmas, to be remembered for a long time to come.

Samson Says: We got presents too! I opened mine right away, 'cause I remember from last year. But Faith had a no idea why some good snack had to be so difficult to open. But eventually, she got it. She also fell head over heels  in love with our uncle Leo. I know that cheered him up a lot, I mean everyone knows us dogs can tell a good person when we meet one. Thank you auntie Judy for the bones you sent. For being a cat person, you sure know how to treat us dogs good.

The header photo was taken by my husband back in 2006. He was working on this house, living here with Princess, a lost dog that found him and moved in. One day, after a snowfall, he and Princess climbed up in the hills and he took some of the best pictures both of her and the landscape around here. Every now and then I post one of them.

As far as the weather goes, a storm passed through our county but managed to miss us once again. It snowed in the the mountains to the west of us, but nothing here. It has been very cold though, three mornings of 10 F (minus 12 C) and lovely days on the chilly side. It's warming up now, but there are storms out in the Pacific that I hope will bring something - rain or snow - at this point I don't care, I just want more wet stuff falling on our canyon. 

For my birthday last summer, my friend Judy sent this book S, conceived by J. J. Abrams and written by Doug Dorst, a strange book to say the least. It's a very elegant and unusual gift and I love that I have it, but I must confess to having some difficulties making my way through it. Even so, it is intriguing and, by now, I have to know how it ends. I can't describe it, so if you are intrigued by the photo, like J. J. Abrams and want to see what he has come up with here (it is very impressive), please:  Click here to read about it on amazon.com.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

from all of us here in the canyon.