November can be a very dreary month here.
It is the time between when we are not able to do any of the summer and fall activities, yet the ski hill is not open.
We do our best to take advantage of the short days and long nights.
When I get home from work at 3:30 in the afternoon, the sun has already sunk behind the peaks and the chill in the air has become more palpable.
The interior of our house is dim and cool, so I have to split wood in order to light a fire in the woodstove to warm us up.
The magical thing about firewood is that it can heat us more than once - we warm up while bucking it up, again by stacking it, a further sweat is generated while splitting it, with the desired result being a comfortable radiant heat emanating from the fire in the stove.
By the time dinner is ready, it is already completely dark outside.
I know of no better opportunity to take advantage of the shadows than to light a myriad of candles about the room.
Candlelight holds its very own magic, as well.
Another advantage of the lack of daylight is that the kids are more likely to want to put on their pyjamas and get ready for bed.
Lately they have been known to go down to their bedroom with a couple of good books at only 8:00!
They get no argument from us at that time...
It is Grey Cup day and I am torn... I live in British Columbia, but I was born in Montreal.
Both teams are vying for the championship, but I think I'll go for Montreal, because they are my original home team.
I admit I do have trouble watching, because I'm just not into football, plain and simple - nor any other armchair sport.
But I do get a kick out of listening to others watch...
Right now the fire is lit in the stove, the wind is howling outside and the snow is advancing across the lake...
Only nineteen more days until the ski hill opens!
I love splitting wood...get so nostalgic for country life reading your post...sounds cosy, embracing and warm against the wind "howling across the lake"...beautiful writing, Dale ..nighty night, dear friend xx
ReplyDeletewell that sounds perfecto dale..hope the snow comes in abundance for your skiing...i have a coal fire and its not roaring infact its gagging to be topped up but i refuse to..i shall remain cold ...oh woe is i..lol...
ReplyDeletenight val..x..
Night night, Val!
ReplyDeleteGypsy, I'll light some candles to keep you warm...
Ahhh, a nod's as good as a wink! (about the spokesperson) - and I have posted a most enlightening bit about our regional culture. Very wise, terribly balanced and most enjoyable, in fact it solves a number of riddles and stuff (that is my tongue in my cheek).
ReplyDeleteThanks for you 12 step programme. Reading it alone gives great relief.
And your most recent post about the dark days before the slope opens is really touching. As usual you write so vividly that it is as if I am there.
Thanks for your wonderful support (Ishould extend this to a number of others too, methinx).
thankyou dale ill huddle myself round it..i love your new pic!!..
ReplyDeleteGood morning,
ReplyDeleteI spoke too soon about things slowing down at work. I worlked a bunch of overtime again last week. I have Th. and Fri off this week cuz of Thanksgiving. I had a busy and fun weekend. I should be getting ready for work right now, but I'm visiting you instead.
Only 1 more Who show for me to go to and it is next Saturday! I'll be going with Meg and she says we'll be in the 3rd row!!! I'm so psyched! I've never been that close for the Who before. I've been to 3 shows so far this year and they were not on main floor. I said that is enough of that. I'm done unless I get 5th row or better. Well, 3rd row is a calling!!!
That is a great idea about that sign.
Now I really gotta get ready for work!
Enjoy your day.
Hi Dale,
ReplyDeleteNovember can be quite dull - can't it? Coming home from a great week-end away, I grabbed a blanket to curl up with on the sofa while watching my fireplace. My two kitties were happy for the warmth as they huddled together in front of the fire with me.
On my drive home I was observing how dull the land looks with green grasss, turned a dull brown accompanied by the grey/brown colour of bare trees branches and trunks. I was thinking that we needed a nice blanket of snow to brighten things up.
I promptly fell asleep in front of the fire and when going to bed, learned that BC beat Montreal in the Grey Cup. Hope you had fun watching it.
Hi Dale,
ReplyDeleteI love the multiple ways in which firewood warms you - I had never thought about it that way!
The sun is setting where you are at 3:30?? Now I feel bad for complaining that ours sets at 5pm.
I love candles - but they have to be the scented ones. I have so many Yankee Candles (my favourites)for different seasons....an Apple Spice or Harvest scented one for cool fall evenings is best....
As for Grey Cup, I also don't do any armchair sports (least of all football...ok, baseball is equally boring), but David watched the whole thing....I was too busy painting our master bathroom last night, that I don't even know who won!
