A Cold Day in February...

What a difference a couple of days of sunshine can make, even when it's cold outside like it is today.  It is always a good thing this time of year to feel warmth from the sun on one's face.  It's good medicine I think, even though some of those near and dear to me keep admonishing me to, "Stay inside and take care of yourself."

Well, I do dress warmly, in lots of layers just as the beloved Hannah Hauxwell did.  Not that where we live comes even close to being as cold and desolate as was the bleak Yorkshire Dales where Hannah lived alone for most of her life without electricity.  But, I have been inspired by her story and have even found myself quite drawn to her way of dressing.  I actually see nothing wrong with wearing raggedy clothing with lots of patches and coarse stitches.  Of course, for me, there's always, as a last resort, my extra warm L.L. Bean coat, but it's much too warm on days when the wind chill is above 40 degrees.. 

Millie seemed to be on top of her game today, as she ran of her own free will across the meadows and through the woods,  She's in her prime now, at four years of age, and a perfect specimen of agility and endurance.  How lucky we were to have wandered, four years ago, into the animal shelter that cold February day.  Why, she needed us almost as much as we needed her.

When Millie and I are out walking, it's easy to lose sight of her for just a bit, for she is so well camouflaged in the colors of the winter woods.  But, it's never long before I catch a glimpse of her, sometimes standing on a rock or log looking quite majestic, almost primal, as though she's still a little wild, which sometimes I think she is, and always will be. 

   

As I have written here before, most winter evenings we watch some old movie that one of us has recorded some time ago.  It has been a lot of fun this winter because so many old Western movies have recently been made available for television.  But, once we go back to Daylight Savings Time, movie time will, pretty much, be over for this year.  We are now trying to clean up our recordings, deleting what we have already watched or what we aren't going to watch.  However, there are a few of the movies that have become favorites that we know we will want to watch again next winter.  Here's the list, along with a favorite quote from each one.

Quigley Down Under, starring Tom Selleck ("This ain't Dodge City. And you ain't Bill Hickok.")

  

Cast Away, starring Tom Hanks  ("Wilson!  I'm sorry, Wilson!  Wilson, I'm sorry!  I'm sorry!  Wilson! I can't!  Wilson!  Wilson!")  This is from the scene in which Wilson, the blood-faced volleyball with tufts of dried grass for hair, is bobbling away into the ocean...Well, it always makes me cry!

The Count of Monte Cristo, starring Richard Harris and Jim Caviezel  (Abbe'Faria:  Here is your final lesson:  Do not commit the crime for which you now serve the sentence.  God said;  "Vengeance is mine."  

Edmond Dantes:  I don't believe in God.

Abbe'Faria:  It doesn't matter.  He believes in you."  

Dances With Wolves, starring Kevin Costner  (…"But, in the end he only smiled and talked of simple pleasures.  He reminded me that at his age a good fire was better than anything.  Ten Bears was an extraordinary man.")

There are three or four others that we will be keeping, and some musical programs, as well.  Music, there's always music!   

"Music is a moral law.  It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.

~ Plato

Happy Adoption Day,  Millie!  And Happy Valentine's Day, My Sweetheart!

Take care, all of you!

And, Happy Valentine's Day!

Mary