The Dark Is Rising ... .

Today, as the snow began falling here in Oregon, was the day to read that book by Susan Cooper - "The Dark Is Rising." I read it when I was about 30, and it was a spooky experience because I began reading it on a day it started snowing - exactly what was happening to Will in the book!
(Read the book series if you haven't. Some of them are better than others, and I haven't seen the movie. I'm afraid it won't be as good as the book.)
The same is going on today, with mini drifts of snow almost all day. Outside the temperature is lowering - as the dark is rising, getting close to official winter with the solstice. The wind is knocking bushes against the side of the house, making things even spookier. The thermometer says it is 24 degrees! Brrr!
There is an animal living under our house, we are pretty sure. I found the insulating block knocked out of the ventilation opening near the front of the house on Saturday. We were going around making sure we were ready for this cold weather. I put it back in, wondering what was going on because I had already replaced it once.
I came back by later and found it out again. Something must have come out. I got down on hands and knees and took a close look and found the screen has a hole in it - about big enough for a cat.
We were afraid to close it up for good. The animal would be locked in and - well, a dead animal under the house? Maybe not quite as good as a live animal. It's just trying to stay warm but, sorry, it doesn't belong under the house. Maybe we could borrow our neighbor's humane trap? We'll see.
On Saturday, Sylvia brought us cobbler made from their garden-grown squash. It was delicious! She and I had a cup of tea together and talked for a while.
After she left I cooked up a batch of winter vegetables with onions, garlic, olive oil and a little white balsamic vinegar. There are parsnips (such a perfumey taste to me - so exotic), beets, butternut squash, another kind of squash - so yummy. And the kitchen smelled like heaven.
Then I made clam chowder. We had a warming supper with cobbler for dessert.
Today, Sunday, while it snowed, I did some journal pages in my altered book. And I carved a new stamp. I did the rabbit on Saturday. I like the lady face. I made one in the snow too, but it was so powdery the picture sort of "blew up" and collapsed in.
Also, today I watched "Prelude to a Kiss," an old Meg Ryan, Alec Baldwin movie and I had forgotten how wonderful the old man in the movie was: Sydney Walker. I see now, after looking at imdb.com, he was the original "Old Man" in the play written by Craig Lucas. Marvelous writing, too, in the movie. Alec Baldwin was very good, I thought, playing a young man who has lost his love when she switched bodies with the Old Man. I love movies about people switching bodies and lives. Anybody up for that? Anyone want to go to work for me tomorrow, in the snow, and proofread - while I live your life in Key West drinking margaritas by the pool? Anyone? - femminismo