I love your new profile pic, Dale. It's gorgeous! Very cool in black and white too...and such a happy face!
ReplyDeleteI like your new pic, too! Hang in there, opening day is coming! How's the training going?
ReplyDeleteYou've made me nostalgic for the mountains again with your writing....
Koos, I'll be right over to checkout your new post... Yay!
ReplyDeletePTfan, if you're not careful you'll OD on PT!
Lucky you - Pete must recognise you by now!
Yes EL, BC won the Grey Cup, which promptly broke in two... LOL
Mary Beth, I like scented candles, too, but George is not a scent person, so I have to settle for ones that smell just like candles!
Rachel, what training?
LOL... not too well, but I'm still stretching and keeping flexible enough - Gumby comes to mind...
I do love my mountains!
... everyone but George likes my new profile pic...
ReplyDeleteto georgie boy...
ReplyDeleteBOOOOOOO!!!..
Nice profile pix. It actually looks like you!
ReplyDeleteI could almost be there ...
ReplyDeleteI LOVE wood fires. Warming, romantic, comforting, blissful.
I like your new pic too, and the 12-step programme! Now skip over to my monochromatic little place for a horrible surprise ...
DREARY!?!?! How can one say "dreary" living in such idyllic surroundings!!
ReplyDeleteLooking out in to my back street as the vermin toss out old furniture on to the road for their inbred cleft palate offspring to destroy further is what i'd call dreary LOL :-) xxx
Thanks EL... it should look like me!
ReplyDeleteMargie, it was a blustery evening and I was feeling cosy at home... and a wee bit bored... as if, with three kids - so I played with my camera.
I will be over to your place pronto...
Oh Chantal, I guess I shouldn't complain... or was I?
I might have been saying how grateful I am for all that I have, even during November!
... your neighbourhood sounds like Wilmer.
ok ive done a limerick bout you on margies page..
ReplyDeleteit vals fault..
she made me do it..
"There are some friends that I know
ReplyDeleteWho don't really know about snow
But they still love me true,
And I love that they do
So thanks to you all for the show!"
Now excuse me while I extract my bra from my bindings...
Oh lovely writing! WOW what a great life you have! You're profile pic is perfect for November. We have a wood fire here too in London but not every night as we would be broke, no splitting involved. I used to love to burn juniper wood as it is very fragrant.
ReplyDeleteHi Dale,
ReplyDeleteYet another thing that is in common between in Canada and Finland. Well, in this case it is not a surprise, since both are northern regions. But November can be horribly dreary here as well. If we're lucky the snow is there to give some light, but more often than not (like now) it does not stay permanently.
But there is nothing I love like the warmth and light of real fire in winter's darkness. I don't have a fireplace here in the city flat, but I can always light candles!
Maria
dale we have spun back through time in the vortex..im now in black and white like you...
ReplyDeletewe have gone to reep havoc on retroness-ness..
we are b/w like vince and russell..the've captured us!!..
ReplyDeleteOkay, Dale, here's a saga fit for a mountain girl....well, it's me best shot, but still not a Margie ;-)
ReplyDeleteThere once was a wild one called Dale
Who rambled o’er hillside and vale
But wandering one morning
She heard a loud gnawing
And turned most incredibly pale
Cos there on the hillside up high
A bear was just chewing the thigh
Of the meat she’d left sadly
When the urge got her badly
To strip all her clothes ‘cept a tie
So then did she dig out her skis
From behind the big rocks and the screes
And with blonde hair a-flying
And her tie all untying
She flew through the snow and the trees
But when she got back to her cabin
She realised much to her chagrin
That her Georgie was there
To see her all bare
But not what had got her all quiv’ring
He he
help!!!!!!..get me out-a-here!!!!
ReplyDeleteDear Dale,
ReplyDeleteYou know that Joe and I were there, right? at Grey Cup 2006? It was so much fun. We rooted for B.C., in spite of a familial connection with the Alouettes.
The best part for me was sharing it with him, and also the amazingly fun, thrilling parade the day before. I haven't had so much fun at a parade since...ever!
All in all, a wondrous weekend. We're going to Grey Cup 2007 in Toronto next year and have already gotten online for tickets and hotel. Should be amazingly fun.
Hugs,
Brina