Yesterday. All my troubles seemed so far away - and I complained because the temperature was 0°F. Now I long for such a heat wave, as the mercury crawls down below -20°.

Brrrr...

At least this shows that I am slowly becoming a native: Bitching about the weather, no matter what it is, is quite common where I live now. It actually seems to be the most common conversation starter that strangers will use on you around here.

Back home.

From the land of elven queens. Who supposedly will cast a spell on you. Enchanting. Bewildering.

For a trip down to Mother Earth, opening up a few weeks worth of bills will bring you down faster then just about anything else. Especially if your kitchen sink turns out to have started to leak while you were away. And if the temperature is dropping to 0 (yes, zero) fahrenheit outside.

Luckily, these parts of the country have their own angels fluttering about. They tend to take in forsaken creatures and nurse them back to health with red wine and a warm heart. Which is simply heavenly for weary travellers...

*purr*

After ten days of some on-and-off snowing, we're back to no snow at all. Ah, well. At least we got white Christmas.

The last couple of parties are today/tonight. We went to a few over the weekend - even a 'singing' party at midnight on Saturday. Actually, I went. Couldn't manage to persuade my wife to stay there. She was exhausted and had a headcold. But we both agree that this party had some beautiful songbirds. Especially the migratory ones, who - like us - only flew here to stay over the holidays. I had forgotten that arresting beauty. The radiance. A siren is a better description. Unwittingly casting a spell on those that gaze at her. Oh, cruel world!