Between Holidays

Another of my favorite times:  the week between X-mas and the New Year.  All is so quiet.  As if the world were breathing a deep sigh and snuggling up with some hot cider beside a fire.  All the frantic pre-holiday rushing about is over (mostly; witness the brawl in the Mall of the Americas [so aptly named] the day after Christmas) and folks can relax.  Even those working are on light duty this one week of the year.  Lovely.

The fog has been back intermittently over the past week.  There’s a forecast of rain (no kidding, in late December!) for the next couple days and that should open up our visibility a bit.  As it is now, I can barely discern the houses across the street.  Very Currier and Ives.

My sister sent us a couple of amaryllis for the holidays.  Once I figured out there was something under the dirt in the planter and got some water on them, they sent large shoots up, very quickly.  I’m looking forward to their giant flowers.  I’ve never had amaryllis, but love really big gaudy blossoms, so I’m impatient for these to bloom.  In spring the bazillion irises we have all over our yard erupt in deep, flashy colors, but in the winter we’ve had to go without.  Now we’ll have some color in the house for a while.  Such a treat!

There’s an odd bird that just showed up on my office window trellis.  Don’t have the bird book out and this one is totally new to me.  Larger than the usual sparrows and finches and darker.  A solitary visitor, seemingly uninterested in the seeds in the feeder.  As quickly as it arrived, it’s gone.  Have to get the book and try to id this guy. 

Well, that’s all for now.