'round here

it is cold.  20s, 30s at night.  40s, low 50s in the day.  we scour the neighbor's yard for kindling often.  the garden tub has been given a new role.  we compete with the cat for the prime spot right in front of the fire on the warm sheepskin.  it is supposed to warm up a bit starting tomorrow.  good timing, as I'm planning on camping out Saturday night.  a girls' trip to Hot Springs for a friend's birthday.  camping by the river, hot tub, fire, wine, friends......

pomegranates at the grocery store.  at ALDI, for $0.49 each.  what an interesting store that is.  while I don't shop there regularly, we go from time to time (hadn't been since last late winter/early spring, but I was motivated to start doing so again after telling Claire about Martinmas) to fill a few boxes to take to the food pantry, and I'm always surprised by some of the treasures I find.  $0.49 pomegranates, for example.  $0.99 pineapples, organic agave syrup (for papa's coffee) for $2.99, et cetera.

Claire helps me choose healthy and hearty foods, we fill the boxes, we bring them to the pantry together, with a bag of clothes if we have extras.  it is good and important and humbling.

Mike's mom brought down one of her late mother's Christmas cacti.  it is flowering beautifully now.  maybe it will coax my own late grandmother's smaller Christmas cacti cutting into bloom.  I've spied two small buds on it so far....

something about having plants that belonged to our grandmothers, along with a kitchen filled with grandmas' and great-grandmas' bowls and platters makes me feel........ good.  cozy.  connected.

taking Claire (after dinner and a bath, in her pjs) to a play tonight.  there's a new theater in town at the Center for the Arts (where she takes ballet) and their first play, Quilters, starts tonight.  we are excited.